16 March 2011
Posted in DinoDigs

Dinosaur enthusiasts unite for the exciting return of the Orlando Science Center’s Fifth Annual Fossil Fest this Saturday, March 19 - 11 am to 4 pm.

This Scienterrific Saturday event is a celebration of dinosaurs, paleontology and everything that's fantastic about fossils! Join the Florida Fossil Hunters as they share specimens unearthed on local expeditions.

See huge bones and teeth from the Mega Beasts that thrived here during the Ice Ages or learn about methods used to find and preserve these prehistoric wonders. Marvel along side the Central Florida Shell Club as they display shells and corals from when Florida was just a reef. The Dr. Phillips CineDome will submerge guests into prehistoric screenings of the giant screen spectacular - Sea Monsters.

Activities include dino-crafts like design your own triceratops hats, plus battle against extinction with emamosaur racing, take a leap into the Jurassic period with fossil making and create your very own unique dinosaur replication model! Hands-on geology and paleontology experiments will be taking place in Dr. Dares Lab.

Admission to the event is included with a general admission ticket.  As always admission is included with an Orlando Science Center membership.

15 March 2011
Posted in DinoDigs

National Geographic reported that a new dinosaur species, Brontomerus mcintoshi, was discovered. This new dino is a type of sauropod, four-legged plant-eater, and is beginning to be known as the Thunder Thighs thanks to its immense hipbone blades. The blades on its hips suggest that very large muscles were attached there; these muscles could have been used for maneuvering over hilly land or giving its predators a swift kick.

In 2007 Mathew Wedel, professor of anatomy at Western University of Health Sciences in Pomona, California, and his team were examining bones from a fossil quarry in Utah when they discovered that the bones weren’t from any known species. Since the shape of the thighbones suggested that this dino had the largest leg muscles of any sauropod, it was named accordingly since Brontomerus means "thunder thighs" in Greek. Wedel and his team have studied the bones and done artist concepts of what this dinosaur might look like close up. Although he thinks it’s probably safer that we never came in contact with b.mcintoshi. Wedel explains that this dino had a little brain, was constantly paranoid about all the meat-eaters around, always on the lookout to protect it’s young, and was not afraid to use its enormous legs to do so. He adds that the, “ sauropods were probably beautiful animals if you were a long way away with binoculars.”

14 March 2011
Posted in DinoDigs

The earliest horned dinosaur fossil-skull can now found at the Sam Noble Museum of Natural History in Norman, Oklahoma, and has been coined Titanoceratop ouranos. The new species of dinosaurs is uniquely known for the size of its head, estimated at 8-feet long, and its overall weight, estimated at 6,550 kilograms.

The fossil skull was discovered in 1941 in New Mexico, and spent fifty-four years in museum storage before it was pieced together and ready to be displayed. Paleontologists are currently facing some difficulties placing the species into a family tree; arguing if it resembles the Pentaceratops or the Triceratops. Until recently, the beast was considered to be related to the Pentaceratops, but new inclinations regarding its physical face structure suggest relations to the Triceratops. This theory would place its evolution 5 million years earlier than originally considered and would propose that there are a lot of other horned dinosaurs yet to be discovered.

On the flip side, there are some paleontologists that still believe the Titanoceratops is part of the Pentaceratops family. They are claiming that although the fossils bones are oversized compared to the “not-so-titanic” species, it may be in its growth stage.  The debate still continues, but either way the Titanoceratop is a colossal dinosaur with an oddly enormous skull.