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British and Moroccan scientists said Tuesday they had found the remains of two new species of extinct animals in the Saharan desert, describing the find as one of the most important of the past 50 years. The team of paleontologists said they had unearthed a new species of pterosaur, a flying reptile from the Mesozoic era, and a new type of sauropod, a giant four-legged herbivore from the Jurassic period.

A new kind of giant dinosaur has been described in Russia. Dubbed Volgatitan, the herbivore belonged to a family of long-necked dinosaurs called sauropods. It weighed 17 tons and walked the earth 200 million to 65 million years ago. The enormous dinosaur was identified from seven of its vertebrae, which had been stuck in a cliff for 130 million years until they were discovered on the banks of the Volga river near Ulyanovsk in 1982. ..." The bones sat for 20 years until they were re-examined by Averianov. ..." “[After] checking the literature when I returned home, [I] confirmed that...

A new species of sauropod dinosaur that stretched 39 feet (12 m) from head to tail has been unearthed in Patagonia, ArgentinaDubbed Lavocatisaurus agrioensis, the new dinosaur is thought to have lived approximately 110 million years ago (Cretaceous period).The creature was a type of sauropod, a group of huge plant-eating dinosaurs that includes the largest animals ever to walk the Earth.One adult and two immature specimens of Lavocatisaurus agrioensis were recovered near the locality of Agrio del Medio, a small town in the central part of the province of Neuquén, Patagonia.“We found most of the skull bones of Lavocatisaurus agrioensis:...

Sticking Your Neck Out by Tim Clarey, Ph.D. * In 1809, Jean Baptiste Lamarck speculated that the necks of giraffes could grow longer simply by reaching higher and that they could pass this trait on to their offspring.1 A half-century later, Charles Darwin suggested that giraffes born with longer necks than their rivals could reach more food and were thus better fit to survive. If either one of these ideas were true, scientists should find ancient “giraffe” fossils reflecting a pattern of transformational neck growth over time. However, after generations of searching, paleontologists have failed to uncover any evidence of...

WASHINGTON - The fossil bones of what may have been Europe's largest animal ever, a new type of dinosaur, have been discovered in Spain. Discovery of the sauropod, estimated to have weighed between 40 and 48 tons, is reported in Friday's issue of the journal Science. Named Turiasaurus riodevensis, the animal lived in the Teruel area of what is now Spain in the late Jurassic period, about 150 million years ago. The remains were found by a team led by Rafael Royo-Torres of the Joint Paleontology Foundation Teruel-Dinopolis. In the past such large dinosaurs have primarily been found in Africa...

SALT LAKE CITY - The first known North American skulls of Cretaceous era sauropods — big dinosaurs with little heads — have been uncovered in recent years by Brigham Young University and Dinosaur National Monument researchers. About a dozen sauropod skulls are known from the earlier Jurassic era, but these are the first in North America for the Cretaceous, the final 80 million years of the dinosaur period. The four Cretaceous sauropod skulls or parts of skulls were found close to each other at the monument, which straddles the Utah-Colorado border. "We've really got a remarkable — it's almost mind-boggling...

Good morning FReepers! Greetings from CPAC!Waiting for the hotel to be cleared out for VP Cheney, who is due to speak at 2:00. Have had a great time so far with many FReepers showing up - even the elusive Registered! PBS innterviewed me this morning - think they'll be fair and unbiased? LOL Bob J and Diotima and The Shrew are already interviewing famous people for Rightalk! We'll keep you updated.