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Wednesday, July 18, 2018
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Rapetosaurus Left Its Young to Fend for Themselves

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"Rapetosaurus krausei"

Dinosaurs, while they were definitely some of the greatest creatures to ever rule our planet, also happened to live very brutal lives. Their existence was pretty much a mix of roaming and attempting to eat or to not get eaten. Understandably, many of the creatures died very young, soon after birth.

And just like it happens nowadays in nature, there were countless nursing habits between the creatures. While some dinosaurs took care of their young until they were old enough to fend for themselves, others left them to fend for themselves very soon after they hatched from their eggs. But biology generally took care of that.

Rapetosaurus krausei

A sauropod, as well as one of the largest dinosaurs to ever walk the face of the Earth, the Rapetosaurus was a herbivorous animal in the same group as the Apatosaurus – the titanosaurs. While you might know the Apatosaurus by its old name, the Brontosaurus (which never existed, by the way), you most likely never heard about the Rapetosaurus because of its very poorly thought-out name. It doesn’t bode all that well in the media is all I’m saying.

Anyway, researchers found some very interesting fossils belonging to a baby Rapetosaurus, and they uncovered some pretty shocking facts regarding the creatures’ rearing habits. These discoveries came as a result of a team of researchers pinning down the age of the baby titanosaur from an old rock in Madagascar estimated to be around 70 to 66 million years old.

Built like tanks

By analyzing the bone structure of the tiny dinosaur, the team determined that the creature was somewhere around 39 to 77 days old when it died. But that’s not the real shocker. The real shocker is that the analysis suggests that the animal grew from 7.5 pounds at birth (3.4 kg) to 88 pounds (40 kg) only a few weeks later.

Additionally, the bone structure had already starting rearranging itself to more closely resemble that of an adult. This means that the creatures were designed to start changing their bodies to support their adult weight before they even turned a month old. Plus, evidence showed that the baby dinosaur had already roamed for a while quite actively before it died.

Living on their own

Actually, the bones even showed what killed the creature –starvation. That, combined with all the other factors the team of scientists discovered, led them to believe that the Rapetosaurus left its young to fend for themselves pretty much as soon as they were hatched.

While this might have some pretty traumatizing implications in regards to “The Land Before Time”, it also showcases how different the rearing behaviors of dinosaurs actually were. Plus, it also showcases the hugely diverse process of evolution, as we are shown how a baby started changing its bones to supports its soon-to-come immense adult weight.

Image source: Wikimedia

Planet Nine is Taking Heat

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"Planet Nine"

Planet Nine’s existence must be proven with physical evidence.

Lately, Planet Nine is taking heat for almost every disastrous event that has happened in our solar system. Some say the eluding planet is to blame for the extinction of dinosaurs, some that it might cause our extinction. Others are just convinced that the evidence of the planet’s existence are forged, others that NASA is hiding valuable information from them. Whatever the theory, Planet Nine is taking heat.

Schrödinger’s Planet

In 1935, Erwin Schrödinger, an Austrian physicist performed an experiment in order to scientifically demonstrate the term “paradox”. In a view to do that, Schrödinger placed a cat and a flask of poison in a box.

Now, while the cat was in the box, nobody knew if the container was broken or not, thus if the cat is alive or not. Before opening the container, the cat was both dead and alive at the same time. The only way to find out the truth was to open the box.

This is exactly what is currently happening with Planet Nine. The elusive celestial body exists and doesn’t exist at the same time. While there are several indirect pieces of evidence of its existence, the researchers never managed to get a glimpse of it, thus making the planet a paradox.

Planet Nine Destroyed the Dinosaurs

A former astrophysicist, now college math professor, is convinced that Planet Nine is to blame for the mass extinction of the dinosaurs.

According to his theory, which is based on previous Planet Nine research, the elusive planet has a very wide orbit around the Sun. It takes a couple of thousands of years for it to complete a single rotation. And during this time, the planet passes through the Kuiper belt.

Now, according to the theory, the last time when Planet Nine passed through the debris belt that lies beyond Neptune, it interfered with the trajectory of several comets.

These bodies then started heading towards the Sun, some even crashing into different planets that got in their way. The math professor believes that one, or several of those comets, directly caused the dinosaur extinction.

Either by hitting the planet or by disintegrating near the atmosphere, the cloud of dust and debris caused by the comets stopped the Sun’s rays from reaching the Earth.

This meant that plants died, oxygen supplies were momentarily cut off, and the mega fauna that roamed the Earth vanished, leaving only several living organisms behind them.

Ever since the a paper stating its existence was published this February, Planet Nine is taking heat for all of the bad things that have ever happened in our solar system.

Image source: www.wikimedia.org

Paleontologists Exposed Oldest & Tiny Plant-Eating Large Horned Dinosaurs In North America

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Large-Horned-Dinosaurs

Paleontologists in south Montana in North America have recently discovered the fossil of a horned dinosaur, which has a 3 inch long beaked skull and which they believe is the oldest proof ever of a horned dinosaur in the United States. Although it’s small, the skull of the dinosaur is helpful in filling the gaps in the history of horned creatures.

