Planet Dinosaur

So over the weekend I got around to watching the new BBC six-part series called Planet Dinosaur. I had my doubts about the show because I was afraid that it would be just another typical dinosaur documentary. Im sure you all know what im talking about. The intro is always the same "These amazing creatures terrorized our planet for 185 million years blah blah blah, big and scary blah blah meteor blah they all died." Boring. We know. Its common knowledge. After the intro we can only expect one thing really, a 45minute dinosaur peep show with the biggest and the meanest animals getting all the attention. Most likely the line-up will consist of atleast one Tyrannosaur, a raptor or two, some sauropods and a triceratops. Dont get me wrong theres nothing wrong with these dinosaurs but it gets boring. You can only watch a triceratops face off against a T-rex so many times before you start to lose interest.

However it seems all my worries were in vain as this show actually picks some pretty awesome dinosaurs to showcase, and most of them are new discoveries! I really enjoyed watching it all even though it wasnt as indepth as I would have liked it to b and the fact that John Hurt is the narrator definately doesnt work against the series either. The one thing that I kept getting annoyed about was the animations. The BBC usually does a great job with these but for some unknown reason the quality of the dinosaurs in this series seemed sub-par. The dinosaurs seemed really stiff and the movements looked really awkward from time to time but other than that I thought this was a pretty good documentary. I would definately give it a thumbs up if you are thinking about getting your hands on it.

If you are looking to get a dinosaur documentary series though I still say that the best ones to get are either Jurassic Fight Club or Palaeoworld. They are definately my two favourites.

If you have seen the series let me know what you think of it in the comments below, share your thoughts!

Cheers

Devonian lurker finally named 10 years after its discovery

Poor Laccognathus embryi. After being discovered alongside a fossil of Tiktaalik roseae, a creature considered to be a missing link between fish and early limbed animals, it was put aside to be named at a later date. Now, finally, 10years and 22specimens later this large ambush predator has finally got a name. It lived in the cold, northern parts of Canada 375million years ago. Back then that part of the world enjoyed a quite warm subtropical environment, I hear its quite nice this time of year.

Anyway enjoy the article!

Its good for you!

Now heres a treat! Some great clips from the BBC of some of the coolest dinosaurs yet discovered.

Enjoy!

Domesticated Jurassic park...

So... I woke up really early today and decided to scour the internet for some more stories for the blog and I came across this one. Once again the article is about 2months old but the content is.. Well... Its interesting. Jack Horner, a palaeontologist that most of us are quite familiar with, has a new wacky and very interesting idea. Basically what he wants to do is try to bring out some dinosaur features in their modern cousins. Interesting but at the same time its a bit on the mad scientist side of things in my opinion. Its just something that I never thought would be possible even at a very small scale. The man has some controversial and odd ideas but some of those ideas have changed our understanding of dinosaurs completely. Dont get me wrong im not trying to badmouth him or anything, the man is a genius but I think this time maybe hes gone a little bit too far. Then again thats what they said when he started proposing that dinosaurs were warm blooded.... I guess only time will tell.

Mega-Croc vs Super-Boa!

This article was posted 2months ago on the NatGeo website and as the name might suggest another giant of the prehistoric has been discovered in, you guessed it, South America. This 20 foot long monster crocodile lurked in the ancient river systems of South America. It lived around 60million years ago and its diet probably consisted mostly of fish. Another interesting thing with this find is that the fossil was found at the same place as the largest snake ever found, Titanoboa, and they even lived at the same time and without a doubt they probably had some pretty epic showdowns. Anywho check out the article!

Cheers
Henrik

Take two... ACTION!

I know I know... Im a terrible person. I abandoned this poor blog while it was still in its infancy but hey guess what?! Im back! After some real-life dramas, being sick and some computor issues im back and the blog will return! Im sure I have the first episode of the podcast somewhere on the harddrive so I will get on that and make it available to you all as fast as I can. Meanwhile please enjoy the daily news updates and dont forget, if you have a question go ahead and send them to me!

/Henrik

Update.

So as you may or may not have noticed... Nothing has happaned in the last week.. This is because ive had some issues with the internet in my new appartment. Hopefully I should have it early next week. So I thought id give you all an update from the local library computors to let you know the deal. Everything should be back to normal real soon along with the podcast!

