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7 Major Bloopers Fans Never Noticed in ‘Jurassic Park’

Friday, November 19, 2021

Jurassic Park is one of the most iconic movies in history and is adored by fans around the world. We’ve had plenty in the way of sequels over the years too, and there’s even a new one on the horizon in the form of Jurassic World: Dominion. But the 1993 film is yet to be bested – although it’s not something we ever expect to happen anyway!

But while Jurassic Park is a flawless masterpiece, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its fair share of mistakes from start to finish. No matter the size of the film, whether it’s a small independent picture or a major blockbuster, every film is plagued with errors, whether they’re factual, continual, visual, audio, or crew member-related.

Here are seven major bloopers that fans never noticed in Jurassic Park (in chronological order – in case you have the movie on standby!)

7. Ellie’s Endless Echo

Many would argue that what we’re about to discuss isn’t even a blooper at all, and is something that could be explained by the person responsible. Just as the jungle explorer that’s carrying Alan Grant (Sam Neill), Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), and Jeff Goldblum passes the triceratops enclosure, Alan decides to jump out of the moving vehicle to see the dinosaur up, close and personal.

Confused by Alan’s sudden departure, Ellie jumps out to follow him, leaving Malcolm alone to talk to himself. But if you listen closely after Ellie shouts “Alan!” for the first time, she can be heard repeating the name, only this time as a slight yodel, really stretching out that last vowel for reasons unknown!

6. Pre-Recorded Live Footage

Jurassic Park was doomed from the beginning, with problems ranging from unauthorized breeding to sick dinosaurs, but we still owe a debt of gratitude to disgruntled employee Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight). Without his industrial espionage, we never would have seen one of the greatest movies of all time. But after seeing this blooper, you might wonder whether it was all in Nedry’s head.

Just before the computer engineer sets things in motion, he speaks to his contact at the island’s docks via video call on his computer, who tells him that the boat is about to leave – which is Nedry’s only way off the island once he’s stolen viable dinosaur embryos. However, at the bottom of the video, there’s a streaming bar, which suggests it’s a pre-recording (yes, whoops indeed)!

5. Vanishing Goat’s Leg

The most atmospheric sequence in the film naturally involves the escape of the Park’s Tyrannosaurus rex. With the power down and torrential rain hammering the two jungle explorers as they sit outside the dinosaur’s paddock, we start to see ripples in a cup of water. The second warning that something enormous is coming? A goat’s leg landed on the jeep’s sunroof.

The limb hits the glass, sending Lex (Ariana Richards), Tim (Joseph Mazzello), and lawyer Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero) into a panic. We then see the rex swallowing the goat, but when we cut back to Gennaro as he abandons the vehicle, the leg is gone. Seconds later, when the rex begins to tear the fence down, the leg reappears, only to disappear again when the rex approaches the jeep!

4. Mystery of the T-Rex Paddock

The mystery of the tyrannosaur paddock is something that has been debated since 1993. Before the rex breaks free from its jungle enclosure, we can clearly see that the area behind the fence is level with the road where the jeeps are parked. And in case there was ever any doubt, we see the dinosaur walking from its enclosure right out onto the road, without so much as a hop.

Things continue to make sense until the rex attacks Lex and Tim in their jeep. Luckily, Alan frees Lex, but then they climb down a wall of considerable height on the same side of the road as the paddock! While ‘official’ blueprints indicate that a moat borders the paddock further along the road (which is also elaborated in the novel), we never see the rex push the car from its original spot.

3. Magic Ice Cream

Continuity errors are easily the most common kind of blooper, and as we’ve already established, Jurassic Park is no exception. While Alan, Lex, and Tim are lost in the Park, Ellie and John Hammond (the late Richard Attenborough) make the most out of some desserts before they spoil from the power outage, and discuss the implications of what InGen has done on the island.

Ellie and John are sitting at opposite ends of a long table, which is made clear from a wide side shot. When Ellie takes her seat, we can see that there are no desserts within reach, but moments later, a tub of ice cream magically appears right in front of her. If InGen has made a dinosaur theme Park Resort whose restaurant can conjure up ice cream, they really have spared no expense!

2. Ghosts of the Gallimimus

Jurassic Park is known for its ground-breaking digital effects. And there are many scenes in the film where the dinosaurs look real – which is usually when practical effects are on display. While Steven Spielberg would disagree that practical effects are more reliable, having experienced problems with both the Jaws animatronic and the T-rex, sometimes CGI can be just as defiant.

When Alan and the kids are crossing the Park, they spot a flock of gallimimus heading their way, and within moments are caught in the stampede. However, when they take shelter under a fallen tree, the rex bursts out of the jungle and picks an unlucky gallimimus out of the crowd. If you pause at the right moment, you can actually see the dinosaur’s head disappear into the rex’s neck!

1. Creeping Crew Member

Jurassic Park is full of nail-biting suspense, and another white-knuckle sequence is when the raptors invade the kitchen. While enjoying some dessert in the restaurant, Lex and Tim spot a raptor nearby and decide to hide in a dark kitchen. Cornering themselves in a kitchen probably isn’t a good idea, but they aren’t the only ones to make mistakes in this scene.

After the first of two raptors figures out how to open the kitchen door, we get a full view of the dinosaur as it’s framed by the doorway. This scene’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it blooper comes in the form of a puppeteer’s hand that appears to touch the raptor on the tail. Maybe it’s not such a clever girl after all, as it looks like she definitely had a helping hand opening that door!