According to the paleontologists, this is the first horned dinosaur of the Early Cretaceous period (about 113 to 105 million years ago) which can be identified to its species. The end of that period was a time of essential diversification for dinosaurs with horns. The dinosaur, which is called Aquilops americanus, had a nose like a beak and sharply pointed cavities on its cheeks. The horny creature was probably the size of a crow.

The jaw and skull of Aquilops americanus were discovered by Scott Madsen back in the year 1977 in what is known as the Cloverly Formation of southern Montana.

Paleontologist Andrew Farke said, “Scott initially thought it was generic, plant-eating dinosaur but it turned out it was one of these early horned dinosaurs. That is a really exciting find.”

James I. Kirkland, the state paleontologist at the Utah Geological Survey said, “Up to this point, all that was known for horned dinosaurs were just isolated teeth and fragment bones. This new finding is the first one that allows us to say exactly what kinds of horned dinosaurs lived in North America about 108 million years ago.”

Scientists Discovered the Fossil, Proving the Lineage Between Dinosaurs and Ichthyosaurs. 

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ichthyosaur

Scientists have discovered the fossil record, which was the missing link between an ancient aquatic dolphin like predator and some ancestors called as Ichthyosaurs. These Ichthyosaurs used to live on earth, a long back. Scientists reported that these Ichthyosaurs used to live in sea water, where the dinosaurs evolved from land animals and returned to water, over a long period of time.

Although the lineage had been suspected by the paleontologists for many years, but still the fossil record is not very clear. Researcher speculated that the lineage exists between the land creatures and their ocean going descendants.

Researchers from University of California,Davis found the clear link in the form of a fossil, between the two animals in China in 2011. The fossil is reported to be 248 million years old. The University named it as Cartorhynchus lenticarpus.

Earlier there was no fossil evidence to prove their transition from land to sea, until the discovery in China’s Anuhi Province. On the contrary. Ryosuke Motani, professor of planetary sciences at the University of California reported, “But now we have this fossil showing the transition. Unlike later ichthyosaurs completely adapted to a life at sea, it possessed unusually large and flexible flippers, like a modern-day seal, with flexible wrists that would have allowed it to crawl on the ground. There’s nothing that prevents it from coming onto land.”

It is pertinent to mention here that Ryosuke is the lead author of the study. He further stated that, “And rather than strictly terrestrial or marine, the creature was a true amphibian.”

It sounds reasonable, as the amphibians can switch between both the habitats. They can survive on land and water both. The lead author also reported that the fossil in china fits the picture very nicely.

As per his statement, “The discovery could be a problems for creationists who’ve tried to suggest the creatures’ developing “backward” from land animals to sea creatures somehow disproves evolution. Many creationists have tried to portray ichthyosaurs, as being contrary to evolution. We knew based on their bone structure that they were reptiles, and that their ancestors lived on land at some time, but they were fully adapted to life in the water. So creationists would say, well, they couldn’t have evolved from those reptiles, because where’s the link?”

He reported that, “after a long period, we have finally found the long missed fossil, which is one and a half feet long. It has finally filled the evolutionary gap of the fossil record.

Motani further reported that he is looking for more fossils to improve the record and is also willing to find out the direct ancestors of  Cartorhynchus lenticarpus. He suspects that those ancestors would be amphibians as well, but spent more time on land.

Dinosaurs Interaction: Prehistoric Tooth Key In Understanding

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dinosaurs-prehistoric-tooth-key

According to the recent reports, researchers of Virginia University have found around 210 million years old fossil portraying exactly like: Phytosaur, a dominant Triassic Period Aquatic Predator’s tooth rooted in the thigh of its dry land counterpart, Rauisuchid.

Michelle Stocker, (a vertebrate paleontologist with the Virginia Tech’s Department of Geosciences) stated that, “In the ancient times, Phytosaurs were believed to be the prevailing aquatic predators having the same big size similar to contemporary crocodiles. Though, we were able to give the first proof they attacked on both aquatic and huge terrestrials prey.”

On the other hand, the Rauisuchids were not slump. It has the ability to stand 4 feet high at the hip and believed to be 25 feet long. The tooth of the Phytosaur was discovered, embedded in the 2 inches inside rauisuchid bone, however was cured. The researcher thought that, the rauisuchid actually survived after the attack. They further told that such cases are quite rare.

The researchers reproduce the bone and tooth, by using CT scans and 3D printer. According to the evidences, there were signs of multiple attacks and the rooted tooth was still present in thighs. Scientists also re-analyzed that, what the Triassic Period food chain may have looked like.

Sterling Nesbitt says that, from a few shallow marks and a tooth in a bone, 210mn years ago, we think it is amazing that we were able to recreate a part of an ancient food web. He says that, these careful observations can reveal a lot of important discoveries which we can’t even think about.

The dichotomy among the earthly and aquatic ecosystems should be re-analyzed, said by Stocker. Where it was previously assumed that, these two were separated from each other, now we found that, these two may have been crossed over.

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