Sci-Bits #5

Did Plant-Eating Dinosaurs Really Only Eat Plants?

Oldest fossil of bird's voicebox gives new hint at soundscape of the Cretaceous

Dinosaurs did not twitter like birds... but they may have honked, say scientists

Exposed teeth in dinosaurs, sabre-tooths and everything else: thoughts for artists

Lythronax (CollectA) - Dinosaur Toy Blog (Discovered by my home museum, the Natural History Museum of Utah, and the only museum with this skeleton, I'm excited to see him in plastic form!)

Kosmoceratops (Age of the Dinosaurs by PNSO) - Dinosaur Toy Blog (Also discovered by my home museum, the Natural History Museum of Utah, I get to say hi to the holotype every weekend, same as above.  It never gets old!)

Milk Carton Woolly Mammoth - Everything Dinosaur

Two New Species of British Ichthyosaur Swim into View

Meet the Ancient Reptile that Gave Rise to Mammals

The Loneliness of Isauria. - Luis V. Rey Blog

Splitting Lumps - Dinosaur of the Week

Italian Style English Dinosaurs - Dinosaur of the Week

Proceratosaurus at the Museum - Dinosaur of the Week

How Scientists Can Engage the Public without Risking Their Careers

No, NASA Didn’t Change Your Astrological Sign

The Extraordinary Details of Tiny Creatures Captured with a Laser-Scanning Microscope by Igor Siwanowicz

How Octopuses and Squids Change Color

Chimps May Be Capable of Comprehending the Minds of Others

New Zealand Harvestmen: Please Help

Condor chick is the first raised in the wild in a century

Xavi Bou's photographs reveal flight paths of birds – in pictures (Will this finally put the whole "flying rod" balderdash to sleep?  Wishful thinking, I'll wager.)

Silkworms Spin Super-Silk after Eating Carbon Nanotubes and Graphene

Autophagy, Illustrated

Would You Vote for Someone Who Thinks the Earth Is Flat?

Barack Obama: America will take the giant leap to Mars

Will Elon Musk Scuttle the Search for Life on Mars?

Depressed? Do What You Love

EXCLUSIVE: Yoda Solo Star Wars Comic & Movie Confirmed + Origins Backstory.

The Jewish Ritual That Led Nimoy to Create the Vulcan Salute

Shin Godzilla Reminds America That Japan Is Still Better At This

Godzilla anime film roars on to our screens in 2017

Also, I recently discovered Phil Plait has a wonderful rundown of astrology as well as the claimed Apollo moon "hoax," they're excellent, I highly recommend you check them out!

Sci-Bits #4

Time for some more science news!

Allosaurus Died From Stegosaur Spike to the Crotch, Wyoming Fossil Shows

Vivaron haydeni, the Triassic Ghost Ranch predator

New Dinosaur Named for Ability to Evade Predators

The Natural History Museum And Google Just Released 300,000 Digital Specimens Online

A massive wall at Cal Orcko in southern Bolivia reveals more than 5,000 dinosaur footsteps

Hippo Teeth Reveal Africa's Changing Plant Life

Shark leaps out of water near surfers

Rare frog goes extinct, despite Atlanta’s rescue efforts

Photographer Nicky Bay Documents Mirror Spiders Adjusting their Silver Plates to Appear More Reflective

Pangolin, The 'Artichoke With Legs,' Earns Top Trade Protection

It’s Official: We’re Going to Mars

NASA to Hold Media Call on Evidence of Surprising Activity on Europa

Breakthrough Quantum Cat Experiment Captured on Camera

Mongol ship sent by Genghis Khan’s grandson to invade Japan before it was destroyed by ‘kamikaze’ typhoon is discovered underwater after 700 YEARS

Statistics Show Firefly is the Most Beloved Short-Lived Series

"Darmok" Turns 25 Today

SDCC 2016: There's More Star Trek Coming to TV Than You Think


Oh, and you might notice some science fiction stories.  Take this as the official word from the author: you're going to start seeing more sci-fi-related material here, because that shiny frakking stuff makes you live long and prosper and those are the stories we're looking for!

Sci-Bits #3

Hello, everyone!

Hopefully not everyone left in my absence!  I sincerely apologize for being away, but I have been extremely busy.  I know that a lot of these are going to be somewhat outdated, but I couldn't bring myself to delete the articles, links and news reports I had found, so here is a Sci-Bits running from January to now (or at least, ones I have located within that timeframe).  That should put me back on schedule!

