探花直播 of Cambridge - David Norman

Shaking the dinosaur family tree: how did 鈥榖ird-hipped鈥� dinosaurs evolve?

sc604 — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 14:57:37 +0000

Researchers have conducted a new analysis of the origins of 鈥榖ird-hipped鈥� dinosaurs 鈥� the group which includes iconic species such as Triceratops 鈥� and found that they likely evolved from a group of animals known as silesaurs, which were first identified two decades ago.

Scelidosaurus: ready for its closeup at last

sc604 — Wed, 26 Aug 2020 15:05:09 +0000

探花直播first complete dinosaur skeleton ever identified has finally been studied in detail and found its place in the dinosaur family tree, completing a project that began more than a century and a half ago.

New study shakes the roots of the dinosaur family tree

ps748 — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 17:16:55 +0000

For 130 years palaeontologists have been working with a classification system in which dinosaur species have been placed in to two distinct categories: Ornithischia and Saurischia. But now, after careful analysis of dozens of fossil skeletons and tens of thousands of anatomical characters, the researchers have concluded that these long-accepted familial groupings may, in fact, be wrong and that the traditional names need to be completely altered.

探花直播classification of dinosaurs dates back to Victorian times. Dinosaurs were first recognised as a unique group of fossil reptiles in 1842 as a result of the work of the anatomist, Professor Richard Owen (who later went on to found the Natural History Museum in London). Over subsequent decades, various species were named as more and more fossils were found and identified. During the latter half of the 19th century it was realised that dinosaurs were anatomically diverse and attempts were made to classify them into groups that shared particular features.

It was Harry Govier Seeley, a palaeontologist trained in Cambridge under the renowned geologist Adam Sedgwick, who determined that dinosaurs fell quite neatly into two distinct groupings, or clades; Saurischia or Ornithischia. This classification was based on the arrangement of the creatures鈥� hip bones and in particular whether they displayed a lizard-like pattern (Saurischia) or a bird-like one (Ornithischia).

As more dinosaurs were described it became clear that they belonged to three distinct lineages; Ornithischia, Sauropodomorpha and Theropoda. In 1887 Seeley placed the sauropodomorphs (which included the huge 鈥榗lassic鈥� dinosaurs such as Diplodocus and Brontosaurus) together with the 聽theropods (which included T. rex), in the Saurischia. 探花直播ornithischians and saurischians were at first thought to be unrelated, each having a different set of ancestors, but later study showed that they all evolved from a single common ancestor. 聽聽

This new analysis of dinosaurs and their near relatives, published today in the journal Nature, concludes that the ornithischians need to be grouped with the theropods, to the exclusion of the sauropodomorphs. It has long been known that birds (with their obviously 鈥榖ird-like鈥� hips) evolved from theropod dinosaurs (with their lizard-like hips). However, the re-grouping of dinosaurs proposed in this study shows that both ornithischians AND theropods had the potential to evolve a bird-like hip arrangement- they just did so at different times in their history.

Lead author, Matthew Baron, says:

鈥淲hen we started our analysis, we puzzled as to why some ancient ornithischians appeared anatomically similar to theropods. Our fresh study suggested that these two groups were indeed part of the same clade. This conclusion came as quite a shock since it ran counter to everything we鈥檇 learned.鈥�

鈥� 探花直播carnivorous theropods were more closely related to the herbivorous ornithischians and, what鈥檚 more, some animals, such as Diplodocus, would fall outside the traditional grouping that we called dinosaurs. This meant we would have to change the definition of the 鈥榙inosaur鈥� to make sure that, in the future, Diplodocus and its near relatives could still be classed as dinosaurs.鈥�

探花直播revised grouping of Ornithischia and Theropoda has been named the Ornithoscelida which revives a name originally coined by the evolutionary biologist, Thomas Henry Huxley in 1870.聽

Co-author, Dr David Norman, of the 探花直播 of Cambridge, says:

鈥� 探花直播repercussions of this research are both surprising and profound. 探花直播bird-hipped dinosaurs, so often considered paradoxically named because they appeared to have nothing to do with bird origins, are now firmly attached to the ancestry of living birds.鈥�

For 130 years palaeontologists have considered the phylogeny of the dinosaurs in a certain way. Our research indicates they need to look again at the creatures鈥� evolutionary history. This is simply science in action. You draw conclusions from one body of evidence and then new data or theories present themselves and you have to suddenly reconsider and adapt your thinking. All the major textbooks covering the topic of the evolution of the vertebrates will need to be re-written if our suggestion survives academic scrutiny.鈥�

