Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label paleontology. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 17, 2012

The burning question of every paleontologist - how DID the mighty dinosaurs have sex?

The joy of T-Rex: Scientists show how dinosaurs had sex (tricky, when you weigh 30 tonnes and one crucial part is 12ft long)

By ROB WAUGH
DAILY MAIL
July 11, 2012

Paleontologists answer many tricky questions about dinosaurs - but perhaps the most interesting is how did 30-ton animals larger than four-storey buildings have sex.

A surprising amount of research has been devoted to the subject - and most researchers have concluded that dinosaurs made love like dogs

'All dinosaurs used the same basic position to mate,' said Dr Beverly Halstead, an English researcher who was one of the first to tackle the subject. 'Mounting from the rear, he put his forelimbs on her shoulders, lifting one hind limb across her back and twisting his tail under hers.'

Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs mating - like most dinosaur species, the creatures mated like dogs
Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs mating - like most dinosaur species, the creatures mated like dogs

Sauroposeidon dinosaurs mate: Biologist Stuart Landry believes that big dinosaurs would just fall over on land and would have needed water to provide support
Sauroposeidon dinosaurs mate: Biologist
Stuart Landry believes that big dinosaurs
would just fall over on land and would have

needed water to provide support
Scientific illustrators have also attempted to capture the intriguing rituals of the huge beasts - including an illustrator who worked with Dr Halstead on a magazine article in 1988.

The physical challenges involved must have been formidable.

The penis of a tyrannosaur is estimated to be around 12 feet long.

Kristi Curry Rogers, Assistant Professor of Biology and Geology at Macalester College in Minnesota, told the Discovery Channel.

'The most likely position to have intercourse is for the male behind the female, and on top of her, and from behind, any other position is unfathomable.’

'I don't think there's much doubt about that,' Dr. Gregory M. Erickson, an evolutionary biologist at Florida State University, told The Huffington Post 'It must have been a hell of a thing to see.'

Some experts have questioned this line of thinking and suggested that dinosaurs romped in water.

Biologist Stuart Landry believes that big dinosaurs would just fall over on land and would have needed water to provide support.

Pentaceratops dinosaurs mating: A surprising amount of research has been devoted to the subject - and most researchers have concluded that dinosaurs made love like dogs
Pentaceratops dinosaurs mating: A surprising amount of research has been devoted to the subject - and most researchers have concluded that dinosaurs made love like dogs

Sunday, April 22, 2012

40 fossilized dinosaur eggs from 60 million years ago discovered in Chechnya

Eggs-traordinary: 40 gigantic dinosaur eggs dating back 60million years found in Chechnya - but what laid them is a mystery
The eggs are between 25cm and a metre in height

By TED THORNHILL
Daily Mail
April 17, 2012

Geologists in Russia's volatile Chechnya region have discovered what they believe to be fossilised dinosaur eggs laid by one of the huge extinct reptiles that roamed the Earth more than 60million years ago.

'We've found about 40 eggs so far, the exact number has not been established,’ said Said-Emin Dzhabrailov, a geologist at the Chechen State University.
‘There could be many more lying under the ground.’

The egg-shaped protrusions on a rock face in southern part of Chechnya
The egg-shaped protrusions on a rock face in southern part of Chechnya. Photo credit: Daily Mail, AFP/Getty 
The find was uncovered when a construction crew was blasting through a hillside to build a road near the region's border with former Soviet Georgia in the Caucasus Mountains.

A team of geologists stumbled across the smooth, oval rock-like forms, which range from 25cm to one metre coincidentally on a recent trip to the area, said Dzhabrailov.
He said palaeontologists were needed to determine which species of dinosaur had laid them.

Eggs-traordinary: A man looks at one of the dinosaur eggs, which number around 40 so far
Eggs-traordinary: A man looks at one of the dinosaur eggs, which number around 40 so far. Photo credit: Daily Mail/Reuters
Dzhabrailov said that the regional Chechen government, which is eager to shed the region's reputation for violence, is considering turning the area into a nature preserve and seeking to attract tourists.

Federal forces fought two separatist wars between 1994 and 2001 in Chechnya, and an Islamist insurgency persists in the mostly Muslim region and surrounding provinces of Russia's North Caucasus.

However, violence has declined under the strong-arm rule of Ramzan Kadyrov, whose multi-million dollar construction projects are aimed at raising the region's profile and boosting the tourism potential of the troubled area.
The dinosaur eggs were found by a construction crew blasting rocks to make way for a new road
The dinosaur eggs were found by a construction crew blasting rocks to make way for a new road. Photo credit: Daily Mail