Cheers,
Henrik

Podcast Update

Hello there!

The last couple of weeks have been really crazy for me but it finally seems like I am able to sit down, relax and start on the first episode of the podcast. I have priliminary ideas for it already but I would love some feedback from the readers/future listeners as to what you guys would like to hear on the show! It can be the major content of the show, a question or two or even a topic to discuss. Let me know what you think guys! If all goes as planned the first episode will be available this weekend or early next week.

Thanks again,
Henrik

Heavyweights

Ever wonder why land dwelling mammals never reached the gargantuan sizes of the sauropod dinosaurs? Well look no further as this article will give you some of the answers as to why sauropods grew so large and the structural limitations of mammals. Great article!

New Kid on the Block

Everyone who is interested in dinosaurs knows Eoraptor, a small creature said to be the blueprint for all future theropod dinosaurs. However new findings report that Eoraptors may not have been the grandfather of all theropods after all, rather a similar looking creature that fills the criteria much better has stepped into the spotlight. Its name is Eodromaeus murphi and it lived around the same time as Eoraptor around 230 million years ago and it certainly checks all the must haves for a theropod dinosaur. Judging by its skeletal design it was an fast and active hunter, it had sharp saber-like serrated teeth for slicing through meat, it possessed strong hands with deadly claws at the end of each finger, it had the classical stiffened tail that allowed it to be incredibly agile at high speeds. The research conducted showed that Eodromaus most likely is the grandfather of all therapod dinosaurs while a closer inspection of Eoraptor suggests that it may have evolved into the largest land living creatures ever to walk to earth, the sauropods. All this is still being speculated within the paleontological community but it sure looks like we might be undergoing a few changes within the family trees fairly soon.

Certainly some really interesting pieces of information and a good read so make sure to read the article!

Kronosaurus... Awesome..!

Unfortunately I dont have alot of time to go looking for articles today so I found this little piece written by Brian Switek (again) about Kronosaurus and the history of this awesome pliosaur. Im sure most of you know about this creature already but you might learn a few new things from the article. Hope you enjoy it!

Id like to apologize for the lack of updates this weekend but im in the process of moving to a new appartment so I may not be able to spend as much time as I would like to on this project. It should all be back to normal in a week or so. Thanks for understanding.

Nom Nom Nom

Everyone has heard the story of how your father-in-law was about to reel in the biggest catch of his life when suddenly and even bigger fish comes up and snatches his trophy out of his hands right in front of him. Turns out that this doesnt just happen these days to father-in-laws but it also happened in the prehistoric world, and theres even proof in the fossil record to prove it. In this article Brian Switek writes about some really interesting stories of the permian food chain and some examples of these awesome fossils. Enjoy!

The little Shrew that could

Say hello to one of our earliest placental ancestors, Juramaia sinensis. This tiny little shrew-like creature made its home in what is now eastern asia and is thus far the oldest know placental mammal. It lived about 160 million years ago in the mid Jurassic period. Not only is this fossil very well preserved but it also marks the point in history where mammals started splitting into two different groups, Metatheria (Marsupials) and Eutheria (Placentals). A very interesting little creature well worthy of your attention.

"Badass" Crocs

When someone asks you what you see when you picture a crocodile one of two things will most likely pop into your head. One, Steve Irwin wrestling four meter monsters in the mud, or two, Crocodile Dundee. No one ever thinks of a terestrial predator with huge canines actively hunting dinosaurs in the late cretaceous, strange isnt it? If you didnt know that these amazing creatures existed then dont worry, your probably not the only one. Earlier this year a team in Brazil added a new species into the group, Pissarrachampsa sera. A real tongue twister if you ask me. Its time to get yourself acquainted with some of the less known monsters of the cretaceous.

Dinosaur Tracks in Australia

Another news story from Australia! The discovery of these amazing footprints were made early in August on the coast line of Victoria, Australia. More than 20 of these tracks were discovered from rocks that are around 105 million years old. The tracks were made by small therapods dinosaurs. Check out the rest of the article, theres also a video attached!

Polar Dinosaurs: Not So Different After All

Today I stumbled upon two news reports from Australia. Major behavioural and anatomical differences between arctic and non-arctic dinosaurs has long been a topic of great speculation amongst paleontologists. A well known example of this is the idea that some dinosaurs may have hibernated through the winters months instead of migrating the a warmer climate. This article provides evidence against these ideas and is quite an interesting read.

