10: The Day of the Asteroid When a great asteroid hit our planet 66 million
years ago, it wiped out every last dinosaur.
None of them saw it coming.
It was an absolute catastrophe, wiping out most of the creatures that had been living
and dominating the earth for over 170 million years.
But have you ever wondered what actually happened in the seconds, hours, and weeks after the
asteroid hit?
The world changed in a split second.
The extraterrestrial rock that hit our planet was over 6 miles (9.6 km) wide.
It crashed into what is today the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, creating a massive shockwave.The
impact crater was over 110 miles (177 km) in diameter.
It left a huge scar that’s partially covered today by the Gulf of Mexico.
By looking at the rock records, scientists are able to definitively detail the horrible
details of what followed the impact.
For example, we know that the impact was so intense and so much water was displaced that
within hours, a huge wave had already ripped apart and decimated everything on the coast.
The blast also set off a series of earthquakes and landslides thousands of miles away, with
each creating their own tsunami.
Within 10 hours, there were tsunamis, earthquakes, and even volcanoes being triggered all across
the globe.
Even worse was that particles of tiny rock and debris rose into the atmosphere.
These small pieces of matter are called spherules, and when they came back down, they carried
kinetic energy that was converted into heat.
40 minutes after impact, the entire globe was bathed in infrared radiation from all
these small particles falling from the atmosphere back to the surface.
What happened at that point was that the world caught fire.
Within one hour, the whole planet was a fireball.
That anything was able to survive these circumstances was rare and incredible, but the enormous
dinosaurs that had long dominated earth were wiped out in one big blast.
9: Rewriting History A new trove of dinosaur fossils may just rewrite
what we know about prehistory.
Researchers have found the most impressive cluster of dinosaur fossils in the country
of Italy.
At least seven different dinosaurs were excavated, including an almost complete skeleton of a
dinosaur scientists have named Bruno.
This Bruno, however, is one we do want to talk about.
These dinos were found at Villaggio del Pescatore, in the northeastern part of the country.
It's truly amazing because Italy isn't really known for their dinosaur fossils.
The country hasn’t produced much in the way of amazing dinosaur discoveries prior
to this particular discovery.
Yet Bruno is positively fascinating, a prehistoric reptile from the hadrosaur family.
You might recognize Bruno by a more commonly known name: duck-billed dinosaur.
This discovery is changing everything because scientists hadn't previously thought of the
region as being a source of dinosaur information or study.
However, the discovery of Bruno has proven that the Mediterranean was in fact riddled
with dinosaurs between 230 and 66 million years ago.
This particular specimen lived 80 million years before today, when the entire Mediterranean
region was just a series of small islands.
Scientists hadn't really thought these islands were suitable for supporting large breeds
of dinosaurs.
But it turns out the scientists were wrong.
There were once huge, duck-billed dinosaurs living in herds through the huge cluster of
islands, which would eventually turn into part of the European landmass as the water
level decreased millions of years later.
8: The Deaf Ankylosaur Scientists from Germany and Austria recently
studied the braincase of a European dinosaur, one you might recognize as an Ankylosaur.
These huge beasts could grow to over 24 feet (7.3 m) long, some of the largest herbivores
that ever existed.
The dinosaurs were living tanks, their bodies made of bony plates and spikes.
Some of them even had club tails.
Think of them as something looking a bit like a rhino mixed with an armadillo, only with
a giant mace on the ends of their tail that was used for defense.
Of course, there were different kinds of ankylosaurs.
It was the ankylosaurids that had club tails, while nodosaurids had super long spikes sticking
out of their necks and shoulders to give them extra defense.
But here's what the German and Austrian scientists recently learned: these dinosaurs were deaf.
Scientists figured this out by looking at multiple braincases as well as looking at
fossilized evidence of their inner ears.
Without getting too scientific, these dinosaurs had very little auditory capacity.
It's probably why they lived solitary lives.
While many dinosaurs lived in groups, ankylosaurs preferred to live alone.
These enormous creatures just kind of rambled around, mostly deaf, chomping on plants and
relying on their armor to protect them from predators since they couldn't exactly hear
them coming.
