dinosaurs

Studying dinosaur bones and physiology can only teach us so much about how dinosaurs actually walked the Earth. Because dinosaurs called theropods are related to modern birds, a few researchers thought they could study how they walk using chickens.

Theropods include dinosaurs like the Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, but they also ranged in size all the way down to tiny chicken-sized raptors covered in feathers. Theropods and modern birds also both have spongy air-filled bones, wishbones, and feathers and lay eggs and watch over them.

Via Science Daily:

It's been millions of years since T. rex took its last breath, but a team led by Ohio University scientists is breathing life back into dinosaurs using high-powered computer simulations to model airflow through dinosaur snouts. The research has important implications for how dinosaurs used their noses to not only breathe but to enhance the sense of smell and cool their brains.

Click for larger image.

New research led by the American Museum of Natural History provides evidence that dinosaurs evolved the brainpower necessary for flight well before they actually took to the air as birds.

Diplodocids, the group of long-necked, four-legged, plant-eating dinosaurs that includes the apatosaurus (not a brontosaurus), have never been found in South America until a new species was discovered in Argentina last week. Leinkupal laticauda, whose name means "vanishing family" (heartbreaking!) and "broad tail" (uh, ok), has projections on the bones of its spine that set it apart from any other known species of dinosaur. But new species, never before found in South America, whatever, who cares—one of the most interesting things about this find is that diplodocids were all believed to have died out in the Jurassic Period (you know the one), but this fossil is dated from the Cretaceous, making it the most recent diplodocid ever found.