While analysing the dinosaur family trees the team arrived at another unexpected conclusion. For many years, it was thought that dinosaurs originated in the southern hemisphere on the ancient continent known as Gondwana. 探花直播oldest dinosaur fossils have been recovered from South America suggesting the earliest dinosaurs originated there. But as a result of a re-examination of key taxa it鈥檚 now thought they could just as easily have originated on the northern landmass known as Laurasia, though it must be remembered that the continents were much closer together at this time.聽

Co-author, Prof Paul Barrett, of the Natural History Museum, says:

"This study radically redraws the dinosaur family tree, providing a new framework for unravelling the evolution of their key features, biology and distribution through time. If we're correct, it explains away many prior inconsistencies in our knowledge of dinosaur anatomy and relationships and it also highlights several new questions relating to the pace and geographical setting of dinosaur origins".

探花直播research was funded through a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) CASE studentship.

Matthew Baron et al: 'A new hypothesis of dinosaur relationships and early dinosaur evolution' Nature, 23 March 2017聽

10.1038/nature21700

A short video guide has been prepared by the Natural History Museum to accompany this paper.

More than a century of theory about the evolutionary history of dinosaurs has been turned on its head following the publication of new research from scientists at the 探花直播 of Cambridge and Natural History Museum in London. Their work suggests that the family groupings need to be rearranged, re-defined and re-named and also that dinosaurs may have originated in the northern hemisphere rather than the southern, as current thinking goes.

This conclusion came as quite a shock since it ran counter to everything we'd learned

Matthew Baron

Pascal Godefroid

Kulindadromeus, a small bipedal ornithischian dinosaur that is now part of the new grouping Ornithoscelida and identified as more obviously sharing an ancestry with living birds

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Fossilised dinosaur brain tissue identified for the first time

sc604 — Thu, 27 Oct 2016 16:13:33 +0000

An unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in Sussex, has been confirmed as the first example of fossilised brain tissue from a dinosaur.

探花直播fossil, most likely from a species closely related to Iguanodon, displays distinct similarities to the brains of modern-day crocodiles and birds. Meninges 鈥� the tough tissues surrounding the actual brain 鈥� as well as tiny capillaries and portions of adjacent cortical tissues have been preserved as mineralised 鈥榞hosts鈥�.

探花直播results are reported in a Special Publication of the Geological Society of London, published in tribute to Professor Martin Brasier of the 探花直播 of Oxford, who died in 2014. Brasier and Dr David Norman from the 探花直播 of Cambridge co-ordinated the research into this particular fossil during the years prior to Brasier鈥檚 untimely death in a road traffic accident.

探花直播fossilised brain, found by fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks near Bexhill in Sussex in 2004, is most likely from a species similar to Iguanodon: a large herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period, about 133 million years ago.

Finding fossilised soft tissue, especially brain tissue, is very rare, which makes understanding the evolutionary history of such tissue difficult. 鈥� 探花直播chances of preserving brain tissue are incredibly small, so the discovery of this specimen is astonishing,鈥� said co-author Dr Alex Liu of Cambridge鈥檚 Department of Earth Sciences, who was one of Brasier鈥檚 PhD students in Oxford at the time that studies of the fossil began.

According to the researchers, the reason this particular piece of brain tissue has been so well-preserved is that the dinosaur鈥檚 brain was essentially 鈥榩ickled鈥� in a highly acidic and low-oxygen body of water 鈥� similar to a bog or swamp 鈥� shortly after its death. This allowed the soft tissues to become mineralised before they decayed away completely, so that they could be preserved.

鈥淲hat we think happened is that this particular dinosaur died in or near a body of water, and its head ended up partially buried in the sediment at the bottom,鈥� said Norman. 鈥淪ince the water had little oxygen and was very acidic, the soft tissues of the brain were likely preserved and cast before the rest of its body was buried in the sediment.鈥�

Working with colleagues from the 探花直播 of Western Australia, the researchers used scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques in order to identify the tough membranes, or meninges, that surrounded the brain itself, as well as strands of collagen and blood vessels. Structures that could represent tissues from the brain cortex (its outer layer of neural tissue), interwoven with delicate capillaries, also appear to be present. 探花直播structure of the fossilised brain, and in particular that of the meninges, shows similarities with the brains of modern-day descendants of dinosaurs, namely birds and crocodiles.

