Prehistoric News

Mysteriously Intact T. Rex Tissue Finally Explained

The controversial discovery of 68-million-year-old soft tissue from the bones of a Tyrannosaurus rex finally has a physical explanation. According to new research, iron in the dinosaur’s body preserved the tissue before it could decay.

The research, headed by Mary Schweitzer, a molecular paleontologist at North Carolina State University, explains how proteins — and possibly even DNA — can survive millennia. Schweitzer and her colleagues first raised this question in 2005, when they found the seemingly impossible: soft tissue preserved inside the leg of an adolescent T. rex unearthed in Montana.

Prehistoric News Roundup Vol.2

I’ve covered a bunch of bunk type news of late. So I’m going to cover some fun stuff for a bit and get some real news into this blog. Today’s theme is Prehistory.

And, we have a surprise visit from the Evolution vs. Creationism “debate”.

  • Creationism Creeping into Schools – FEB 15, 2013 08:00 AM // DISCOVERY NEWS
    Anti-science is all too common. 5 bills are proposed already. But it’s not just Creationism and Intelligent Design. Now it’s “Academic Freedom” to question things like Stem Cell Research or Climate Change. The bills want to give teachers the right to skip over units required by curriculum in favor of their own personal views.
  • Antiscience bills die in Arizona and Oklahoma – February 26, 2013 // By idoubtit
     Isn’t it shiny when things go so well? Of the 5 mentioned above on the 15th, 2 have lost! This is why you need to watch these cases and make your voices heard in response to them! Hopefully the other three will also get struck down!

Prehistoric News Roundup

Kitsu here once again, enjoying the fact that some interesting Dinosaur news is in the pipeline, and she has enough for a roundup specifically for it!

  • Biggest Dinos Had Tennis Ball-Sized Brains – JAN 24, 2013 08:55 AM ET // BY CHARLES Q. CHOI, OURAMAZINGPLANET
    Specially they’re talking about Ampelosaurus, a discovery from 2007, formerly called Titanosaur. Monstrous body. Tiny, tiny brain. Science has verified this and it’s a consistent link amongst the Sauropod dinosaurs.
  • Small, Meat-Eating Dino Count Suddenly Triples – JAN 24, 2013 12:43 PM ET // BY JENNIFER VIEGAS
    People looked at some teeth, which I don’t understand why this hadn’t already been done, and now the 7 species on record is replaced by a scientifically verified 16. This takes the total to 23. Way to go science! Don’t drop the ball for so long next time!
  • Tiny Feathered Dinosaur Found – JAN 28, 2013 11:20 AM ET // BY LIVESCIENCE
    Archaeopteryx has been gaining more and more company in the “feathered dinosaur” world for a long time, and this new discovery suggests that even Archaeopteryx’s name (meaning “First bird”) should be doubted. New discoveries from china show that feathers have been around, along with the avian body indicators, for a very long time.