Did you spot any of these bloopers in Jurassic Park?

Source: https://insidethemagic.net/

Germinating Pine Cone Found Encased in Baltic Amber

Thursday, November 18, 2021

A 40-million-year-old cone of Pinus cembrifolia in a piece of Eocene Baltic amber. Image credit: George Poinar Jr., Oregon State University.

Seed germination — a crucial stage in the development of all plants — normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother plant. In some infrequent instances, precocious germination — a type of viviparity or vivipary — occurs when the seed sprouts while still within the fruit. In a new paper published in the journal Historical Biology, Oregon State University’s Professor George Poinar Jr. described the first case of precocious germination of a fossil plant involving a number of seeds that have germinated in a pine cone embedded in a piece of 40-million-year-old (Eocene epoch) Baltic amber.

“Crucial to the development of all plants, seed germination typically occurs in the ground after a seed has fallen,” Professor Poinar said.

“We tend to associate viviparity — embryonic development while still inside the parent — with animals and forget that it does sometimes occur in plants. Most typically, by far, those occurrences involve angiosperms.”

“Angiosperms, which directly or indirectly provide most of the food people eat, have flowers and produce seeds enclosed in fruit.”

“Seed germination in fruits is fairly common in plants that lack seed dormancy, like tomatoes, peppers and grapefruit, and it happens for a variety of reasons. But it’s rare in gymnosperms.”

Precocious germination in pine cones is so rare that only one naturally occurring example of this condition, from 1965, has been described in the scientific literature.

“That’s part of what makes this discovery so intriguing, even beyond that it’s the first fossil record of plant viviparity involving seed germination,” Professor Poinar said.

“I find it fascinating that the seeds in this small pine cone could start to germinate inside the cone and the sprouts could grow out so far before they perished in the resin.”

“At the sprouts’ tips are needle clusters, some in bundles of five, associating the fossil with the extinct pine species Pinus cembrifolia, which was previously described from Baltic amber.”

Needles at tip of Pinus cembrifolia’s hypocotyl. Image credit: George Poinar Jr., Oregon State University.

According to the scientist, viviparity in plants typically shows up in one of two ways.

“Precocious germination is the more common of the two, the other being vegetative viviparity, such as when a bulbil emerges directly from the flower head of a parent plant,” he said.

“In the case of seed viviparity in this fossil, the seeds produced embryonic stems that are quite evident in the amber.”

“Whether those stems, known as hypocotyls, appeared before the cone became encased in amber is unclear. However, based on their position, it appears that some growth, if not most, occurred after the pine cone fell into the resin.”

Research on viviparity in extant gymnosperms suggests the condition could be linked to winter frosts.

“Light frosts would have been possible if the Baltic amber forest had a humid, warm-temperate environment as has been posited,” Professor Poinar said.

“This is the first fossil record of seed viviparity in plants but this condition probably occurred quite a bit earlier than this Eocene record.”

“There’s no reason why vegetative viviparity couldn’t have occurred hundreds of millions of years ago in ancient spore-bearing plants like ferns and lycopods.”

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George Poinar Jr. Precocious germination of a pine cone in Eocene Baltic amber. Historical Biology, published online November 8, 2021; doi: 10.1080/08912963.2021.2001808

Source: www.sci-news.com/

Paleontologists Debunk Fossil Thought To Be Missing Link Between Lizards And First Snakes

Friday, November 19, 2021

“In the shallows near shore, Tetrapodophis amplectus glides through a tangle of branches from the conifer Duartenia araripensis that have fallen into the water, sharing this habitat with a water bug in the family Belostomatidae and small fish (Dastilbe sp.).” Credit: Julius Csotonyi

Filling in the links of the evolutionary chain with a fossil record of a ''snake with four legs" connecting lizards and early snakes would be a dream come true for paleontologists. But a specimen formerly thought to fit the bill is not the missing piece of the puzzle, according to a new Journal of Systematic Palaeontology study led by University of Alberta paleontologist Michael Caldwell.

"It has long been understood that snakes are members of a lineage of four-legged vertebrates that, as a result of evolutionary specializations, lost their limbs," said Caldwell, lead author of the study and professor in the departments of biological sciences and earth and atmospheric sciences.

"Somewhere in the fossil record of ancient snakes is an ancestral form that still had four legs. It has thus long been predicted that a snake with four legs would be found as a fossil."

Missing link discovered?

In a paper published in the journal Science in 2015, a team of researchers reported the discovery of what was believed to be an example of the first known four-legged snake fossil, an animal they named Tetrapodophis amplectus.

"If correctly interpreted based on the preserved anatomy, this would be a very important discovery," said Caldwell.

Caldwell explained that the new study of Tetrapodophis revealed a number of mischaracterizations of the anatomy and morphology of the specimen—traits that initially seemed to be shared most closely with snakes, suggesting this might be the long-sought-after snake with four legs.

"There are many evolutionary questions that could be answered by finding a four-legged snake fossil, but only if it is the real deal. The major conclusion of our team is that Tetrapodophis amplectus is not in fact a snake and was misclassified," said Caldwell. "Rather, all aspects of its anatomy are consistent with the anatomy observed in a group of extinct marine lizards from the Cretaceous period known as dolichosaurs."

