Tag: dinosaurs

Is Our Understanding of the Fossil Record Flawed? New Research Reveals a “Flood” of New Insights that Challenge Old Ideas

How paleontologists interpret the fossil record could be set to change, as new research demonstrates that floodwaters alter the disposition of bones in ways that run counter to decades of understanding.

During flood events, dinosaur and mammal bones are transported from their original locations by raging waters and buried elsewhere before becoming fossils. Researchers at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities reported their discovery of flood-based fossil transport in a recent paper published in Paleobiology.

An Unpredictable Environment

Decades ago, scientists conducted foundational research that is still used to understand how water flow affects bone transport prior to fossilization. Unfortunately, that work was limited in scope, focusing solely on typical river-flow conditions and not accounting for periodic disruptions. Despite a lack of technical understanding of how flooding affects bone placement, researchers have repeatedly invoked flooding to explain animal burials.

The new work focuses on the types of singular flooding events that can greatly alter the disposition of materials in sediment. To better understand this, they tested how bones move under the unsteady flow dynamics common in natural sheet floods.

“Paleontologists try to piece together the stories of how fossil sites actually came to be, sort of CSI style,” said lead author Michael Chiappone, a University of Minnesota Ph.D. candidate. “So we asked ourselves: ‘Are fossil organisms preserved in the places where they died? Or are we finding them after they’ve been moved some distance after death by scavengers or water flow?’”

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Dinosaur egg unearthed in perfect condition after 70M years— and it could hold genetic material

It was in egg-cellent condition.

Argentine paleontologists found a real diamond in the rough after happening across a perfectly preserved 70-million-year-old dinosaur egg during an excavation.

“It was a complete and utter surprise,” Gonzalo Leonel Muñoz, a Vertebrate paleontologist at the Bernardo Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, told National Geographic of the “spectacular” find. “‘It’s not uncommon to find dinosaur fossils, but the issue with eggs is that they are much less common.”

The team of paleontologists was reportedly conducting an excavation campaign in the fossil-rich region of Río Negro, when they stumbled across the primeval embryo.

While dinosaur eggs had been excavated in the area before, finding one this well-preserved was super rare.

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Conspiracy Theorist Decries Dinosaur Statue Outside McDonald’s in Arizona

A McDonald’s restaurant in Arizona found itself the target of an agitated conspiracy theorist who took issue with them having a massive dinosaur statue in front of the building because, he contends, such creatures never existed! The bizarre dispute reportedly began last month when a man named Josh Brown took to the Facebook group Christians Against Dinosaurs to express his concern about the huge Tyrannosaurus Rex which sits outside the establishment in Tuscon. “Please help! This McDonald’s has this dinosaur and refuses to remove it,” he declared, urging group members to “call the manager and demand the removal of this blasphemy!”

Brown, it would appear, is a believer in the fairly obscure, but still very real conspiracy theory that dinosaurs did not exist and that the creatures are actually a creation of nefarious forces intent on misleading the public about the ‘true’ history of the planet. While some suspected that the Facebook post was some kind of clever satirical message, it turns out that was not the case as a local media outlet tracked down the man behind the post and he confirmed that it was genuine.

“It seems to me that every dinosaur story and display or dinosaur-themed event is furthering the myth that the Earth is much older than the Bible says it is,” he explained, “the dinosaur should go unless they’re willing to compromise with a plaque of some kind stating that it’s a fictional character.” For their part, the McDonald’s at the center of the ‘controversy’ say that, despite Brown’s best efforts, they have yet to receive any complaints about the dinosaur statue other than his Facebook post and have no plans to remove it.

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