Lost history of African dinosaurs revealed
A new species of dinosaur found in the Egyptian desert is shedding light on Africa's missing history of dinosaurs. Few fossils have been unearthed from the last days of the dinosaurs, between 100 and 66 million years ago, on the continent. Scientists say the dinosaur, which lived about 80 million years ago, is an "incredible discovery".
The giant plant-eater was the length of a school bus and weighed about the same as an elephant. [...] Named Mansourasaurus shahinae, the new species is regarded as a critical discovery for science.
[...] Dinosaur fossils in Africa are rare as much of the land is now covered in lush vegetation, rather than the exposed rock that has yielded dinosaur treasure troves elsewhere. There is a huge gap in the fossil record during the Late Cretaceous, when the continents were coming towards the end of huge geological changes.
Also at Ohio University (Phys.org) and USA Today.
New Egyptian sauropod reveals Late Cretaceous dinosaur dispersal between Europe and Africa (DOI: 10.1038/s41559-017-0455-5) (DX)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:49PM (1 child)
Today I witnessed an unforgettable sight: the extremely rare Titanosaurus vagacastrum. Essentially a walking mountain, it is an absolutely enormous Sauropod which has developed armored plates of bone protrusions all over its body.
Between these plates and its unparalleled size, Titanosaurus is extremely difficult to put down. In addition, Titanosaurus seems outright immune to any sort of narcotic effects. They often inadvertently crush nearby creatures underfoot with every step they take.
While most Sauropods ignore non-hostile creatures, Titanosaurs take issue with creatures invading its personal space. This is probably because they aggressively feed off any and all plants they can find. Titanosaurus eats constantly, which certainly helps recover health quickly, even after fighting off numerous carnivores such as Giganotosaurus.
If ever a creature were too big, it would be Titanosaurus. You'll hardly see a Titanosaurus with just a saddle and a rider: its immense size can effectively carry a fortress, defensive emplacements, along with a small zoo. Although the Titanosaur can be domesticated, it's believed the process causes the creature to slowly starve to death from its subsequent refusal to eat.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:51PM
Hmmm. Present tense.
Were you, by chance, posting from that museum in Kentucky?
Y'know, that one that says dinosaurs and humans co-existed.
That said, they were IMMENSE.
The biggest was 200 feet nose to tail and 125 tons.
Among the things to have feet, the biggest things ever. [drneurosaurus.com] page [drneurosaurus.com]
-- OriginalOwner_ [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday January 30 2018, @09:53PM (3 children)
> Dinosaur fossils in Africa are rare as much of the land is now covered in lush vegetation
Except, you know, the Sahara. And the Kalahari and Namib Deserts. And a lot of Africa is savanna. Hardly qualifies as "lush" as vegetation goes.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Grishnakh on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:19PM (1 child)
That does seem like a really weird thing for that article to say, however the full quote is:
Dinosaur fossils in Africa are rare as much of the land is now covered in lush vegetation, rather than the exposed rock that has yielded dinosaur treasure troves elsewhere.
The Sahara certainly isn't covered in lush vegetation, but they're correct that there's little to no exposed rock there. At least the photos I've seen don't show any, just a whole lot of sand. I don't know about those other deserts though.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:57PM
Maybe they were trying to suggest that there is no rock or strata under the veggies. Maybe.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @10:40PM
They were trying not to be racist.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by requerdanos on Tuesday January 30 2018, @11:40PM (2 children)
Dinosaurs are cool.
School buses vary in length from about 17' to about 45' depending on the number of seats.*
There are a couple different, quite differently-weighted elephant species as well.
Should we conduct a census of school buses and of elephants and take the weighted average of their lengths and of their weights proportional to the population of each? Or use the measure of a single more (or less) common specimen of school bus and/or elephant?
Are we limited to current production school buses, and living elephant species, or should we consider extinct specimens of either, or both?
Why not describe their weight/mass using some unit made for that purpose, like the pound or the kilogram or ton? Like we use to describe the weight of elephants?
Why not describe their length using some unit made for that purpose, like the foot or the meter or the light-nanosecond? Like we use to describe the length of school buses?
Perhaps we could measure them in Libraries of Congress. The Library of Congress has both mass/weight and linear dimensions....
I know there are bigger mysteries in the world, but this is kind of reminiscent of seeing floppy disks described by how many double spaced typed pages of text they can hold. (Letter? Legal? A4?)
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* If you don't like using "feet" for length measurement, know that there are slightly more than three of them in a meter.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 01 2018, @12:10PM (1 child)
That would be slightly more than three of them in a metre. (Pretty close to 3 and 1/4 feet actually)
(Score: 2) by requerdanos on Thursday February 01 2018, @05:48PM
Like center, color, and aluminum, the word meter is plagued by regional spelling variations.
At least we all use the same basic word for it, and not something like wrench-spanner, trunk-boot, hood-bonnet, etc.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday January 31 2018, @01:49AM
Can't wait for African Dino History month, coming soon to a public education system near you.
"We built the pyramids."
*eats chicken*
"We were dinosaurs."
*Steals your bike*
"Our skeletons are in museums all around the world."
*Stabs a stranger for being born in a different city*
"We are royalty."
*Makes the DMV an un-fucking-bearable experience*