Matthew M. Rhodes​, Donald M. Henderson, Philip J. Currie, 2021 VIEW ARTICLE The post Maniraptoran pelvic musculature highlights evolutionary patterns in theropod locomotion on the line to birds appeared first on Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

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Richard T. McCrea, Lisa G. Buckley, James O. Farlow, Martin G. Lockley, Philip J. Currie, Neffra A. Matthews, S. George Pemberton, 2014 View Article The post A ‘Terror of Tyrannosaurs’: The First Trackways of Tyrannosaurids and Evidence of Gregariousness and Pathology in Tyrannosauridae appeared first on Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum.

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(R)Evolution! ‘Chickenosaurus’ and the Science of ‘Evo-Devo’ Occasionally in nature, animals are born with mutations that cause them to exhibit ancestral traits. For example, snakes can be born with legs, whales with tiny hindlimbs, horses with toes, and even humans with tails. These traits, which occur in both plants and animals, are called ‘atavisms’ or...

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With the release of the recent Jurassic World movies and their memorable inclusion of the marine reptile Mosasaurus, it wouldn’t be surprising if this species and its mosasaurid relatives are experiencing a real uptick in popularity with the general public right now. However, like all things relating to movie depictions of extinct creatures, what you see on screen and what the fossils tell us are two different things. Despite the film-based confusion, it’s nice to…

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Like all animals, dinosaurs had to have babies to ensure the survival of their genes, and all known baby dinosaurs came from eggs. This might seem obvious, but when you stop and think about the trials and challenges of producing and tending to eggs with viable offspring inside, the more interesting and alive extinct dinosaurs become. A lot of the study of dinosaur reproduction is controversial; conjecture based on a limited fossil record and knowledge…

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All over the world, as long as different people have been looking down at the ground and recognizing shapes in the rock, we were probably seeing dinosaur bones. Whether certain ancient cultures had some idea that they were looking at the remains of long-dead animals, and whether these remains influenced the creation of mythological creatures, remains conjectural. The thing that’s important to remember, however, is there was once a time when no one really knew…

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Everybody loves dromaeosaurs. With their sickle-claws, deadly teeth, and sleek build it’s hard not to find them cool. The very image of these dinosaurs has turned them into movie stars, but they weren’t always so beloved by kids and monster fans worldwide. Around the time that Jurassic Park turned ‘raptors’ (the popular term for dromaeosaurs, although it’s only properly applied to modern birds of prey) into household names, there was a big dromaeosaur boom in…

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In 1841 the Victorian anatomist Sir Richard Owen established the taxon ‘Dinosauria’ to describe a group of distinct fossil reptile species from England. The term ‘dinosaur’ is a combination of two Ancient Greek words which are, according to Owen, ‘deinos’ meaning ‘fearfully great’ and ‘sauros’ meaning ‘lizard’ (Owen, 1841). You’ll often see ‘deinos’ translated as ‘terrible’, but it’s meant more as ‘terror-inducing to behold’ more than terrible in a mean, nasty, savage way. We can’t…

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Let’s face it, we might not ever fully and completely know what every species of non-avian dinosaur looked like when it was alive. Heck, we probably won’t even discover every dinosaur that ever lived. Fossilizing is all about dying in the right place at the right time, and entire species probably came and went without leaving any trace of a geological record. It might seem sad that some dinosaurs lived and died with nothing to…

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There’s this idea that, from about 233 to 66 million years ago, the planet belonged to the dinosaurs. That from the late Triassic till the end of the Cretaceous the world was exclusively the domain of this lineage of reptiles. Some even think that all the other types of animals that inhabited Earth during this time are also called ‘dinosaurs’ simply due to the fact that they existed during this key time span (see our…

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