Part and Counterpart of Tetrapodophis. Credit: Michael Caldwell

The clues to this conclusion, Caldwell noted, were hiding in the rock the fossil was extracted from.

"When the rock containing the specimen was split and it was discovered, the skeleton and skull ended up on opposite sides of the slab, with a natural mould preserving the shape of each on the opposite side," said Caldwell. "The original study only described the skull and overlooked the natural mould, which preserved several features that make it clear that Tetrapodophis did not have the skull of a snake—not even of a primitive one."

A controversial specimen

Although Tetrapodophis may not be the snake with four legs that paleontologists prize, it still has much to teach us, said study coauthor Tiago Simões, a former U of A Ph.D. student, Harvard post- doctoral fellow and Brazilian paleontologist, who pointed out some of the features that make it unique.

"One of the greatest challenges of studying Tetrapodophis is that it is one of the smallest fossil squamates ever found," said Simões. "It is comparable to the smallest squamates alive today that also have reduced limbs."

An additional challenge to studying the Tetrapodophis is access to the specimen itself.

"There were no appropriate permits for the specimen's original removal from Brazil and, since its original publication, it has been housed in a private collection with limited access to researchers. The situation was met with a large backlash from the scientific community," said Simões.

"In our redescription of Tetrapodophis, we lay out the important legal status of the specimen and emphasize the necessity of its repatriation to Brazil, in accordance not only with Brazilian legislation but also international treaties and the increasing international effort to reduce the impact of colonialist practices in science."

The study, "Tetrapodophis amplectus is not a snake: Reassessment of the osteology, phylogeny and functional morphology of an Early Cretaceous dolichosaurid lizard," was published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology.



More information: Michael W. Caldwell et al, Tetrapodophis amplectus is not a snake: re-assessment of the osteology, phylogeny and functional morphology of an Early Cretaceous dolichosaurid lizard, Journal of Systematic Palaeontology (2021). DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2021.1983044

Journal information: Journal of Systematic Palaeontology  , Science 

Provided by Taylor & Francis

Source: https://phys.org/

Fossils of Cretaceous-Period Coelacanth Discovered in Texas

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

Reconstruction of Mawsonia sp. roaming in the brackish or fresh water costal environment of Texas during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Zubin Erik Dutta.

The fossils are estimated to be around 96 million years old and belong to the first Cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth from North America.

Coelacanths are a group of large lobe-finned fish (sarcopterygians) closely related to tetrapods.

They were thought to have been extinct for 66 million years, until a first living specimen was caught fortuitously in South Africa in 1938.

Coelacanths first appeared in the Early Devonian epoch, diversified a little in the Devonian and Carboniferous period, and attained a maximum of diversity in the Early Triassic.

During the Cretaceous, they are known by two families only, the Latimeriidae, which survived to the present with the genus Latimeria, and the Mawsoniidae, which went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous.

“Today, the only living genus of coelacanth, Latimeria is represented by two species along the eastern coast of Africa and in Indonesia,” said Dr. Lionel Cavin from the Department of Geology and Palaeontology at the Natural History Museum, Geneva, and his colleagues.

“This sarcopterygian fish is nicknamed a ‘living fossil,’ in particular because of its slow evolution.”

“The large geographical distribution of Latimeria may be a reason for the great resilience to extinction of this lineage, but the lack of fossil records for this genus prevents us from testing this hypothesis.”

Photograph and surface rendering of left angular of Mawsonia sp. from the Woodbine Formation in lateral (A), medial (B), ventral (C) and dorsal (D) views. Abbreviations: a.f – adductor fossa; ar.De – articular surface for dentary; con.Part – contact surface with prearticular; f.m.s.c – openings of the mandibular sensory canal; gr.VII.m.ext – groove for external mandibular ramus of VII; l.f – longitudinal fossa; sut.p.Co – sutural contact surface with principal coronoid. Image credit: Cavin et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259292.

The newly-described coelacanth specimens were recovered from two localities of the Woodbine Formation in northeast Texas.

They belong to a previously unknown species of mawsoniid coelacanth in the genus Mawsonia.

This fresh, brackish water fish had a total body length of 1.5 m (4.9 feet) and lived during the Late Cretaceous epoch, some 96 million years ago.

“The Texan discovery of Mawsonia sp. adds an important new component to the Woodbine vertebrate fauna,” the paleontologists said.

“It is an unexpected Gondwanian representative in this Appalachian assemblage with predominantly Laurasian (European and Asian) affinities.”

“It considerably increases the geographical distribution of this genus, and confirms its occurrence at the beginning of the Late Cretaceous epoch.”

The findings were published online in the journal PLoS ONE.

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L. Cavin et al. 2021. The first late cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth (Sarcopterygii: Actinistia) from North America: Evidence of a lineage of extinct ‘living fossils’. PLoS ONE 16 (11): e0259292; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0259292

Source: www.sci-news.com/

7 Reasons Why A Future ‘Jurassic World’ Movie Probably Won’t Have Dinosaurs

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

We all know that the sixth installment in the Jurassic Park franchise will feature dinosaurs – we’ve seen the teaser for the five-minute preview that was released alongside Fast & Furious 9 in IMAX a few months ago, and we’ve watched Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, at the end of which dozens of dinosaurs are released onto the mainland.

