At a remote and barren Sahara desert site in Niger, scientists have unearthed fossils of a new species of Spinosaurus, among the biggest of the meat-eating dinosaurs, notable for its large blade-shaped head crest and jaws bearing interlocking teeth for snaring slippery fish.

It prowled a forested inland environment and strode into rivers to catch sizable fish like a modern-day wading bird — a “hell heron,” as one of the researchers put it, considering it was about 40 feet long and weighed 5-7 tons.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7699401

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29285

A fossil on display at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies reveals how dinosaurs in the Tyrannosaurus genus may have subdued prey, and the specimen is the focus of a new collaborative research publication between scientists at MSU and the University of Alberta in Canada. The giant carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus roamed the region that is now Montana at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. It lived alongside other large dinosaurs, including plant-eaters like Triceratops and the duck-billed Edmontosaurus.

In 2005, a nearly complete Edmontosaurus skull was found in the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The skull is now housed in the paleontology collection at Museum of the Rockies, and it contains a telling detail: lodged inside its face is the tooth of a tyrannosaur.

Now on display in the museum's Hall of Horns and Teeth, the skull became the focus of a collaboration between University of Alberta doctoral student Taia Wyenberg-Henzler and Museum of the Rockies' Curator of Paleontology John Scannella. The results of their research are published in the journal PeerJ.

"Although bite marks on bones are relatively common, finding an embedded tooth is extremely rare," said Wyenberg-Henzler. "The great thing about an embedded tooth, particularly in a skull, is it gives you the identity of not only who was bitten but also who did the biting. This allowed us to paint a picture of what happened to this Edmontosaurus, kind of like Cretaceous crime scene investigators."

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7487509

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/23531

Australian and New Zealand scientists have unearthed the remains of ancient wildlife in a cave near Waitomo on Aotearoa's North Island, the first time a large number of million-year-old fossils have been found—including an ancestor of the large flightless Kākāpō parrot.

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What a title!

My son and I found this next to a reservoir in a super crumbly wall. We gave it to the rangers (we weren't allowed to keep, since it was on public land).

We also found this,but have no idea what it is:

I've asked a couple paleontologists and they also weren't sure.

Camarasaurus tooth found by my son while volunteering on a dig site on the Utah/Colorado border this summer.

The paleontologist on site said it looked like an adult as it's very worn/square. The blacker parts are likely the enamel.

Camarasaurus tooth found by my son while volunteering on a dig site on the Utah/Colorado border this summer.

The paleontologist on site said it looked like an adult as it's very worn/square. The blacker parts are likely the enamel.

The fossilised remains of two dinosaurs locked in combat have unleashed a fresh drama, suggesting diminutive specimens thought to be Tyrannosaurus rex teenagers could instead be separate, smaller species.