Real Life Sea Monsters

I love anything associated with water and I love palaeontology so obviously Mosasaurs are close to my heart. I find them absolutely fascinating and I think they are often overshadowed by their land dwelling counterparts. This article is about the evolution of these creatures, a great read for any paleontology enthusiast. The article is written by well known science journalist Brian Switek.

Mammoth Season

Some of you might remember the amazing discovery of an almost perfectly preserved mammoth calf a few years ago in northern Russia. The specimen, discovered in 2007, was named Lyuba after the wife of the reindeer herder who found it. Natural mummification had kept it perfectly intact for 40,000 years, even the internal organs were still intact! The only thing missing was the fur that covered these animals from head to toe. This was truely an incredible find and was the most complete specimen of a woolly mammoth ever found.

Last week a reindeer herder in the same region of Russia found yet another amazing mammoth calf mummy to add to the list of these incredibly well preserved specimens. Im not sure what to make of this, its astounding! The fact that not just one perfectly preserved woolly mammoth calf has been found but TWO in the same area is absolutely insane! How much new data will we be able to collect from this new specimen? How many more of these are there? Only time will tell. I havnt been able to find any more information on this new find but I will try my best to find out more as soon as possible.

Trilobite Mass Burials

This is a fairly old news story but I wanted to cover it anyway because I love Trilobites, and I know that im not the only one. To me they are one of the most fascinating and amazing creatures ever to have lived. No one who has had a chance to read about these little critters can argue otherwise. One of the big success stories in the history of life on our planet, these early arthropods were found in oceans all over the world in many shapes and forms. They first appear in the fossil record around 526 million years ago and spent the next 270  million years thriving in the planets early oceans until they finally met their end at the hands of the mass dying known to us today as the Permain-Triassic extinction even.

The article talks about how Carlton E. Brett, University of Cincinnati professor of geology, with two colleagues Adrian Kin of Poland's Institute of Geological Sciences at Jagiellonian University, and Brenda Hunda of the Cincinnati Museum Centre presented a co-authored paper on the findings of their research on trilobite death beds. Im sure this paper is incredibly interesting and I would love to get my hands on it!

It covers the findings made by Brett across a couple of these mass burials of trilobites that seem to be caused by violent storms that carry large amounts of sediment which buried them in the blink of an eye, perfectly preserving them and the environment they inhabited. These large groups of trilobites, just like their modern anthropod counterparts, seem to gather en masse to shed their old exoskeletons to find safety in numbers. The fact that most specimens are of the same size, suggesting they are around the same age, means that its more than likely they used this opportunity to mate. This seems to be a very effective way of doing it since the behaviour has essentially stayed the same for 520million years amongst some arthropods.

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That concludes the first news item of Palaeocast. It wasnt the best, I know, but I really wanted to put something up on the launch day and I didnt have the time needed to properly research to find a really great story (turns out 45minutes isnt quite enough to write something interesting, especially not at 1am on a tuesday night). I promise to get you all a couple of great articles in the next couple of days. There should be a link to the article, if not I will add one first thing in the morning. Thank you and Goodnight!

/Henrik

Welcome to PalaeoCast!

Hello and welcome to the PalaeoCast website!

Palaeocast is a blog and podcast run by paleontology enthusiast Henrik Osterman (Me!). This website will be dedicated to news within the world of paleontology and hopefully my podcast will be up and running within a few days. The podcast is aimed at anyone who is interested in paleontology and will consist of...

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- The News.
News within the world of paleontology.

- The Main feature!
Each podcast will have a different main feature. At first I will decide what the main feature will be about but hopefully as the podcast progresses listeners will be able to send in suggestions of what they would like me to cover within these segments.

- Q&A
This is where I answer some questions that will be sent in by the listeners. Dont be shy, theres no such thing as a bad question!

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As the project progresses I may add more segments to the show. Hopefully I will be able to release these podcasts on a weekly basis. I would also like to add that I am NOT a professional Paleontologist, I am simply an enthusiast of the subject and I will try my best to come up with fun, informative and educational content.

If you have any suggestions or questions feel free to message me here on the forums.
Cheers

Henrik