Jurassic World: Dominion will deal with the aftermath of those events, while brand-new game Jurassic World: Evolution 2 also expands upon the concept. And now that production on the new sequel has wrapped, we’ll probably get a trailer soon with all sorts of new dinosaur species on show, some of which director Colin Trevorrow has already confirmed.

Perhaps the biggest clue, though, is that it’s a Jurassic Park movie! But where could the franchise go after Dominion? Will we continue to get more movies that revolve around dinosaurs, or will we arrive at a new frontier of genetic engineering? Here are seven reasons why a future Jurassic World movie may not have any dinosaurs…

7. The New Camp Cretaceous Trailer Has Sabre Tooth Tigers

The hit animated show Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous just got its Season 4 teaser, which gives us plenty of dinosaurs while also introducing the franchise’s first sabre tooth tiger! In the trailer, characters are seen discovering a brand-new facility, where they learn that dinosaurs aren’t the only creatures trying to eat them.

As the show is considered canon by its showrunner, then it’s possible we’ll be seeing the big cat in live action. But while this will be the first time we’ll see a sabre tooth tiger in the Jurassic Park franchise, its existence has been hinted at in many forms of media over the years, including two of the movies themselves.

6. Sabre Tooth Tigers Already Exist ‘Off Screen’

In the original 1993 film, you can see a plush sabre tooth tiger toy on a shelf in the Gallimimus Gift Shop at the Visitor Center. These gifts can be seen during the scene in which Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern) and John Hammond (the late Richard Attenborough) are talking over dessert. So if there’s a toy for this prehistoric cat, then is it possible InGen has created it?

The fake ‘Masrani Corporation’ website – which was used to promote Jurassic World – also hints at sabre tooth tigers and woolly mammoths when referring to a dig site in Siberia. While no such animals are even mentioned in the 2015 film, you can see a sabre tooth tiger’s skull in the Lockwood Manor museum in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

5. They’ve Appeared in Several Video Games

These Pleistocene predators haven’t just been hinted at in previous Jurassic Park movies and the marketing – they’ve appeared in several video games over the years too. Jurassic Park: BuilderJurassic Park: The Game and more recently, Jurassic World: Alive, are among a few examples in which extinct animals from that era have appeared.

The latest video game is Jurassic World: Evolution 2, which continues the park-building nature of the previous game. However, this time it takes place on the mainland just like Dominion. So if the likes of sabre tooth tiger and woolly mammoth show up in this game too, then it’s possible we’ll see them in the upcoming film, alongside all the dinosaurs.

4. There Are Already Six Movies With Dinosaurs

It’s hardly a criticism to say that by the time Jurassic World: Dominion comes out, we’d have had six Jurassic Park movies with dinosaurs in them. After all, that’s the whole premise of the entire franchise. But we’re not even remotely suggesting that we’re bored with seeing them! The more dinosaurs, the merrier!

However, it’s entirely possible that Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment will be keen to introduce something new in a future movie – even if that something exists alongside the dinosaurs. If dinosaurs and humans can co-exist, then so can dinosaurs and other prehistoric mammals! By co-exist, we do of course mean to eat each other.

3. Jurassic World: Dominion Might Not Be the Last Movie

In 2020, during the production of Jurassic World: Dominion, producer Frank Marshall suggested that the sixth installment in the franchise wouldn’t necessarily be the last movie. While it’s expected that the sequel will wrap up the Jurassic World set of movies, it might not mark the end for the film series altogether. And we wouldn’t be surprised if it did continue.

While nothing has been hinted at regarding a seventh film, it’s possible that Universal Pictures will continue making them. Since the franchise was brought back to life in 2015, it has grossed nearly $3 billion dollars worldwide. In fact, it has probably made more money than a real Jurassic Park ever would have!

2. Dinosaurs Aren’t the Only Clones

Many fans really don’t like the fact that a human clone was introduced in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. In the film, young Maisie Lockwood (Isabella Sermon) discovers that she is the genetic replication of her dead mother, and that her grandfather is actually her father! This serves as one of many twists in the blockbuster sequel.

While a shock at first, seeing a human clone in a Jurassic Park movie is hardly far-fetched. If scientists can clone animals that have been extinct for millions of years, then a human being would be easy! It also lends to the possibility that animals like sabre tooth tiger – which have only been dead some ten thousand years – aren’t out of the question.

1. Cloning Is Now Fair Game

Worldwide cloning is something that’s hinted at during the auction scene in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. When evil financier Eli Mills (Rafe Spall) puts the Indoraptor up for bidding, geneticist Henry Wu (B. D. Wong) tells him that they shouldn’t sell it because it’s a “prototype”. Mills, however, is quick to point out that they can “make more”.

But Wu responds to Mills by saying, “So will they”, which suggests that we may see other companies around the world creating their own dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Dominion. Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff Goldblum) even gives a grave warning about “change” at the end of Fallen Kingdom. Could worldwide cloning pave the way for new extinct species in future films?

It looks like extinct animals like sabre tooth tigers and woolly mammoths shouldn’t be ruled out where a future Jurassic Park movie is concerned – or even in the upcoming sequel for that matter. Jurassic World: Dominion stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, and will see the return of many original Jurassic Park characters (including those of the dinosaur variety).

Do you think the Jurassic Park series will eventually move away from dinosaurs?