This is the amazing design for NASA’s Star Trek-style space ship, the IXS Enterprise

Chemistry supports the identification of gender-specific reproductive tissue in Tyrannosaurus rex

Pregnant T. Rex Fossil Found With Possible DNA

One of Britain’s Largest Ichthyosaurs Goes on Display

Stegosaurus bite strength revealed

Digging Up Our Prehistoric Past: New Horned Dinosaur Discovered In Southern Utah

Inside a Paleontologist's Field Kit

Power Tools of the Trade: Paleontology

Monster Mystery Solved

Girls Dig Dinosaurs: Why Women are the Future of Palaeontology

PHOTOS: Triceratops Battle Scars Found on Skull

The odd little reptiles of the Triassic forests: Longisquama

Fossil Hotbed Reveals New, Scary Flying Reptile

Saga of the Spinosaurus: A Dinosaur-Sized Mystery

The horniest dinosaurs were the sexiest, scientists claim

Giant Siberian unicorn may have existed at the same time as humans, fossil find hints

New Species Of Extinct Reptile Found In Arizona’s Petrified Forest

How Mark Norell, a Paleontologist, Spends His Sundays

Mary Anning (1799-1847): The Princess of Paleontology

How do we know what dinosaurs looked like?

Mysterious Jurassic sea monster unveiled

The Dinosaurs of Crystal Palace: Among the Most Accurate Renditions of Prehistoric Life Ever Made, by Darren Naish

Ice Age Death Trap Yields an Unexpected Carnivore, by Brian Switek

North American Mammoths May Have Been a Single Species, by Brian Switek

Armored dinosaur was a fish-eating turtle-mimic

Bird wings trapped in amber are a fossil first from the age of dinosaurs

Newly discovered flesh eating dinosaur roamed Earth 95 million years ago and was size of double decker bus

Killer Bite of the Otter Bear

Late Triassic too hot for dinosaurs

New Bird Lineage From Early Cretaceous Period

Bizarre, Giant Birds Once Ruled the Skies

T. rex's Oddball Vegetarian Cousin Discovered

Ask Fuzzy: Fossils leave death clues

How to raise a dinosaur? Tiny fossil may tell us

Early armored dino from Texas lacked cousin’s club-tail weapon, but had a nose for danger

A New Brazilian Titanosaur (Most Likely)

Famous paleontologist retires after 34 years

Famed paleontologist Horner says he was pushed out of museum, Krauss questions leadership

If Dung Beetles (Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae) Arose in Association with Dinosaurs, Did They Also Suffer a Mass Co-Extinction at the K-Pg Boundary?

Women in Paleontology: A Celebration of Female Field Scientists

Vintage Dinosaur Art: Predatory Dinosaurs of the World - Part 1

A new face for Dorudon – archeocetes with stubbly beards

A large-clawed theropod (Dinosauria: Tetanurae) from the Lower Cretaceous of Australia and the Gondwanan origin of megaraptorid theropods

Scientists Recover an Abundance of Fossils and Geologic Data from Antarctica

Off to the Field!

Ancient Egyptians Collected Fossils, by Adrienne Mayor

The First Image Ever of a Hydrogen Atom's Orbital Structure

Juno Images Provide an Unprecedented View of Jupiter

Philae Found!

Jupiter, the (Surprising and Weird) King of the Planets, by Phil Plait

Newly discovered microbe does something textbooks say is impossible: it lives without mitochondria
80 Percent of Young Environmental Scientists Could Use More Natural History Training

What is the Highest Place on Earth?

Ming The Clam Was The World's Oldest Animal

A Single Drop of Seawater, Magnified 25 Times

Scientists Discover 'Remarkable Little Octopod,' Possibly New Species

How to Raise a Genius: Lessons from a 45-Year Study of Supersmart Children

South Koreans kick off efforts to clone extinct Siberian cave lions

Alien Interpreters: How Linguists Would Talk to Extraterrestrials

Transparent Aluminum Now A Reality

What’s It Like to Get a Ph.D. in Science?

