What Caused the Dinosaur Stampede?
In Outback Australia fossilised footprints tell a tale of utter chaos. Hundreds of dinosaurs fleeing for their lives. 100,000 million years later, a team of scientists are on a quest to find out who or what made them run.
One of the most recently revised cases involved the approximately 100-million-year-old Lark Quarry in Australia. This place, an immense tracksite, is said to preserve the signs of a seldom-seen dinosaur stampede. The old story went something like this. A huge aggregation of small, bipedal dinosaurs were hanging out along the shore of an ancient lake. The small dinosaurs had no idea they were being watched by hungry eyes. Without warning, a huge carnivorous dinosaur burst from its cover in a nearby stand of trees. Little dinosaurs scattered everywhere, leaving behind evidence of a dinosaur stampede.
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Geothermal Town
Nangong Village in China has plugged into the earth's geothermal power to heat up their water, transforming a rural farming village into a modern community with hot water in every home -- not to mention greenhouses and a tropical spa.
Paleontologists Track Dinosaurs Near Las Vegas
The track of an Early Jurassic theropod dinosaur at St. George, Utah's Dinosaur Discovery Site. This track is of the same general type and close of the age of the tracks recently found near Las Vegas. Photo by the author.
Earlier this month, paleontologists from around the world convened in Las Vegas for the 71st annual Society of Vertebrate Paleontology conference. Preliminary findings were shared, new discoveries were presented, and researchers caught up with friends and colleagues, but not all the news came from the meeting halls. Various field trips held just before the conference introduced paleontologists to the geology and paleontology in the vicinity of Las Vegas, Arizona, and southern Utah. One of them confirmed the traces of a dinosaur not far from the bright lights of the Las Vegas strip.
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Non-Avian Dinosaur Eats Avian Dinosaur
A Microraptor catches a prehistoric bird, based on bird bones found within one Microraptor specimen. Art by Brian Choo and from O'Connor et al., 2011.
In life, Microraptor gui must have been an elegant dinosaur. This small, sickle-clawed dromaeosaurid was covered in plumage, including long feathers along its arms and legs. We know this thanks to the exquisite preservation of multiple Microraptor specimens found in the roughly 120-million-year-old strata of northeastern China. But feathers aren’t the only delicate dinosaur features that remained intact during the process of death, burial and fossilization. In at least one Microraptor specimen, paleontologists have found scraps of the dinosaur’s last meal.
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Loch Ness Monster-Like Animal Filmed in Alaska?
The alleged sea serpent has a long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes and back bumps that stick out of the water.
A still from a video that claims to show footage of Alaska's version of a Loch Ness monster.
A video from 2009 shows something mysterious moving across the surface of the sea that resembles an Alaskan version of the Loch Ness monster.
Some are claiming that the animal is a "Cadborosaurus," a type of reptile or lizard that got its name from Cadboro Bay, in British Columbia. They say that what's in the video is a sea serpent that dwells in the North Pacific and possibly other regions.
Accounts generally describe it as having a long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes, and back bumps that stick out of the water.
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Oil Fight: Conservationists vs. Shell in Alaska
Green groups worry how oil drilling may affect whales and seals; feds say any risk is negligible.
- By Eric Niiler
The endangered bearded seal is one mammal that lives in the area that conservationists are concerned might be affected by Shell's plans.
Federal officials say oil drilling in the Arctic Ocean will have "a negligible impact" on the region's endangered whales and seals, but conservationists say the report fails to account for the long-term effects of oil development on marine wildlife and ignores lessons from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The National Marine Fisheries Service released a 54-page report assessing the risks to marine mammals from drilling planned for several sites in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas north of Alaska. Shell wants to drill beginning in July 2012.
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Focus Earth: Nuclear Power, Safer? Cleaner?
France uses nuclear energy to power 80 percent of its country, and Bob Woodruff talks with the president of the leading French company, Areva, which thinks it can help power plants in the U.S. become cleaner, safer, and more efficient.
http://planetgreen.discovery.com
Notable Feathered Dinosaurs: Falcarius
Name:
Falcarius (Greek for "sickle bearer"); pronounced fal-cah-RYE-us
Habitat:
Woodlands of North America
Historical Period:
Early Cretaceous (130-125 million years ago)
Size and Weight:
About 13 feet long and 500-1,000 pounds
Diet:
Plants
Distinguishing Characteristics:
Long tail and neck; long claws on hands
About Falcarius:
In 2005, paleontologists unearthed a fossil treasure trove in Utah, the remains of hundreds of previously unknown, medium-sized dinosaurs with long necks and long, clawed hands. Analysis of these bones revealed something extraordinary: Falcarius, as the genus was soon named, was a theropod, technically a therizinosaur, that had evolved in the direction of a vegetarian lifestyle. (The giveaways are this dinosaur's teeth, which were adapted to tearing vegetation, and its unusually large gut.)
Like other small- to medium-sized theropods, Falcarius is believed to have sported a coat of feathers, and may represent yet another link in the long chain connecting dinosaurs and birds. Its closest relative was another bizarre dinosaur, the larger (and even goofier-looking) Therizinosaurus.
Like other small- to medium-sized theropods, Falcarius is believed to have sported a coat of feathers, and may represent yet another link in the long chain connecting dinosaurs and birds. Its closest relative was another bizarre dinosaur, the larger (and even goofier-looking) Therizinosaurus.
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Check out Bob's Dinosaur Blog !
Bob Strauss is a freelance writer and book author; one of his specialties is explaining scientific concepts and discoveries to both a lay and professional audience.
Bob Strauss is the author of two best-selling question-and-answer books that range across the expanse of science, biology, history and culture: The Big Book of What, How and Why (Main Street, 2005) and Who Knew? Hundreds & Hundreds of Questions & Answers for Curious Minds (Sterling Innovation, 2007).
Achieving Universal Energy Access
Access to clean and affordable modern energy is critical to fostering lasting social and economic development and to achieving the Millennium Development Goals. The UN Foundation is working with UN-Energy on a campaign to achieve universal energy access by 2030. Ms. Richenda Van Leeuwen, Senior Director of Energy and Climate at the UN Foundation, speaks about growing green in a crowded, carbon-constrained world in this video.
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Focus Earth: Shell Oil Company, Are They Greenwashing?
Focus Earth's, Bob Woodruff interviews Marvin Odum, President of Shell Oil to find out more about their green initiatives. Are they really green or are they greenwashing and destroying the environment?
http://planetgreen.discovery.com