Source: https://insidethemagic.net/

Supersaurus Might Be The Longest Dinosaur That Ever Lived

Tuesday, November 16, 2021

An illustration of Supersaurus shows what a giant it was, reaching at least 128 feet (39 meters) in length. (Image credit: Sean Fox/Fossil Crates)

This dino-mite champ was at least 128 feet long.

The gold medal for the longest dinosaur in the world might go to the aptly named Supersaurus, now that scientists have fixed a fossil mix-up and analyzed new bones excavated from the long-necked dinosaur's final resting spot.

Like other exceedingly long dinosaurs, Supersaurus is a diplodocid — a long-necked sauropod whose whip-like tail went on for days. Supersaurus has always been viewed as one of longest dinosaurs, but research now shows that "this is the longest dinosaur based on a decent skeleton," as other dinosaur remains are fragmentary, and it's challenging to accurately estimate their lengths, Brian Curtice, a paleontologist at the Arizona Museum of Natural History who is spearheading the research, told Live Science

When Supersaurus was alive about 150 million years ago during the Jurassic period, it exceeded 128 feet (39 meters) and possibly even reached 137 feet (42 m) from snout to tail, Curtice's new research found. Even its "shorter" size is record-breaking; at 128 feet, the dinosaur would have been longer than another contender — Diplodocus, which could reach lengths of 108 feet (33 m), according to a 2006 study of a specimen known as Seismosaurus in the New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin.

The research, which is not yet published in a peer-reviewed journal, was presented online Nov. 5 at the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology's annual conference. 

The new finding is nearly 50 years in the making; the first Supersaurus specimen was uncovered in 1972 in a chock-full bonebed, in what was basically a "bone salad," Curtice said. So, it wasn't immediately clear which bones belonged to the beast.

That bone salad was excavated by dinosaur field worker Jim Jensen, who collected and prepared fossils for Brigham Young University in Utah, in Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in Colorado. Jensen discovered an 8-foot-long (2.4 m) scapulocoracoid — two fused bones that make up the shoulder girdle in adult dinosaurs and other reptiles. The quarry also contained additional bones that Jensen thought belonged to two other sauropod dinosaurs, which years later he named Ultrasauros and Dystylosaurus

News of the beastly bones made headlines. The public was intrigued that a dinosaur larger than Brachiosaurus, then considered the longest dinosaur, existed, according to the blog Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week (SV-POW), run by paleontologists Michael Taylor and Mathew Wedel. A journalist incidentally named the biggest beast Supersaurus in the frenzy following its discovery.

In 1985, Jensen published a study in the journal Great Basin Naturalist announcing the discovery of three new sauropod dinosaurs from the quarry. However, Jensen wasn't a trained paleontologist, and he made some mistakes with his analysis. Over the years, paleontologists have debated whether Ultrasauros and Dystylosaurus are valid genera, or whether — as Curtice believes — their bones were misidentified and actually all belong to a single Supersaurus.

Vertebrate paleontologist Brian Curtice digs for dinosaur bones. (Image credit: Courtesy Fossil Crates)

The case for Supersaurus

This reclassification of three dinosaurs as one provides a more complete Supersaurus specimen for scientists to study, which is useful for estimating its length.

So how can three dinosaurs become one? By uncovering the mistakes of years' past. For instance, one of the scapulocoracoids at the quarry is about 10 inches (25 centimeters) longer than the other, which led many scientists to believe that it belonged to another genus of dinosaur. But when Curtice inspected it, he found that the longer bone was actually distorted because of cracks. "If you push all the cracks together, [the scapulocoracoids are] basically the same size," he said. 

The meat-eating dinosaur Allosaurus, which also lived during the late Jurassic period, was a pipsqueak compared with Supersaurus. (Image credit: Supersaurus by Sean Fox; Allosaurus by Gustavo Monroy/Fossil Crates)

He also found deformities, made by environmental forces, in bones attributed to Dystylosaurus and other genera, and he showed that these bones, in fact, belonged to Supersaurus.

In addition, no other excessively large sauropod bones were found nearby. Rather, all of the large, diplodocid-looking bones were found in one pocket of the quarry, and there weren't any duplicated bones (meaning there's just one left scapulocoracoid and one right scapulocoracoid, for example), Curtice said. And all of the massive dinosaur bones are roughly the same size, so they likely all belong to one individual: the Supersaurus, Curtice said.

Since the original finding, other paleontologists have discovered partial skeletons thought to be Supersaurus — including one nicknamed "Jimbo" and another dubbed "Goliath" — in Wyoming. However, researchers have yet to formally identify Goliath as a Supersaurus in a peer-reviewed journal.

One Supersaurus individual was found in Colorado and two were unearthed in Wyoming. (Image credit: Fossil Crates)

How long are you?

Previous Supersaurus length estimates put it at the upper echelon of long dinosaurs, including a 2008 estimate of 108 to 111 feet (33 to 34 m), but those were based on incomplete data, Curtice said. 

When the Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry was excavated, researchers removed large blocks of rocks and fossils and wrapped them up in plaster jackets. But preparing the fossils from these jackets is time intensive and tedious, so, even today, there are still several unopened kitchen table-size jackets from the quarry, Curtice said. Over the years, Curtice has dived into some of these unstudied bones and identified five new neck vertebrae, one new back vertebra, two new tail vertebrae and a left pubis. Previously, Curtice had mistakenly attributed some of these tail vertebrae to the diplodocid dinosaur Apatosaurus, until other research clued him into the fact that Supersaurus' tail looked like a mix of the Apatosaurus and Barosaurus dinosaurs' tails. These newly identified bones helped Curtice get a more accurate estimate of the new lengths for Supersaurus, including that its neck was longer than 50 feet (15 m) and its tail was upward of 60 feet (18 m) long.