Zoologists hunting Tasmanian tiger declare 'no doubt' species still alive

Male Gorillas Often Sing, Hum While Eating 

"Living dinosaur" moth discovered in Australia

A Great White Shark Got Caught Napping on Camera for the First Time Ever

How A Geologist Designed The Perfect App For The Window Seat

Researchers capture and tag rare adult speartooth sharks for first time

Meet The Closest Living Relative To The Extinct Dodo Bird With Incredibly Colorful Iridescent Feathers

Carnegie Museum's new 'Pterosaurs' exhibit wows with size, speed, diversity

How to survive extinction: live fast, die young

Creepy New Fossil Shows the Dawn of Spiders

Researchers Find Erect Daddy Longlegs Penis Preserved in Amber for the First Time Ever

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus All Yestered

Irish scientist's fossil study to reveal colours of dinosaurs

Fossil Friday – sloth ulna

Giant alligator roams golf course in Florida

Coelacanth, the Famous "Living Fossil" Fish, Gets Endangered Species Act Protection

Identification of animals and plants is an essential skill set

Found: A Giant Coral Reef at the Mouth of the Amazon River

First Audio Recordings From the Bottom of the Mariana Trench are Nightmare Fuel

Why These Museum Ads With Will Ferrell Make Me Really, Really Mad

Video! The sea slug that looks and swims like a fish

Japan Kills 200 Pregnant Minke Whales

‘Rollie Pollies’ Remove Heavy Metals From Soil, Stabilize Growing Conditions, & More

Mysterious Chimpanzee Behavior May Be Evidence of "Sacred" Rituals

Researchers Find Fish That Walks the Way Land Vertebrates Do

This Is How Soon You'd Die Around The Solar System

Scientists discover how to 'upload knowledge to your brain'

How Ancient Coral Revealed the Changing Length of a Year

Bringing EM Back

Rare Amber-Entombed Lizards Preserved in Amazing Detail

Funding Freeze Hits Natural History Museum Collections

Japan’s Lost Black Hole Satellite Just Reappeared and Nobody Knows What Happened to It

Where the Whale Things Are

Manta rays are first fish to recognise themselves in a mirror

Why watching comb jellies poop has stunned evolutionary biologists

Our Natural History, Endangered

Scientists gear up to drill into 'ground zero' of the impact that killed the dinosaurs

 Little Critters that tell a BIG Story: Benthic Foraminifera and the Gulf Oil Spill

The White House Wants To Use Science Fiction To Settle The Solar System

Bats Beat Ebola with Hypervigilant Immunity

This Indonesian Volcano Just Erupted Electric Blue Lava!

Man-Made Earthquake Hotspot Revealed: Oklahoma

Divers' unique perspectives on reefs supports science

Scientists want to bring 24 animals back from extinction (Dodos make the list... but dinosaur DNA is so old, Jurassic Park isn't an option)

What Hiking Does To The Brain Is Pretty Amazing

Too much sleep could kill you, claims study

'Suicide by LION': Man strips naked and jumps into a Chilean zoo's enclosure in a bid to feed himself to a big cat - and only survives in a grave condition after two beasts mauling him were SHOT DEAD

Project Broadtail: A Citizen Science Project

Stop ‘Defending’ Music Education

Top 75 Spaceships in movies and TV

Here's to hoping I get around to posting more! 

Sci-Bits #2

All right, I've toiled my eyes and brain across the interwebs for you all, and the fruit of it is another Sci-Bits linkpalooza.  Enjoy!

Research team identifies rare dinosaur from Appalachia

A primitive hadrosaurid from southeastern North America and the origin and early evolution of ‘duck-billed’ dinosaurs

Spinosaurus Devoured Meals Like a Giant Pelican

Wales Gets A New Dragon With 200 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Discovery

A gigantic new dinosaur from Argentina and the evolution of the sauropod hind foot

Crystal Palace dinosaur conservation work restores Iggy the Iguanodon to his former glory

Popularising science… The right way!

A couple of Mosasaurs for Walentinia!

Super-sized Ceratopsian Skull Might be New Species

The Man Who Brought Us T-Rex

First warm-blooded lizards switch on mystery heat source at will

Sneaky crocodiles occupied sauropod hatcheries

Crocodilian Nest in a Late Cretaceous Sauropod Hatchery from the Type Lameta Ghat Locality, Jabalpur, India

Barosaurus: Beast of the Week 

Mary Ann Woodhouse Mantell: Iguanayougonna do about it?

