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Top 10 Most AMAZING Dinosaur Discoveries! From the most complete dino remains to the earliest feathered creatures…stay tuned to number 1 to learn about the most incredible dinosaur finds of all time!
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Transcript Provided by YouTube:
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From the most complete dino remains to the earliest feathered creatures…
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stay tuned to number 1 to learn about the most incredible dinosaur finds of all time!
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Number 10: Nodosaur.
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A group of miners were incredibly fortunate to come across one of the best-preserved fossils
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found to date, however, it has only been in the last year that paleontologists have been
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able to completely unearth and move a large section of the fossil.
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The specimen is of a newly discovered species of Nodosaur, a type of Thyreophora often overshadowed
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by its cereal box famous cousin the Stegosaurus.
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As it lumbered across the landscape between 110 million and 112 million years ago, almost
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midway through the Cretaceous period, the 18-foot-long, nearly 3,000-pound behemoth
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was the rhinoceros of its day.
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A grumpy herbivore that largely kept to itself.
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As with many of the other well-armored herbivores, this creature had the perfect defense for
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when a predator comes calling – two 20-inch-long spikes jutting out of its shoulders like a
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misplaced pair of bull’s horns.
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When the miners unearthed the find they knew immediately that it was something unlike anything
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they’d seen before.
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The amazing level of fossilization, which was caused by its rapid undersea burial, is
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incredibly rare and has offered scientists a unique opportunity to research this species
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in detail.
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Usually, just the bones and teeth are preserved, but on this occasion a lot more of the animal
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was fossilized.
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Number 9: The Velociraptor and Protoceratops Here we have perhaps the coolest find ever,
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which was discovered in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia
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in 1971 and is 74 million years old.
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This fossil is the preserved remains of a Velociraptor AND a Protoceratops who are now
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eternally attached to one another.
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No one knows exactly how they ended up like this, but there are a couple of different
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theories.
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One theory suggests that the velociraptor was fighting the Protoceratops when they were
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covered by a landslide.
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One feature of the fossil which might support this is that the velociraptor has sunk its
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deadly foot claw deep in the neck of the Protoceratops, and the Protoceratops appears to have thrown
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the Velociraptor to the ground, with its jaw is locked on the predator’s right arm.
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However, others have interpreted it differently, such as those who give more credence to the
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theory that the velociraptor was feasting on the Protoceratops when they were both covered
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in a landslide.
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However they got there, thankfully their remains have offered us a glimpse into the distant
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past.
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Number 8: Andrew Carnegie’s Diplodocus.
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Sometimes people are fortunate enough to find exactly what they’re looking for and such
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is the case with Andrew Carnegie.
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After amassing a small fortune and opening his own museum, Carnegie wanted to get his
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hands on impressive dinosaur skeletons, so he financed expeditions to northern Wyoming
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and southern Utah to find some.
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Luckily he did, and was even fortunate enough to find a complete skeleton of the biggest
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dinosaur discovered to date.
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Named “Diplodocus carnegiei” …or Carnegie’s double-beam, the entire animal was over 82
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feet long and dwarfed in size and completeness anything else that had been discovered up
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to that date.
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It roamed the planet 155 – 45 million years ago and feasted on leaves and trees on the
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tops of trees thanks to its very long neck.
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It’s not surprising that Carnegie was so happy with his find that he had casts of it sent
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to museums around the world.
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Number 7: Mama Oviraptor.
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This is a find of a brooding mother who was sat on her nest of eggs when disaster struck
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between 83 and 66 million years ago.
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Found in 1994 in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, this find helped rewrite our understanding
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of Oviraptor.
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When the first one was unearthed in 1922, the species was incorrectly given a name associated
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with “egg thief” due it proximity to a group of eggs which were originally believed to
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belong to a Protoceratops, however, later finds suggested that this interpretation was
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incorrect and that the oviraptor was in fact likely the parent, and not an egg thief at
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all.
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The 1994 discovery helped cement this belief as the fossil was more or less complete…only
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missing its head…and it was sat on a nest…positioned in exactly the same way modern birds incubate
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their eggs.
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When alive, the species was one of the most bird-like of the therapod dinosaurs with several
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features similar to birds.
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Number 6: Mother Giving Birth.
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If there’s anything certain in this world, it’s that everything can change in a matter
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of seconds.
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An animal can be going about its business one moment and gone the next.
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Well, we have another such example here.
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This incredibly unique fossil is of a mother ichthyosaur who was in the process of delivering
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at least three offspring, and who is believed to have passed during the birthing process.
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Discovered in South Majiashan, China, in 2011, the fossil is around 248 million years old.
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Amazingly, one of the offspring was found still half inside its mother while a second
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was found under the mother, and the third was still inside…waiting to be born.