What's more, the size and shape of the newly identified bones support the idea that all of the colossal bones found at Dry Mesa belong to Supersaurus, rather than three different large dinosaurs, Curtice said.

The discovered bones of the Supersaurus from Dry Mesa Dinosaur Quarry in Colorado. (Image credit: Daniel Barrera Guevara/Fossil Crates)

Based on the placement of one nearly 4.5-foot-long (1.3 m) neck vertebra, Supersaurus is either 128 feet or 137 feet long. "That is a crazy length — longer than three yellow school buses nose to tail," Curtice said in an SVP video. "And considering we never find the largest individual in the fossil record, how much longer could these animals have gotten?"

The conclusions drawn from the new research "seem reasonable" Matt Lamanna, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, who was not involved with the research, told Live Science. "I can't really weigh in on the exact length estimate, but it's clear that there is a very, very large diplodocid sauropod in that quarry."

The research would be strengthened if the dinosaur nicknamed Goliath were to be formally identified as a Supersaurus, especially because Curtice is using it to inform his analysis, Lamanna said. "I think the final verdict will come when this Goliath specimen is published, when this additional material from Dry Mesa is published. I want to see it go through formal peer review."

"I think it will be pretty exciting when he does," Lamanna added. "I think he's very probably correct."

Of note, Supersaurus may be the longest dinosaur on record, but it's not the heaviest. That honor likely goes to the superheavy titanosaur Argentinosaurus, which weighed upward of 90 tons (82 metric tons) and came close to weighing twice as much as Supersaurus did, Curtice said. Meanwhile, the longest animal on record isn't even a dinosaur. That title goes to a 150-foot-long (45 m) siphonophore — a translucent, stringy creature that, like coral, is made up of smaller beasties — that lives in a submarine canyon off the coast of Australia, Live Science previously reported

Originally published on Live Science.

The 10 Most Powerful Dinosaurs In Jurassic World Evolution 2

Sunday, November 14, 2021

Gamers can once again create their own park in Jurassic World Evolution 2, but these dinosaurs, like the Indominus Rex, are more dangerous than most.

Jurassic World Evolution from Frontier Developments plc took the sim world by storm after allowing players to create their own Jurassic Park, complete with terrifying dinosaurs roaming across vast vistas. The sequel, Jurassic World Evolution 2, continues to boast several powerful creatures.

These dinosaurs are often predatory and can certainly put guests and the park rangers in a lot of danger if they were to ever escape. With inclusions inspired by the movie franchise, there are some fan favorites to populate the park, alongside some newer additions that will capture budding designers' imaginations.

Triceratops

The Triceratops has been one of the best dinosaurs of the Jurassic Park franchise and indeed a regular in the Evolution series. Although not known for its viciousness, the Triceratops' power cannot be underestimated. It's built like a 12-ton tank, with an incredibly hard head often used for ramming.

It's as strong as it is beautiful, with this magnificent creature using its sharp horns to spear through an opponent. Although it's a herbivore and likely won't cause much trouble in a player's park, a stampede of Triceratops could be just as dangerous as an encounter with a predator.

Carnotaurus

Described as a "meat-eating bull," there's a lot to worry about with the Carnotaurus. Although this predator might be a lot smaller in size in comparison to other major threats in Jurassic Park, its speed is a serious danger factor — not to mention its two horns!

The beast doesn't just utilize its sharp teeth when hunting but can also take advantage of the spikes atop its head. It's a vicious-looking creature and one with a lot of power in the jaw once it clamps down on its prey. It's definitely a difficult dinosaur to outmaneuver if a keeper gets trapped in its enclosure.

Pachyrhinosaurus

When looking at a combination of power and speed, the Pachyrhinosaurus is perhaps one of the most unpredictable herbivores. Although it may look small, pound for pound it might just be one of the park's most dangerous animals thanks to its thick skull.

The Pachyrhinosaurus is known for running headfirst into danger, using its unique evolution to survive combat with other dangerous dinosaurs. It will be relatively easy for players to look after but certainly shouldn't be unleashed upon guests.

Ceratosaurus

Growing up to six meters in length and showcasing some of the traditional features expected from a predator, the Ceratosaurus is a lot larger than the Carnotaurus. It's still incredibly agile though and once again uses a horn in combat — a single blade in the middle of its head.

Its combination of speed and sheer strength, alongside its many weapons, allows the Ceratosaurus, one of Jurassic's most dangerous dinosaurs, to rise the ranks of power. If a player is to include such a creature in their park in Jurassic World Evolution 2, they best make sure the defensive systems are strong enough.

Megalosaurus

The Megalosaurus is only available in the Deluxe Edition of the title, but players will want to get their hands on the sheer ferocity of the dinosaur. As the first dinosaur ever discovered, this creature has a special place in Earth's history.

The beast was often an apex predator in its environment thanks to its height and weight, alongside its strong jaw, which could chew through unsuspecting prey. It would make short work of any park rangers who may happen to stray into its territory.