Seasonal reproductive endothermy in tegu lizards

A Mummified Moa Helps Paleontologists Reconstruct Feeding Behavior

Bizarre Photographs Of An Elephant Attacking And Killing a Resting Buffalo

Meet the mountain lions of Los Angeles

First one to blink loses! Praying mantis engages in a five-minute stand-off with a baby crocodile (before having the cheek to climb over his rival)

Just Give Up. It’s Impossible to Bug-Proof Your Home

Cthulhu-geddon: Thousands of dead squid wash up on beach in Chile 

One of the Single Weirdest “Lights in the Sky” Events Ever: City Map Drawn in the Sky

How to read a scientific paper

Sci-Bits #1

Greetings readers,

With this as the inaugural post, I am hereby starting a new blog series called Science Bits, or Sci-Bits for short.  The purpose of this series is to share relevant links and external content, all about science, and paleontology in particular.  I will not limit myself to merely dinosaurs of other such paleontological links, and will share whatever I find interesting, at any time.  Nor will I post only news and new papers, instead, I will share everything from news pieces, research papers, articles, other blog posts, etc.  So, without further ado, check out the below links, and be ye informed thusly!

Seventy-Ton Titanosaur Unveiled At Museum Of Natural History

 The Biggest Dinosaur In History May Never Have Existed

Monster-Size Marine Crocodile Discovered

Newly discovered pliosaur terrorised ancient Russian seas

Dinosaurs performed dances to woo mates, according to new evidence

Dinosaur scales: some thoughts for artists

SABERTOOTH’S BANE: INTRODUCING DINOCROCUTA

ALL TEETH: UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL WITH DINOCROCUTA

Sauropod footprint find makes Skye Scotland's largest dinosaur site

The Dakota Badlands Used to Host Sabertoothed Pseudo-Cat Battles

Thumbs up to new sail-backed dinosaur!

Happy Fins: Plesiosaurs Flapped like Penguins  

'Chasm', the three year old dinosaur who died 75 million years ago and is helping scientists fill in evolutionary gaps

Sticky Amber Preserved Dinosaur-Age Insects for Millions of Years

A Day in the Life of an Ammonite

First REAL Tyrannosaurus rex to go on display in Europe opens tomorrow!

What’s Warming the Cold-Blooded Iguana?

Four new elements have been added to the periodic table

That about wraps it up for now.  Remember, I also share paleontology and science content on Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram!

Coursera has free paleontology courses!

Dear readers,

Now that the holidays are over, it's time to get the new year under way.  I've got some links that may be of interest to any student of science.

Dino 101: Dinosaur Paleobiology

Palaeontology: Theropod Dinosaurs and the Origin of Birds

Palaeontology: Ancient Marine Reptiles

I took Dino 101 through Coursera during its first semester (Fall 2013), and thought it was a great general introduction to dinosaurs.  It starts today, so the interested party may want to enroll soon (the other classes start later this month and next month, respectively).  Dino 101 and the theropod/bird origins class are both taught by the esteemed paleontologist Philip Currie.  And besides, if you're a reader of my blog, I'm assuming you don't need me to give you any reasons to enroll!  I'm interested to try the other two new classes and see what they're like.

Signing off,

Spencer Bronte
Science, to a Student

The Great Dinosaur Hunt (1994)

Hello, readers!

While I am insanely busy with this semester, and life overall, and everyone else is insanely busy with the holidays and all else that goes on, I hope we all have a moment to relax this weekend.  For me, I wanted to take a few moments to blog once again.  How I've missed it!  I'd like to share something special with you today.  It's a documentary film from the '90's, now graciously uploaded to YouTube by DinosaurTheatre, called The Great Dinosaur Hunt!

(I still own the above VHS, the only release

 of this film.  Photo from Amazon.com)

Back in the day, I watched this dinosaur paleontology documentary over and over again.  It was my favorite movie of all time (even surpassing "regular" movies) and I couldn't get enough of it.  It was during another viewing of this after I had just turned 15 that I started to seriously consider dinosaur paleontology as a career choice.  Of course, as a tot I wanted to dig up dinosaurs, and truly have no memories of life without dinosaurs, but as a viable, thinking teenager, that was the first time I realistically thought about it.  This film also fostered my love of all things Asian, and introduced me to the likes of Phil Currie, Dale Russell, and Dong Zhiming (as it deals with the Royal Tyrell Museum and the IVPP co-expeditions to the Gobi Desert, as well as the Arctic and Dinosaur Provincial Park starting in the late 1980's).  Perhaps it isn't so amazing to all of you, but to someone who likes expedition-based documentaries, footage of dig sites, interviews of professional paleontologists, scientific concepts and discussions, and what you might call real documentaries (Discovery Channel and associates, are you listening?), and of course, because of the sentimental value, I truly love this film.  Every second of it.  Even today.  So please, take moment to enjoy this film if you have a chance this weekend.  If not, watch it later.  It's worth ninety minutes of your time.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10

If you have any comments about the film, or my blog in general, please drop me a comment!

Spencer Bronte
Science, to a Student