7: Unhatched Dino Babies A new discovery of an unhatched dinosaur egg
has shown a previously unknown link between ancient dinosaurs and modern birds.
The unhatched egg was found in the southern Chinese city of Ganzhou, nicknamed Baby Yingliang.
Even though it was found about 20 years ago, it's still one of the best-preserved dinosaur
eggs ever, complete with the embryo still inside.
It was only recently that researchers from China and Canada studied the fossil in detail
and then published their findings.
What they discovered was that dinosaurs and birds had an almost identical way of hatching
from their shells.
The fossilized dinosaur egg comes from 72 million years ago.
It's a creature called a theropod, with hollow bones and three-toed limbs.
As an example, the Tyrannosaurus rex was also a theropod.
This was an oviraptorosaur, about the size of a two-liter pop bottle while in the egg.
Canadian paleontologist Darla Zelenitsky called it truly spectacular, saying she had never
seen anything like it in all her years of study.
Now here's why the dinosaur egg is so important.
Until this was discovered, scientists had no idea how dinosaurs developed in their shells.
But with an entire embryo to look at, they were finally able to solve the mystery.
The posture of the dinosaur while sleeping in its egg is exactly the same as birds while
they form in their eggs.
The dino embryo has its head tucked and its spine bent against the narrow top of the egg.
Scientists call this position “tucking.”
And before now, they just assumed it was unique to birds.
The takeaway here is that dinosaurs and birds are scarily similar.
This egg shows just how closely related our modern birds are to extinct dinosaurs.
Pretty amazing!
6: The Biggest Dinosaur Paleontologists believe they have just identified
the biggest dinosaur that ever lived.
It was found in Argentina, and it was a beast of biblical proportions.
The previous title holder was a creature called the Argentinosaurus, also found in Argentina.
It was dug up back in 1993, estimated at around 100 feet (30.48 m) and upwards of 55 tons.
Then in 2017, that record was smashed by the Patagotitan, an even bigger monster found
in Patagonia.
And in 2022, the record has been smashed yet again.
The new dinosaur has yet to be named, with the discovery of its bones only just being
described in a research paper by paleontologist Alejandro Otero.
Alejandro and his colleagues excavated about two dozen vertebrae, a hip bone, and a shoulder
bone.
Judging by the bones, they believe the dinosaur dates back 98 million years and belongs to
the titanosaur family.
It was a herbivore with an extremely long neck related to the two previous record holders
for biggest dinosaur.
The major difference is that they believe it was slightly heftier than the Patagotitan.
The only issue scientists are having now is figuring out just exactly how big it was,
and if it really does deserve the title.
Earliest estimates place it at about 70 tons, with a length of 98 feet (29.8 m)
5: A Fearsome Predator A new and fearsome predatory dinosaur has
been discovered in Great Britain.
According to paleontologists, it's a very ancient relative of the famous velociraptor.
Sadly though, it didn’t quite look like what you might expect.
The dinosaur, newly named the Vectiraptor greeni, looked more like a bird.
It was found on the Isle of Wight, and dates back 100 million years.
Its fossilized bones were actually found by a local collector named Mick Green.
They were washed out from the rocks on the south coast of the island, a total fluke of
a discovery.
This interesting raptor came millions of years before the velociraptor, the famous dinosaur
introduced to the world in Jurassic Park.
It was more heavily built, about the size of a wolf, and had talons like an eagle that
it used to slash its prey.
But unlike eagles, the dinosaur had a mouth filled with serrated teeth for biting and
chewing.
And even though it looked like a bird, it didn't really take to the skies.
It instead ran through the ancient forests that covered the planet during the Early Cretaceous
period, 125 million years ago.
It belonged to the dromaeosaur family of raptors.
And no, it didn't look like a lizard.
In fact, here's an interesting piece of trivia for you.
Steven Spielberg consulted with paleontologists while working on the Jurassic Park movie,
asking them how to depict the creatures in his film.
They suggested he have the raptors covered in feathers just like they were in prehistoric
times.
But Steven opted for the reptilian look because he thought it would scare the audience more!
4: A Toothless Dinosaur Paleontologists have found evidence of a rare,
toothless dinosaur.
