Tag Archive for: dinosaurs

John Good

Utah Hike of the Week: Warner Valley Dinosaur Tracks

sltrib.com

This short and sweet hike leads to a floor of sandstone that contains a display of dinosaur tracks. The tracks probably were left by the famous carnivore dilophosaurus and smaller megapnosaurus, paleontologists believe. In an interpretive sign at the tracks, officials with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management report that the consistent direction of the tracks suggests that the spot was part of a dino thoroughfare, perhaps alongside water, and petrified wood nearby indicates the area may have been wooded.

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John Good

Before There Were Dinosaurs, There Was This Weird Crocodile-Looking Thing

smithsonianmag.com

Everybody knows about dinosaurs. How could we not? They’re everywhere, from museum halls and Hollywood blockbusters to city sidewalks where their modern, feathery representatives pick up crumbs with their beaks. But even while we adore the terrifying Tyrannosaurus and breathtaking Brachiosaurus, we still know next to nothing about the earliest dinosaurs that arose over 235 million years ago—and who exactly they evolved from.

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John Good

Dinosaur day; unearthing ancient Lake Dixie, swimming dinosaurs

stgeorgeutah.com

FEATURE — Representing a recent discovery of a remarkable past, the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site at Johnson Farm offers visitors a glimpse at an early Jurassic lakeside habitat via a site uniquely preserved from volcanic destruction. Displayed at this site are not only rare trackways of carnivorous dinosaurs but swim tracks and the fossil fish that dinosaurs consumed. Also displayed are plant fossils which rimmed the shoreline approximately 200 million years ago.

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John Good

Life Bounced Back After the Dinosaurs Perished

smithsonianmag.com

When a six mile-wide asteroid struck the Earth 66 million years ago, it was one of the worst days in the history of the planet. About 75 percent of the known species were rapidly driven to extinction, including the non-avian dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus, the flying pterosaurs, the coil-shelled squid cousins called ammonites, and many more.

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Utah Geological Survey

What Happened in the Seconds, Hours, Weeks After the Dino-Killing Asteroid Hit Earth?

smithsonianmag.com

No one could have seen the catastrophe coming. Dinosaurs stalked each other and munched on lush greens as they had for over 170 million years.

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Utah Geological Survey

This Duck-Billed Dinosaur Had a Rare Case of Arthritis

smithsonianmag.com

may sometimes seem like monolithic, almost mythical beasts, but the statuesque skeletons that populate museums around the world once belonged to living, breathing animals.

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Utah Geological Survey

Rare mammoth tusk unearthed in Cub River area

hjnews.com

The fossilized tusk of a Columbian mammoth was unearthed in a private gravel pit in the Cub River area on July 19.

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Utah Geological Survey

New Lenox paleontologist creating 3-D maps of historic Jurassic site

theherald-news.com

A historic dinosaur site is getting a second look – and possibly a second hypothesis of how the bones got there.

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John Good

Chew on This: Powerful Jaws Fueled a Jurassic Herbivore Boom

smithsonianmag.com

Remember Ducky from The Land Before Time? The adorable little dinosaur was one of the duckbills—known to paleontologists as hadrosaurs—that roamed far and wide during the Cretaceous chapter of the great dinosaur story. Duckbill bones are so numerous in some places that these herbivorous dinos are sometimes called the “cows of the Cretaceous.” But what allowed these plentiful, shovel-mouthed dinosaurs to become so successful?

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Utah Geological Survey
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Dinosaurs Literally Reshaped The Planet

smithsonianmag.com

Dinos didn’t just leave behind footprints and fossil bones—they also changed the landscapes in which they lived.

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