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January 25, 2018

The Dinosaur with "Terrible Hands"

Sometimes, a new species of dinosaur is discovered by a reduced set of bones. These bones can be enough to create a general image of the animal, or on the contrary it can only serve to stop opening infinite questions. The story of the Deinocheirus "terrible hands" was one of those cases surrounded by questions. Hand of Deinocheirus In 1965 the sands of the Gobi desert gave scientists a mystery, the fossil bones of a huge dinosaur: A few vertebrae and what appeared to be two almost complete arms. The authors pointed out that a load of the...

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December 22, 2016

Dinosaur Sounds Unveiled: How Scientists Figured It Out In 8 Facts

Diplodocus Illustration, by Chris Tomlin Hoots, booms and coos were more likely than Jurassic Park’s roars. As incredible as it sounds, paleontologists have made in recent years an educated guess about the sounds that dinosaurs emitted. We have collected all the references we found, in this single post. As you can see, their assumptions are mainly based on the 8 following facts: 1. Dinosaurs and Birds Shared Vocalization Fundamentals The most important assumption is that dinosaurs were the ancestors of birds. The transition lasted more than 150 million years. This is a proven fact and gives scientists a good base to...

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December 15, 2016

Guide - How To Identify Fossil Fakes: What You Need To Know

Being able to tell if a fossil is a fake specimen or not is a daunting task, especially for novice collectors. Given the high number of questions with regards to this topic, not only here but also in other forums, I've decided to create a guide to help other collectors. And I've made it available for free obviously. There I have put pictures from specimens I've found during the years, and an extensive reference of dishonest practices that forgers use. The Most Useful Guide For Spotting Fossil Forgeries Professional Paleontology Tricks Explained in an Understandable Way Get your Free Copy:...

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November 29, 2016

The Plesiosaur That Survived Until 1977

The Plesiosaurs, those giant creatures with long neck and aerodynamic form who lived in the seas 65 million of years ago, are usually mistaken for the dinosaur. However, they belong to a different aquatic reptile family. Carcass caught by the Zuiyō Maru off the coast of New Zealand in 1977 The story I am about to tell is about Plesiosaurs, seas, and mystery. Otherwise, I wouldn't tell it! It was the 70s, 20th century, a small Japanese fish boat fishing around New Zealand caught with its nets a strange animal. The crew was astonished, they had never seen something like that....

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October 31, 2016

Spain's Most Complete Dinosaur

This gem was found in the quarry of Las Hoyas, Cuenca. We should speak shortly about that quarry, because there is still a lot to tell about it. It is a Barremian (early Cretaceous) site with an extraordinary fossil Lagerstätte. The preservation of the dinosaur fossils there is exceptional due to a series of convenient factors. It was discovered in the 80s and every summer there are organized Paleontology excavations. The hallmark of the dinosaurs found at Las Hoyas is their morphologic peculiarity, besides their excellent preservation. The name of this dinosaur gives us hints about this morphology: Concavenator corcovatus, "the hunchback...

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