Tag Archive for: dinosaurs

news.nationalgeographic.com

Earlier this month on the Gulf coast of Mexico, an international team began drilling into a vast scar on Earth’s surface. The enormous pockmark, which stretches 110 miles (177 kilometers) wide, was created when a chunk of space rock slammed into the planet about 66 million years ago.

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Moab’s first locals!

smithsonianmag.com

Hundreds of millions of years ago, long before the town of Moab existed, dinosaurs roamed eastern Utah. Tracks tell their tales. Prehistoric footprints by the hundreds are preserved in the stone surrounding this former uranium boom town, a silent record of the three major chapters, or periods, of the Age of Dinosaurs. Some of these footprints are hidden away in the backcountry, known only to experts. But others nearly run through the city, exposed along the roads leading to and through the desert community. It was in one of these more accessible places, along U.S. Route 191, that a chance discovery recently led paleontologists to one of the most spectacular dinosaur stomping grounds ever found in the state.

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www.fox5ny.com

Some valuable fossils that were stolen from Mongolia are finally headed home.

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news.nationalgeographic.com

At first glance, it may be hard to see how the ducks you feed, the pigeons you dodge, or the peacocks you admire have anything in common with the “terrible lizards” portrayed in iconic dinosaur movies such as Jurassic Park.

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smithsonianmag.com

We often ridicule what we love, and, in the realm of dinosaurs, that may explain our complicated relationship with the late, great Tyrannosaurus rex. The gigantic carnivore is the A-list celebrity of the Mesozoic, making repeated appearances on the silver screen as well as holding an obligatory presence in most museum exhibits. Yet, we just can’t stop ourselves from poking fun at the tyrant’s dinky arms. Maybe, though, it’s time we stifle our laughter.

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phenomena.nationalgeographic.com

Just about every two weeks, we meet a new dinosaur species. Some come fresh from the desert. Others have been hiding in museum collections for decades, or were misidentified as different species. However they’re found, though, dinosaurs are stomping out onto the public stage at a greater rate than ever before. Just last week, for example, paleontologist Hans-Dieter Sues and colleagues named a new, tiny tyrannosaur that once scampered around prehistoric Uzbekistan. And if the latest estimate is correct, we’re not even close to hitting Peak Dinosaur yet.

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Has anyone been lucky enough to visit this museum?

smithsonianmag.com

When visitors go to the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History, they are not exactly wrong to think that dinosaurs are the stars of the show. This is, after all, the museum that discovered Stegosaurus, Brontosaurus, Apatosaurus, Allosaurus, Triceratops, Diplodocus and Atlantosaurus, among others.

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In a land before time…an oasis of life in a now petrified forest.

smithsonianmag.com

Petrified Forest National Park is the kind of place that sneaks up on you. As you cruise at a brisk 80 miles an hour along Highway 40 in Arizona, a sea of sage, rabbitbush and grass stretches from the road’s shoulder to the horizon. This cloaking makes the transformation all the more dramatic once you reach the park. Not far inside the gate, the low scrub opens into the reds, blues and grays of the Painted Desert.

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Mark your calendars for April 1, 2016!

ecprogress.com

The Bureau of Land Management Moab Field Office invites the public to the grand opening celebration of the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite Trail. This short interpretive trail features over 200 tracks, representing eight different types of tracks and six different dinosaurs. Imagine an ancient lakebed where these animals trudged through a thick gooey mud over 112 million years ago.

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