28-Foot Ichthyosaur Discovered

Researchers have discovered an 8.6-meter long reptile with a massive skull and sharp teeth that lived 244 million years ago, during the Triassic Period. It’s been described as an early ichthyosaur, a four-footed reptile that turned seafarer.

Read more @ SciTechDaily

Stubby-Tailed Oviraptors Had Tails for Courtship Displays

A new study indicates that a group of bipedal dinosaurs, known as oviraptors, shook their feather-adorned tails to gain attention during their courtship rituals.

Read more @ SciTechDaily

Carnivorous Neighbors Were Able to Coexist During the Miocene

Entombed within the 9 to 10 million year old rocks at Cerro de los Batallones in Spain’s Madrid Basin are at least nine different assemblages of large fossil mammals. Two of these deposits are rich in carnivore bones, and provide an interesting snapshot at how these apex predators coexisted.

Read more @ SciTechDaily

X-Rays Reveal More of Fossil Record

Soft tissues, like skin and feathers, aren’t usually part of the fossil record, but a new technique has found a way to bring some of them back into the record. The technique was used to resurrect the teeth and recognize the carcass of a 50-million-year-old fossil of a lizard, long thought to be merely preserved remnants of skin shed from the reptile.

Read more @ SciTechDaily

Pound-for-Pound, Megapiranha Out Bites T. Rex

Megapiranha is an extinct genus of serrasalmid characin fish that lived 8 to 10 million years ago, in the Late Miocene. It’s estimated to have reached lengths of up to 1.3 meters, which is about four times the size of piranha alive today. These estimates are based upon fossil specimens that have been discovered.

Read more @ SciTechDaily

Pannoniasaurus inexpectatus, The First Freshwater Mosasaur Discovered

A new species of mosasaur was discovered in Hungry, providing the first evidence that mosasaurs lived in both freshwater and marine environments.

Read more @ SciTechDaily

Haast’s Eagle Was Big & Strong Enough to Prey on Humans

The strongest and biggest bird of prey that ever existed was the Haast’s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) of New Zealand, and it became extinct around the 1400s soon after the Maori settled the South Island of New Zealand.

Read more @ SciTechDaily