Dinosaurs

Scientists have observed the first known “virgin birth” in crocodiles. A female crocodile, kept alone in captivity for 16 years, laid a clutch of eggs that included a fully formed fetus which was genetically identical to its mother. The find reveals that this unusual form of reproduction is possible in more species than we thought – including, perhaps, dinosaurs.The maternal miracle occurred in a female American Crocodile that’s lived in a reptile park in Costa Rica since 2002, with no access to mates. But in January…

Much like symbolically walking a mile in someone else's shoes, visual perspective-taking is 'seeing' through someone else's eyes: We follow someone's gaze to learn what caught their attention, or we may even try and work out what someone else is seeing if our view is blocked.A new study by cognitive zoologists from Lund University in Sweden challenges the idea that mammals were the first to develop these advanced cognitive abilities.Researchers' observations of alligators and birds suggest that visual perspective-taking,…

Plus a Trek to Yomi The PlayStation Plus monthly game lineup for June 2023 is out, and it’s got a strange mix of titles. Sports fans, archaeologists, and sword aficionados will all have something to look forward to in June, at the least. For June 2023 PlayStation Plus is getting NBA 2K23, the most recent entry in the basketball series, for PlayStation 4 and PS5. Reviews on this particular entry seem medium-warm, though I’ll admit, I haven’t played some virtual hoops in quite a while. My go-to is NBA Street, personally.…

Dome-skulled dinosaurs may have looked less like Friar Tuck and more like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air. New fossil finds suggest they may have had big bristly ornaments on their heads, and might not have butted heads like they do in the movies.Pachycephalosaurs are a clade of dinosaurs with distinct dome-shaped skulls, and a variety of horns and bumps around the edges. That gives them a bit of a Mr Burns look, and it’s long been thought that they bonked their thick heads together in combat like modern goats or stags. In…

A new study revealed that the ability to follow someone’s gaze to an initially obstructed location, known as visual perspective taking, likely originated in the dinosaur lineage about 60 million years before appearing in mammals. This cognitive ability was found in certain bird species and suggests that the avian dinosaurs, or birds, have remarkable neurocognition that predates the emergence of similar skills in mammals.Researchers at Lund University found that visual perspective taking, the cognitive ability to follow an…

Behold the newest snarling, scurrying, foraging, and feasting dinosaurs and other extinct creatures of Prehistoric Planet.The show’s second season begins May 22 on Apple TV+, featuring over two dozen new species from various branches of the tree of life as it existed some 66 million years ago, give or take a few million (well, don’t take more than a couple.)I spoke with showrunner Tim Walker and Darren Naish, a paleozoologist and the series’s chief scientific consultant, to learn what to expect from the new season and,…

The next PUBG Mobile update is probably not what you expected. The version 2.6 update, which releases on May 18, will add dinosaurs to the popular battle royale game. The Dinoground event, as its called, runs until June 18. As part of it, players can find dinosaur settlements on the maps Erangel and Livik that are full of dinosaurs and supplies. Players can unlock and ride the velociraptors, pterosaurs, and T-Rex after taming them. Velociraptors can jump high to help you get up on tall surfaces,…

This is an illustration of Ornithomimus based on the findings of preserved tail feathers and soft tissue. Researchers have discovered new ornithomimosaur fossils in Mississippi, shedding light on the poorly understood dinosaur ecosystems of Late Cretaceous eastern North America and revealing trends of giant body sizes and multiple species cohabiting across North America and Asia. Credit: Julius CsotonyiFindings also enhance understanding of dinosaur ecosystems in eastern North America.A scientific study reveals the…

SUBSCRIBE: Apple | Spotify This is Episode Four of a 4-Part "Fascination" on vernal pools. You can listen to Episode One here, Episode Two here, and Episode Three here. Transcript Christopher Intagliata: This is Scientific American’s Science, Quickly. I’m Christopher Intagliata. When I first started working on this series about vernal pools and became convinced I had to go see them for myself, one of the most surprising things was where people kept telling me to go to see them. Chuck Black: This landmark is by far…

Csotonyi illustration: Portrayal of Utahraptors and prey trapped in quicksand deposit of the Stikes Quarry bone bed at Utahraptor Ridge. A recent geological study has discovered that the Utahraptor, the world’s largest “raptor” dinosaur, is 10 million years older than previously believed, now estimated to be at least 135 million years old. Credit: Julius Csotonyi, natural history illustratorThe Utahraptor, the world’s largest “raptor” dinosaur, is now estimated to be 135 million years old, 10 million years older than…