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Because of the position of the find, it’s unlikely the babies were expelled from the
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mother after death, the researchers said.
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The skeleton was a lucky find because it was found with another skeleton from a completely
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different time period.
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Number 5: Halszka Raptor.
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So far, we’ve covered some fairly normal looking dinosaurs…well what you might expect dinosaurs
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to look like…but now we are going to delve into the weird and wonderful world of bird-like-dinos.
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Most of us will agree, as would most paleontologists, that birds descended from dinosaurs.
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Features that we once solely attributed to bird species have in recent years been found
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widespread amongst therapod dinosaurs, the group of dinosaurs that ultimately gave rise
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to birds.
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Nevertheless, even this next discovery is one no one could have predicted.
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This new species of non-avian theropod dinosaurs have a long neck – measuring about 50% of
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its length – and kind of looks like a swimmer to some extent.
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What this recent find does highlight is that there is a lot more variety of dinosaurs still
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waiting to be discovered, and as this particular investigation demonstrates is how modern advancements
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in paleontological techniques and advances in scientific instruments have enabled palaeontologists
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to study fossils non-invasively with high-tech 3D scanning.
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So there goes the familiar image of a palaeontologist with a digging tool and a small brush.
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Number 4: Sinosauropteryx.
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Some of the most interesting feathered dinosaurs have been unearthed across Asia in recent
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decades.
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The most notable finds come from China, and are completely re-writing the history of feathered
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dinosaurs.
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These finds are considered by many to be further examples of missing links between dinosaur
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and birds.
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The sinosauroteryx was the first of many amazing finds to come out of China’s Liaoning quarry
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and was first discovered in 1997.
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The longest known specimen reaches up to 1.07 meters (3 and a half feet) in length, with
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an estimated weight of 0.55 kilograms, or 1.2 pounds.
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This well-preserved fossil portrays the unmistakable impression of primitive, hair-like feathers,
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which at the time was the first time paleontologists had ever directly detected this feature on
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a dinosaur.
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The nature of the hair-like feathers suggests that feathers evolved from a much simpler
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structure that probably functioned as an insulator, and, as you’re about to see, feathers evolved
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in some interesting and colorful ways.
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Number 3: Anchiornis.
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This next is another example that was also unearthed in China in 2009.
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Anchiornis, which is Greek for “almost bird,” roamed the forests of Asia around 155 million
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years ago, measures about a foot long and weighs only a few ounces.
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It has unusually long front arms and feathers on its front limbs, hind limbs, and feet.
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Since the first fossil was unearthed, numerous additional examples of the same species have
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been unearthed, and a team of scientists has analyzed the fossilized pigment cells of a
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specimen, resulting in what may be the first full-color depiction of an extinct dinosaur.
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Number 2: Caihong Juji.
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Since 1996, nearly 50 new feathered dinosaur species have emerged from the fossil fields
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of China.
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The Caihong Juji, which is Mandarin for “rainbow with the big crest,” is one of these, and
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has gained its name because scientists believe it had feathers that may have glittered with
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the colors of the rainbow…similar to a modern hummingbird.
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This duck-sized animal lived in forests, and may have glided from tree to tree.
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So, why so colorful?
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Well, many believe the feathers initially developed for display and wooing prospective
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partners, and that the vivid variety of colors might suggest that these dinosaurs, like modern
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and ancient birds, may have had colored vision.
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So, what about the flight?
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Well, this bird likely didn’t fly, but simply glided, however, Caihong’s frond-like tail
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has asymmetrical feathers, and their, short, stiff leading edges could have supported flight.
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Caihong is now the oldest known animal to have this key adaptation…something which
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is notable in other bird-like dinosaurs which lived 10 million years later, like the Archaeopteryx.
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Number 1: Zhenyuanlong suni.
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Considered the biggest ever winged dinosaur found, the Zhenyuanlong Suni was unearthed
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in China, and lived 125 million years ago, sharing the planet with many other large and
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small dinosaurs, as well as amphibians and salamanders.
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Measuring two meters tall, it had short arms and dramatic plumage, from the tiny crown
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on his head to the quill-like feathers that extended from his wings and tail.
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Although its closet cousin is the Velociraptor…the dinosaur that helped make the Jurassic Park
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films so terrifying…it looks more like a bird than its cousin.
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Due to the size of the creature, scientists don’t believe its wings were used for flight,
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but instead, they hypothesize, that they were used for colorful mating displays or for protecting
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the egg.
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Altogether, the sheer size of the creature and its rather bizarre look will definitely
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help re-write what we consider as a scary dino.
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I’m thinking the next Jurassic Park films might actually have some of these newly discovered
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feathered creatures.
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Which dinosaur was your favorite?
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Let us know in the comments below and…take care!
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This post was previously published on YouTube.