Dinosaur news has been a little slow over the past few weeks, although there’s quite a few articles about the discovery of the world’s oldest known dinosaur embryos, which is pretty cool.
BUT! This is freaking AWESOME! Scientists have discovered that some giant pterosaurs (the size of giraffes!) were able to launch themselves into flight by pole-vaulting over their wings:
They said they had disproved claims that enormous prehistoric winged beasts could not fly, with new evidence showing how they managed to get themselves airborne.
They found that the reptiles took off by using the powerful muscles of their legs and arms to push off from the ground, effectively pole-vaulting over their wings.
Once airborne they could fly huge distances and even cross continents, the scientists claim.
Go read the whole article and check out the illustrations showing the pole-vaulting maneuver and size comparison.
(Thanks to Slog-tipper Shena!)
I have a bad feeling about this…
OK, this is indeed very cool!
How long before such a maneuver turns up in a sci-fi movie?
PTEROSAURS ARE NOT DINOSAURS.
Fuck’s sake.
@3 – Yeah, but they’re dinosaurs.
@3 I know, I know, I know, but “Today’s Fossil News” or “Today’s Prehistoric Creature News” doesn’t have the same ring to it. I apologize.
Yeah, yeah. Technically they’re not dinosaurs. But c’mon, unless you’re in full-rigor science mode, maintaining that distinction is kind of prickish. Like insisting that tomatoes are fruits, not vegetables.
Not really dinosaur “news,” but Marc Maron just posted his podcast recorded at the Creation Museum in Kentucky, the whole goal of which (according to Maron) seems to be to indicate that the Flintstones really could happen. The best way to visit a creation museum is with Marc Maron, I think.
Boy, you’ve gotta really admire God for this. To go to all that trouble 6,000 years ago just to bury it in the ground. I’m impressed.
I want to ride on one of those so bad.
They have tested flight in raptors with wings on the fore limbs and back and discovered that they, too, vaulted with their legs off tree trunks and the two sets of wings gave it lift.
The big news in Dinosaurs is really that they were killed off by mammals… but hey, there is more money in preventing a fantasy apocalypse then warning people about brain sucking weasels.
http://danrand.blogspot.com/
@5: How about “Today’s Archosaur News”? (Of course, that would be inaccurate for ichthyosaurs, pliosaurs, and plesiosaurs.)
@11: I’m sorry, the vast amounts of collected evidence pointing to climactic disruption as a result of the Chicxulub impact outweigh your half-baked and data-unsupported hypotheses about ovivorous mammals.
I wish they would hurry up and re-animate some old DNA for these fuckers. Would love to be able to go to a real Jurassic Park and eat a real Bronto-Burger.
@13 It tastes like chicken. In fact, it is!
@12
FOSSILS MAY ALTER MAMMAL TIMELINE.(NEWS)
Article from:The Cincinnati Post (Cincinnati, OH) Article date:December 12, 2001 Associated Press
New fossils of a chipmunk-sized animal that lived about 85 million years ago suggest that placental mammals arose much earlier than is generally believed and thrived for millions of years alongside dinosaurs.
Paleontologists who analyzed about 45 jawbone and skull fragments of a long-snouted mammal called Kulbeckia conclude that it was an early relative of rabbits and rodents.
To date, the oldest fossils widely agreed to be those of placental mammals – which nourish their young in the uterus until they are born fully formed – date to 65 million years ago.
That’s the same time that an asteroid impact is believed to have wiped out the …