Tyrannosaurus Rex

The Tyrannosaurus Rex has often been portrayed as both the hero and the villain of the Jurassic Park series. The creature is an apex predator in its own right and has gone head to head with many terrifying beasts from the theme parks.

Its size is a factor to contend with, with the weight of the T-Rex giving it even more power in the hunt. Its speed is also quite surprising, as the lumbering creature is showcased to be a quick-thinking predator when looking for its next kill.

Indoraptor

One of the main villains of the Jurassic Park franchise, the Indoraptor is one of the most powerful dinosaurs in the series thanks to its hybrid DNA. The theme park team combined the essence of a Velociraptor, a Deinosuchus, and the Indominus Rex to create the animal.

There's very little that the Indoraptor could not do, with the creature bred to be a killer. Anyone looking to include the beast within their park in Jurassic World Evolution 2 best make sure they have the infrastructure in place to contain it.

Attenborosaurus

Another animal available only in the Deluxe Edition of the game, the Attenborosaurus is a monstrous creature. The dinosaurs living in the waters of the park are often far more dangerous and much larger in size than the land-dwelling beasts.

The Attenborosaurus is a killer to the heart, with the long-necked predator potentially growing up to 6.4 meters. Its agility and velocity in the water make it difficult to even track and its razor-sharp teeth will make short work of other apex predators.

Indominus Rex

The Indominus Rex was another dinosaur created by combining the DNA of other beasts, including the Deinosuchus, Giganotosaurus, Carnotaurus, Velociraptor, and of course the alpha itself, the T-Rex. The creature took on many of the most dangerous qualities of these dinosaurs.

Acting as the key antagonist in Jurassic World, the Indominous Rex was hyper-intelligent, strong, fast, and able to avoid detection. It was a perfect hunter in every sense, allowing its strength to boost its rankings as one of the most powerful dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution 2. 

Mosasaurus

The waters are a dangerous place in any Jurassic theme park and the Mosasurus claims this territory as its own. It was able to take down the Indominus Rex, in large part thanks to its size alone. The creature can grow up to a whopping 18 meters in length.

It's perhaps not as fast as expected, but the weight and strength of the beast definitely shouldn't be overlooked. With hundreds of teeth, each capable of ripping flesh from the bone, it's no surprise that guests are both thrilled and nauseated by the abilities of such a cruel animal.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Jurassic World Evolution 2: How to Treat Injured or Sick Dinosaurs

Sunday, November 14, 2021

When it comes to broken bones, common colds, and quarantining dinosaurs, this guide can help Jurassic World Evolution 2 players with ailments.

Against the first-person shooters and the adventuring platformers that make up the video game market, sometimes gamers want to sit back and relax with a good management simulation game. A good example of these games is Jurassic Park Evolution 2, which adds marine and flying reptiles to the long list of dinosaur creatures available, along with other new features. Even though a majority of the experience simply involves players making sure they check on their animals every so often, it may get a bit overwhelming when a dinosaur gets hurt or sick.

Ever since the original Jurassic Park Evolution game, dinosaurs had always been given a chance to catch colds and develop diseases as time goes on. Some of it was by random chance, others were through the sabotage mechanic. The sequel develops on this concept and not only makes it more detailed but also a bit trickier. This guide is here to help players take care of their sick or injured dinosaurs.

How to Diagnose Dinosaurs With Unknown Ailments

In the first game, players would receive a notification whenever dinosaurs were sick with something and would be able to send their rangers to investigate and treat the dinosaur immediately. In Jurassic World Evolution 2, however, things are a bit more detailed than that. JWE2 introduces the paleo-medical facility, which has a sort of dinosaur ambulance that goes around to diagnose and treat minor sicknesses and illnesses.

If during the usual status checks a dinosaur is said to have an unknown ailment, players can tell their paleo-medical facility to inspect the dinosaur using the Mobile Vet Unit. What to do next depends on the ailment.

Taking Care of Diseased Dinosaurs

If a dinosaur has been diagnosed with a disease such as algae poisoning, e coli, or foot and mouth disease, they tend to be treatable. The issue players may run into, however, is that the dart treatments tend to be locked behind research at the Science Center. What medicine is available to research depends on which mode the player is on, but players should keep a close eye on what each Research Node needs in order to make sure they have the proper dart treatment in time. Other conditions like hypothermia require a trip to the paleo-medical facility via airlift to be fixed.

Some Research Nodes require that dinosaurs be quarantined, which may confuse players. How to quarantine dinosaurs in Jurassic World Evolution 2 requires a separate enclosure where the dinosaur can be alone. Players need to make a small enough enclosure for the dinosaur in question so they can wait out the time necessary for the Research Node to be unlocked, or be completed. This also applies to any missions requiring quarantining dinosaurs in Chaos Theory mode or Challenge mode, and players need to prepare for the dropping Appeal rate if the quarantined dinosaurs aren't visible to guests.

How to Treat Injured Dinosaurs

How to treat hurt creatures in Jurassic World Evolution 2 depends on what kind of injury they have. Unfortunately, the game never specifies. Some injuries such as fractures or possible broken limbs can be fixed right away. In this case, the MVU will do it for the player automatically. If it's a bit of a worse injury than that, fans may need to send the task to the MVU again, only this time it should say "heal" on it instead.

