Death By Footprint!

Imagine dying after falling into a footprint! Only in the prehistoric world could this happen.

An unusual fossil find shows a group of tiny feathered dinosaurs died after falling into the deep muddy footprints of a much-larger Sauropod dinosaur.

Skeletons of 18 small two-legged dinosaurs were discovered stacked on top of each other in the 160-million-year-old sediments of an ancient marsh in China.

Apparently the unlucky victims of the footprint death were less than 1 metre tall and 1 to 3 metres long so they would have been too short to push against the bottom of the muddy pit and their arms would have been covered with mud-slicked feathers and too small to pull them out of the hole.

Just shows how dangerous it is to follow in someone else’s footprint!

A Prehistoric Night Owl

Just like today’s owl or kiwi, Archaeopteryx may have been a bird that came alive at night.

Scientists have just found they can predict whether birds feed during the day, night or twilight depending on the shape of their eye sockets.

This gives them new insight into the lifestyles of prehistoric birds. An early study of an Archaeopteryx fossil shows it had deep eye sockets like an owl or kiwi which would make this dino-bird nocturnal.

Drawings of Archaeopteryx flying through daytime skies may have to be revised thanks to this new information.

Dinosaurs Do The Rock Dance

Scientists have found what they are calling a “dinosaur dance floor” on the Arizona-Utah border in the US.
They have discovered such an amazing collection of dinosaur footprints – more than 1,000 – that geologists reckon it looks like a giant dino dance floor.

The 190-million-year-old footprints are around what used to be a watering-hole within the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument and are made by at least four different types of dinosaur. Scientists say this looks like a place that attracted a crowd – much like a crowded dance floor.

The dinosaur prints were locked into sandstone after being covered by shifting dunes. They became exposed through erosion and will eventually disappear through erosion, too.

A Brontosaurus Anyone?

Can’t you just imagine this in your back garden? Wouldn’t mum love it?
This house-sized reptile weighing two-and-a-half-tonne is looking for a new home. Obviously your average kid’s bedroom is not quite suitable.

It’s a case of out with the old and in with the new at Europe’s biggest dinosaur park where this old long-necked faithful has stood tall since it opened.
Plans to bring in a new model Spinosaurus means this 20ft Brachiosaurus is being put out to pasture. With 220 monster attractions, from giant flying predators to flesh-eating lizards, something has to go before Spinosaurus can move into the hugely popular Dan-yr-Ogof National Showcave Centre for Wales.

''I think that it would be a father's ultimate surprise gift for a dinosaur-mad son,'' says Ashford Price, the boss of Showcave. ''I could easily imagine it ending up in someone's back garden - if they have the space.

''But it could also go to a school somewhere in England or Wales or perhaps become a giant mascot for a rugby or cricket team.

''If anyone can offer Bronto a new home they should get in touch. The only problem is that it is a bit too big to post, so they will have to sort out how they get it home themselves.''

School kid Digs Up Dinosaur-like Sea Creature

You never know what you might find in your garden! Year 10 student Raymond Hodgson and groundsman Ben Smith have unearthed a giant dinosaur-like sea creature in a school vegie garden in Australia.

The pair were digging corner posts for a vegetable garden at the Richmond State School, in western Queensland, when they made the find.

At first they thought the hard lumps in the dirt were rocks but luckily Mr Smith recognised them as bits of fossilised bone.

It turned out the men had unearthed the bones from an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile like a cross between a dolphin and a shark, that ruled the inland sea that covered Richmond 100 million years ago.

This isn’t the first fossil find in Richmond. The small town is famous as part of Australia's "dinosaur trail". Last year a tourist came across a large dinosaur fossil while having a toilet break on the side of the road outside the town.

This latest ichthyosaur find will go on display at the school and has not stopped work on the new vegie garden – they’re just digging more carefully now!

Sea Monster Unearthed

The fossilised skull of a giant sea monster so big it could have taken a human in one gulp has been found.

This beast, called a pliosaur, was so colossal it would have eaten a T-Rex for breakfast! It terrorised the oceans 150 million years ago while dinosaurs ruled the land. Pliosaurs had short necks and huge heads like crocodiles with powerful jaws and a set of enormous razor-sharp teeth.

This well-preserved skull was found along the United Kingdom’s Jurassic Coast and may be the largest pliosaur ever found.

Paleontologist David Martill says: "These creatures were monsters. They had massive big muscles on their necks, and you would have imagined that they would bite into the animal and get a good grip, and then with these massive neck muscles they probably would have thrashed the animals around and torn chunks off.”

“It would have been a bit of a blood bath," he adds.

Multi-coloured Dinosaur Discovered

Scientists have found a four-winged dinosaur with multi-coloured feathers including a red Mohawk!

The dinosaur, Anchiornis huxleyi, lived in the late Jurassic Period in China.

After studying its 150 million year old fossil paleontologists believe its body was grey, it had speckles on its face, white feathers with black tips on its wings and legs and, amazingly, a reddish-brown Mohawk-like crest.

Researchers think the colours would have helped it attract a mate and its four wings may have allowed it to glide from tree to tree.

It is the first time a whole dinosaur fossil has been analysed in such detail for colour.

"It's like a big chicken but more slender and graceful," says palaeontologist Jacob Vinther.

"It's an extraordinarily beautiful fossil. You can see all the feathers and they're all attached to the bone.”

The Asteroid Did It!!

Scientists have confirmed it definitely was an asteroid from space colliding with earth that killed off the dinosaurs, not a massive series of volcanic eruptions.

A group of 41 leading experts have all agreed it was an asteroid or comet from space that caused the mass extinction 65 million years ago wiping out half of all species on the planet including dinosaurs.

The asteroid or comet smashed into Earth at Chicxulub on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and was over a billion times more explosive than the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War 2.

When the asteroid hit Earth it would have started large-scale fires, huge earthquakes, and continental landslides which generated tsunamis.

One scientist says the asteroid hit Earth "20 times faster than a speeding bullet".

He added: "The explosion of hot rock and gas would have looked like a huge ball of fire on the horizon, grilling any living creature in the immediate vicinity that couldn't find shelter."

Roadrunner Alert

A tiny ‘roadrunner’ looking dinosaur has been found in China.

Scientists believe it would have been one of the fastest dinosaurs ever discovered and that’s why they gave it the ‘roadrunner’ nickname, after that super-speedy bird.

It is also believed to be one of the smallest dinosaurs ever unearthed measuring just half a metre long. It’s official name is Xixianykus zhangi – quite a mouthful!

It had a huge claw to dig out termites and ants and used its speed to run between ant mounds while trying to avoid the attention of larger dinosaurs. It didn’t stand a hope against them so had to out-run them every time.