feathered dinos

[Mallon]

I stumbled across a neat little gallery on the Nat Geo website displaying pictures of feathered dinosaur fossils and the like:

Feather Evolution - Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

Enjoy.

 

[Assyrian]

Beautiful

 

[mark kennedy]

I stumbled across a neat little gallery on the Nat Geo website displaying pictures of feathered dinosaur fossils and the like:

Feather Evolution - Photo Gallery - National Geographic Magazine

Enjoy.

I got into the topic of the feathered dinosaurs years ago and found something that really blew me away. In this one fossil that was 150 million years old they found what they thought was a fossilized heart. It was from a peer reviewed scientific article so it's not just some fabrication from the many web pages on the subject.

I don't know but that seemed like an extraordinarily rare fossil.

That's all I had, just thought it was interesting.

Have a nice day
Mark

 

[Mallon]

I got into the topic of the feathered dinosaurs years ago and found something that really blew me away. In this one fossil that was 150 million years old they found what they thought was a fossilized heart. It was from a peer reviewed scientific article so it's not just some fabrication from the many web pages on the subject.

I don't know but that seemed like an extraordinarily rare fossil.

That's all I had, just thought it was interesting.

Have a nice day
Mark

Yeah, that's "Willo", the Thescelosaurus. The paper was published in Science, but dissenting views that the "heart" is actually just a concretion have also been published.

 

[Assyrian]

ah... a heart of stone.

 

[mark kennedy]

Yeah, that's "Willo", the Thescelosaurus. The paper was published in Science, but dissenting views that the "heart" is actually just a concretion have also been published.

Its just that I had never heard of a fossilized organ before, then to think that it might be 150 million years old. If that doesn't throw you for a loop your not paying attention.

 

[ActuallyThinking]

From that site: "still unresolved debate over the origin of one of nature's most elegant inventions: the feather"

Science fiction is fun! Take pictures of real birds, fossilized feathers, questionable empressions that allegedly show feathers on dinosaurs and presto - Evolution is a fact!!!

 

[Mallon]

Its just that I had never heard of a fossilized organ before, then to think that it might be 150 million years old. If that doesn't throw you for a loop your not paying attention.

The encasement of the heart by sediment and its subsequent permineralization doesn't take 150 million years. The fossil may be 150 million years old, but it doesn't take that long to fossilize.

 

[Mallon]

From that site: "still unresolved debate over the origin of one of nature's most elegant inventions: the feather"

Science fiction is fun! Take pictures of real birds, fossilized feathers, questionable empressions that allegedly show feathers on dinosaurs and presto - Evolution is a fact!!!

Good to see you're so familiar with the extensive literature. You're really living up to your name!

 

[matthewgar]

Hadn't they sorta found one time a fossilized brain kinda? Where the inside of the skull had fossilized in a way that it left the basic shape of the brain?

 

[mark kennedy]

Hadn't they sorta found one time a fossilized brain kinda? Where the inside of the skull had fossilized in a way that it left the basic shape of the brain?

Not exactly, Taung is from an endocast. It was excavated from a mine in Africa and the cranium had filled with lime. If there has ever been a fossilized brain I have yet to hear of it but that would be pretty interesting stuff if it was.

 

[Mallon]

Hadn't they sorta found one time a fossilized brain kinda? Where the inside of the skull had fossilized in a way that it left the basic shape of the brain?

Like mark said, it's called an endocast, which is simply a cast of the braincase. In reptiles and birds, the brain generally fills the entire braincase, so it's possible to get a good idea of the shape of the brain. Not so much in mammals.

 

[matthewgar]

Like mark said, it's called an endocast, which is simply a cast of the braincase. In reptiles and birds, the brain generally fills the entire braincase, so it's possible to get a good idea of the shape of the brain. Not so much in mammals.

yeah thats what I was thinking of, it wasn't a perfect, and I think it was Tuang child, as it was on one of the evolution of man videos I believe they mentioned that there was a somewhat skull impression left giving a vague idea, not exactly a brain fossilization but something kinda simular. It was a while ago I saw it so just remembered it when this was mentioned.

Did they ever figure out if B-Rex had the bone Calcification that forms in birds when about to lay eggs? Read about them finding something in B-rex but they were not sure if it was really that or not.

 

[philadiddle]

These are cool

 

[ActuallyThinking]

Good to see you're so familiar with the extensive literature. You're really living up to your name!

Was this extensive literature inspired by God? Or was it written by men who use systems of inquiry that they devised on their own?

The literature I refer to was inspired by God.

 

[Mallon]

Did they ever figure out if B-Rex had the bone Calcification that forms in birds when about to lay eggs? Read about them finding something in B-rex but they were not sure if it was really that or not.

You're referring to medulary bone. Yeah, B-rex had medulary bone.

 

[Mallon]

Was this extensive literature inspired by God? Or was it written by men who use systems of inquiry that they devised on their own?

The literature I refer to was inspired by God.

Good for you.

 

[iambeeman]

Very pretty!

though not pretty Fast octopus fossils shows a fossil octopus, pretty cool. Not sure why we wouldn't find the odd soft tissue fossil, like a heart etc?

 

[matthewgar]

You're referring to medulary bone. Yeah, B-rex had medulary bone.

If thats the name for it, the book mentiond that they found formations in B-rex's bones that looked simular to hte calcium buildup that birds produce when they are about to lay eggs, as they themselves, don't normally have calcium in their bones, or something like that. Wich is a very good indication if thats what it was that Tyransasurus rex's and such have common anccestor with modern birds along with the other simular dinosaurs.

 

[Papias]

Matt wrote:

Hadn't they sorta found one time a fossilized brain kinda?

Sounds like you are conflating two ideas - I've made that mistake too, it's a very common thing for us humans to do. As has been pointed out, one of those ideas is the endocast, which has been done on many fossils (and modern skulls too). The other is perhaps the actual find of a possible fossilized remnant of a maggot ridden brain, just last year in 2010, in australopithicus sediba. That 2010 find is too shrunken to say much about brain size and shape, of course (see pic).

All the best-

Papias

Brain Parts Found in Ancient Human Ancestor : Discovery News