Some injuries are far greater, such as lesions, and even the rare case where a dinosaur can swallow a Jurassic Park guest's phone. In these cases, these sick animals need to be tranquilized by the Capture team and then transported to the paleo-medical facility for treatment. Once there, it will only take a few minutes for the dinosaur to be fixed and back to normal, and from there players can select the medical facility and hit the "transport" button to select the creature's enclosure and send them back.

There are some cases, however, where some diseases dinosaurs can catch can't be cured or treated, such as the common cold. Players may find trouble with the common cold in the Jurassic Park Movie-themed Chaos Theory mode, as it's not only uncurable but is highly contagious to other creatures in the park. In this situation, fans should look to quarantine the creatures that are sick right away, as the only thing they can do is let the cold take its course. Eventually, the dinosaur should be healed on its own, but sending in the MVU to heal it when its health drops too low could save the creature's life.

Jurassic World Evolution 2 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

Source: https://gamerant.com/

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Revives the Franchise's Most Ruthless Dinosaur

Saturday, November 13, 2021

The Season 4 trailer for Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous reveals the show is bringing back the franchise's most ruthless dino - no, not the T-Rex.

In the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World movies, many people consider the bloodthirsty T-Rex the most savage dinosaur InGen created. It wreaked major havoc in the first two movies, hunting people down in Isla Nublar and then San Diego after being captured. It's also been quite a threat in Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, but as the Season 4 trailer now confirms, a dino that's deadlier and way more ruthless than the T-Rex is going to return.

This is none other than the Spinosaurus, who appears at the end of the Camp Cretaceous trailer. Season 3 ended with the teens on a boat, sailing away from Isla Nublar and the remains of the destroyed camp, only for it to now be revealed a Mosasaurus will attack and shipwreck them. However, as showrunner Scott Kramer explains, it's not Isla Sorna, aka Site B, that they end up on.

It's a new, more lethal island with robot dinos and a lot more threats, including environments that may be artificial hunting grounds or experimental areas. As the Camp Cretaceous clip winds down, the Spinosaurus rushes the kids to eat them in a desert setting, leaving fans shocked, as it hasn't been seen since Jurassic Park III.

In that film, the Spinosaurus was quite a menace, hunting Dr. Alan Grant and Eric Kirby's family down, including the mercenaries hired to rescue the boy. The beast proved to be a behemoth, attacking planes, chomping on soldiers and even using its roar to fell a plane from a tree so it could eat the folks inside. To make it worse, it marked the humans and followed them around the entire movie, stealthily stalking its prey in a way the T-Rex never could. In addition, it swims and lurks in rivers, so that's a huge advantage.

And to top it off, when it faced the T-Rex to see which was Site B's true alpha, the Spinosaurus brutally snapped its neck, claiming its place atop the food chain. This creates an enticing prospect of a rematch, as this new island has a T-Rex, albeit a wounded one.

That said, what's surely going to be in focus this season is the teens trying to flee from the Spinosaurus. It's great at locking scents and the Camp Cretaceous trailer suggests it's going to be pursuing them at all costs. It leaves folks wondering if this is the same one that got brought over from Site B because that creature ended up running away due to a petrol leak and a fire started by Alan's team in the river so they could escape.

Hopefully, there aren't more because one's already a handful, but either way, Darius and co. will have to be resourceful, as the Spinosaurus is quicker, sneakier and a lot more vengeful than the T-Rex and other dinos they've encountered.

Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous Season 4 premieres Dec. 3 on Netflix.

Source: www.cbr.com/

Dinosaurs Engaged In Herd Living Much Earlier Than Expected

Saturday, November 13, 2021

Artistic reconstruction of a nest of Mussaurus patagonicus  Jorge Gonzalez

A new study published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports has found the earliest evidence of herd living among dinosaurs through the discovery of fossilized remains of sauropodomorphs, a species of large, long-necked herbivores living in the Mesozoic Era.

“Sauropodomorph dinosaurs dominated the herbivorous niches during the first 40 million years of dinosaur history (Late Triassic–Early Jurassic), yet palaeobiological factors that influenced their evolutionary success are not fully understood,” the study authors wrote. “For instance, knowledge of their behavior is limited, although herding in sauropodomorphs has been well documented in derived sauropods from the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous.”

A research team led by paleontologist Diego Pol from the Museum of Paleontology Egidio Feruglio discovered the fossilized skeletal remains of 80 individuals and over 100 eggs of the early sauropodomorph Mussaurus patagonicus in the Laguna Colorada Formation in Patagonia, Argentina.

By analyzing the size and type of bone tissue of the skeletal remains, the scientists identified a cluster of 11 juveniles of less than a year of age, nine specimens aged between a year old and adult, and two adults that were found closely together. These findings suggest that the presence of age-specific clusters of individuals in the same location could indicate that these dinosaurs lived in herds and primarily associated with others of their own age.

Since the rocks surrounding the remains appeared to be approximately 193 million years old, this is the earliest evidence of complex social behavior in dinosaurs, predating previous records by at least 40 million years.

According to the researchers, the evolution of complex social behavior among sauropodomorphs might have coincided with increases in body size that occurred between 227 and 208 million years ago. In order to meet the increased energy demands associated with larger body sizes, these dinosaurs might have needed to coordinate their behaviors by forming herds, and thus manage to forage over longer distances.

“The presence of sociality in different sauropodomorph lineages suggests a possible Triassic origin of this behavior, which may have influenced their early success as large terrestrial herbivores,” the authors concluded.

Source: www.earth.com/

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