Hairy Museum of Natural History

A few paleontology posts of note have sprung up within the past 24 hours or so…

Laelaps takes a look at pachycephalosaurs, and the possibility that three named genera of these thick-headed dinosaurs might actually represent three growth stages of a single species.

Zach reviews the Troödontidae, which paleontologists suspect filled the niche of the skinny, brainy outcasts compared to their more popular dromaeosaur cousins.

And Amanda shows off a few stunning works-in-progress at the Self-Designed Student household: a lovely Triceratops skeleton, and the “Pteranodon jeebus,” a fantastic paleo-icon sure to inspire praise among the fossiliferous faithful.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Paleo-Pop, Webbery.

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Several interesting tidbits of paleo news have been reported this week:

First up, a fossil claw of the eurypterid (sea scorpion) Jaekelopterus rhenaniae could have come from the largest arthropod that ever lived. The claw, described in Biology Letters, measures 46 cm in length, and presumably was part of a Jaekelopterus individual 2.5 meters (8.2 feet) long. The story has been well-covered by National Geographic News, The Loom, and Palaeoblog.

This week’s issue of the journal Science has a few brief articles on research presented at last month’s Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Annual Meeting. One provocatively titled story, “Did Horny Young Dinosaurs Cause Illusion of Separate Species?”, reports on the work of John Horner, Mark Goodwin, and Holly Woodward, which suggests that the spiky-headed pachycephalosaurs Dracorex hogwartsia and Stygimoloch spinifer might, in fact, be juvenile forms of the knobby domehead Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis. Update (11/24): Manabu Sakamoto has a summary of Horner et al.’s presentation up at his blog, Raptor’s Nest.

Finally, researchers at the Royal Tyrrell Museum have announced the discovery of a new ceratopsian dinosaur: Eotriceratops xerinsularis (ee-oh-try-SAIR-ah-tops zeer-in-soo-LAIR-iss), the “Dawn Three-horned face from Dry Island (Buffalo Jump Provincial Park)”. This 68,000,000 year old dinosaur is a couple of million years older than Triceratops, and it may be the ancestor of that well-known genus. Eotriceratops and Triceratops shared several features such as large brow horns and a solid frill, but Eotriceratops also possessed some more primitive characteristics than its younger relative, according to this story in the Edmonton Journal. The three-meter-long skull of Eotriceratops (reconstructed in this photo) would seem to put it in the running for the largest head of any terrestrial animal, alongside other ceratopsian contenders such as Torosaurus and Pentaceratops.

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Cretaceous, Devonian, Dinosaurs, Invertebrates, Recent Discoveries.

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The sauropod news is coming in fast and furious today, but at the moment I only have time for the briefest of comments.

Mike Taylor and Darren Naish have described a new genus and species of sauropod, Xenoposeidon proneneukos (ZEE-no-puh-SYE-d’n pro-nen-YOO-koss), “the forward-sloping, strange earth-shaker”, based on a single bizarre vertebra from East Sussex, England. Darren and Mike have it covered on Tetrapod Zoology and at SV-POW!, the paper is available to download here, along with supplemental information, and spiffy introduction to the fellow here.

Also in the news, a team of scientists led by Paul Sereno have described the absolutely bizarre cranial anatomy and possible feeding habits of the rebbachisaurid sauropod Nigersaurus taqueti. The paper is freely accessible through PLOS-ONE, a Nigersaurus homepage is here, the press release is here, and the story is currently covered at A Blog Around the Clock and Laelaps. I’m looking forward to reading more about this one.

Check out Laelaps for more details about these stories (and a whole slew of sauropod posts today).

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs.

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Halloween week seems like a good time to show off this Deinonychus skull I drew up a few months back. My coworker David Baccadutre was looking for a stylized skull (similar to the Titanophoneus in the HMNH logo) for a graphic to put on the side of his Mini Cooper, and after thinking about it for a bit, he decided a speedy little dromaeosaur would fit the bill. I did a couple sketches of the skull in 3/4 view, worked up the final drawing in Adobe Illustrator, and passed the artwork along to him.

He worked up the final graphic, “Dino’d by Matt Celeskey,” and had it printed up as a magnetic decal. A picture of the graphic in situ is shown below:

And here’s David with his spiffy new ride:

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Friends of the HMNH.

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A couple of new critters have popped up in the news of late:

First, Gryposaurus monumentensis, a new species of hook-beaked hadrosaur from the Kaiparowits Formation in southern Utah. The paper describing this new dinosaur is available online here, both The Ethical Palaeontologist and Palaeoblog have picked up the story, and the BBC News article contains a colorful restoration by artist Larry Felder.

Less well-covered in the news, but every bit as interesting, is the announcement of a new therizinosaur from China. I haven’t seen the paper yet, but the Carnegie Museum’s press release (.doc download) claims that Suzhousaurus megatherioides (”sloth-like reptile from Suzhou”) was a giant Asian relative of Nothronychus mckinleyi (”McKinley’s sloth-claw”), a therizinosaur known from fossils found in the American southwest. Mark Klinger’s restoration gives a good impression of these strange animals, characterized by wide hips, long arms, and massive claws.

In other paleo website news, Darren Naish, Matt Wedel, and Mike Taylor have started up what might be the ultimate niche-blog: Sauropod Vertebra Picture of the Week, or SV-POW! for short. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

And finally, it looks like Laelaps is making the leap over to ScienceBlogs.com. Congrats to Brian Switek, who’s done an excellent job of promoting paleontology throughout the blogosphere!

—Matt Celeskey.

File under: Cretaceous, Dinosaurs, Recent Discoveries.

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