It was discovered in the Brazilian state of Parana, at a place called the Pterosaur Cemetery.
As you can probably guess, there have been a lot of pterosaurs found at this particular
fossil bed.
That's actually what made it such a big surprise when paleontologists found the fossil of a
creature with a beak like a parrot.
Even more surprising was that this creature wasn't a flying reptile like the paleontologists
were used to finding.
It was a new species of dinosaur, belonging to a group of carnivorous ceratosaurians.
The question quickly became: why did a carnivore have no teeth in its mouth?
The toothless dinosaur lived between 80 and 70 million years ago.
Geovane Alves de Souza with the National Museum believes the animal had no teeth because it
was remarkably similar to a modern crow or raven.
He suspects it wasn't a full carnivore, but an omnivore that could easily tear and shred
meat with a very sharp beak much like crows do today.
However, this animal had no wings and was roughly the size of a human being, making
it rather different from modern crows.
3: The Fossilized Butthole The discovery of a fossilized butthole has
given some rather bizarre insight into dinosaur mating.
Yes, you heard that right.
A dinosaur cloaca is changing how paleontologists look at some ancient species.
It was found in such great condition that biologists created a three-dimensional model
of it.
Oddly enough, the 120-million-year-old body part has shown how dinosaurs may have given
off mating calls.
Here's where things are going to get a little gross.
A cloaca, for those who don't know, is an opening that most non-mammal vertebrates have.
It's used for everything, including urinating and pooping, procreating, and reproduction.
Paleontologist Jakob Vinther called it, “the Swiss army knife of back ends.”
This particular cloaca belonged to a Psittacosaurus from China.
It was a small creature, about the size of a Labrador dog.
Its cloaca was a very distinct color, which scientists believe may have been used as a
signal for finding a mate.
Scientists now believe dinosaurs could have attracted mates by flashing their brightly
colored butts while also emitting what was probably a pretty nasty odor.
While we would regard this process as pretty off-putting, potential mates would be enticed
by the display.
What do you think of this unusual discovery?
2: Communicating Dinosaurs A new species of dinosaur has been identified
by paleontologists in Mexico.
It's unique in the fact that researchers say it was extremely communicative.
It used low frequency sounds to speak to its friends, almost in the exact same way that
modern elephants do today.
The dinosaur has been named Tlatophus galorum, a creature that went extinct 72 million years
ago in northern Mexico.
It was about 36 feet (10.97 m)long, with its tail making up nearly half its size.
Angel Alejandro Ramirez says he and his team of specialists believe the dinosaurs produced
low-frequency sounds that could travel several miles.
These are like whale calls, except on land, completely imperceptible to the human ear.
They were peaceful animals, but extremely talkative.
It's believed the ability to emit these low-frequency sounds may have evolved as a tactic to scare
away predators.
And as if this monster couldn't be any more fascinating, scientists also say it probably
saw the world in color just like modern birds do.
They theorized that the creatures looked similar to a combination of a chicken and a crocodile
that walked on two legs.
1: An Adorable Dino Scientists have finally discovered the most
adorable dinosaur ever.
While you may think dinosaurs are just big, scary beasts with sharp teeth and body armor,
that's not the case.
160 million years ago, there was a small dinosaur with wings, wide eyes, and a big smile.
It lived in the trees of what is now China, a tiny pterosaur that would have made Baby
Yoda look like Oscar the Grouch.
It was researchers from China and Japan who discovered the fossilized skeleton of this
adorable dinosaur in the Hubei province.
Sadly, the skeleton had been crushed under a rock, so it was very difficult to piece
the bones back together.
The team had to use X-ray imaging to reconstruct what the adorable dinosaur looked like.
It was kind of furry, it almost looked like a flying squirrel or a lemur, yet it had a
body more similar to a rodent.
It also shared traits with a salamander, having membranous wings and a wide, gaping mouth.
Researchers believe it was probably one of the most ancient relatives of our modern bats.
The adorable dino is called the Sinomacrops, and as far as dinos go, it’s the cutest
one yet discovered.
Which dinosaur is your absolute favorite, and why?
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