In typical reptiles, the brain has the shape of a sausage, surrounded by a dense region of blood vessels and thin-walled vascular chambers (sinuses) that serve as a blood drainage system. 探花直播brain itself only takes up about half of the space within the cranial cavity.

In contrast, the tissue in the fossilised brain appears to have been pressed directly against the skull, raising the possibility that some dinosaurs had large brains which filled much more of the cranial cavity. However, the researchers caution against drawing any conclusions about the intelligence of dinosaurs from this particular fossil, and say that it is most likely that during death and burial the head of this dinosaur became overturned, so that as the brain decayed, gravity caused it to collapse and become pressed against the bony roof of the cavity.

鈥淎s we can鈥檛 see the lobes of the brain itself, we can鈥檛 say for sure how big this dinosaur鈥檚 brain was,鈥� said Norman. 鈥淥f course, it鈥檚 entirely possible that dinosaurs had bigger brains than we give them credit for, but we can鈥檛 tell from this specimen alone. What鈥檚 truly remarkable is that conditions were just right in order to allow preservation of the brain tissue 鈥� hopefully this is the first of many such discoveries.鈥�

鈥淚 have always believed I had something special. I noticed there was something odd about the preservation, and soft tissue preservation did go through my mind. Martin realised its potential significance right at the beginning, but it wasn鈥檛 until years later that its true significance came to be realised,鈥� said paper co-author Jamie Hiscocks, the man who discovered the specimen. 鈥淚n his initial email to me, Martin asked if I鈥檇 ever heard of dinosaur brain cells being preserved in the fossil record. I knew exactly what he was getting at. I was amazed to hear this coming from a world renowned expert like him.鈥�

探花直播research was funded in part by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and Christ鈥檚 College, Cambridge.聽

Reference:
Martin D. Brasier et al.鈥� Remarkable preservation of brain tissues in an Early Cretaceous iguanodontian dinosaur.鈥� Earth System Evolution and Early Life: a Celebration of the Work of Martin Brasier. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 448. (2016). DOI: 10.1144/SP448.3

Researchers have identified the first known example of fossilised brain tissue in a dinosaur from Sussex. 探花直播tissues resemble those seen in modern crocodiles and birds.聽

探花直播chances of preserving brain tissue are incredibly small, so the discovery of this specimen is astonishing.

Alex Liu

Fossilised dinosaur brains

Jamie Hiscocks

Image of specimen

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Opinion: Mysterious footprint fossils point to dancing dinosaur mating ritual

Anonymous — Fri, 08 Jan 2016 17:00:59 +0000

Studying dinosaurs is a lot like being a detective. Just as Sherlock Holmes was noted for his ability to interpret the behaviour of victims or criminals using footprints, palaeontologists have a similar practice when looking for evidence of dinosaur behaviour known as ichnology.

This is the study of the traces living organisms leave behind including bones, footprints and even bite marks on leaves. Indeed, Sherlock Holmes' creator, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, was very well aware of the traces of dinosaur footprints that had been discovered in the rocks of the Weald near his home in south-east England.

Now researchers in the US have discovered some very unusual trace fossils they believe could also be footprints. Although it is far from certain, these markings may provide the first clue as to whether dinosaurs performed dance-like mating rituals similar to those of living birds.

Scratching the surface

探花直播team from the 探花直播 of Colorado Denver have unearthed some truly extraordinary trace fossils on the bedding surfaces of sedimentary rocks of Cretaceous age in Colorado. 探花直播bedding surfaces have revealed an irregular array of large scoop-shaped depressions up to 2m in diameter and adjacent hummocks. Many of the scoops also display clear and unequivocal elongate scratch marks.

Given the geological ages of these rocks, the only large, powerful ground-dwelling creatures likely to be able to make such structures would have been dinosaurs. These curious sedimentary structures are not simply a one-off isolated discovery that can be explained as just a weird bit of geology, but have been found in clusters at a number of discrete sites across Colorado. Each site has a rather similar, comparatively dense, cluster of these scoop-like structures.

At first sight it would be perfectly reasonable to consider that such structures were the remnants of ancient dinosaur nests. Dinosaur nest sites, including eggs, shell fragments and even nestling dinosaur remains are comparatively well known. They have been reported from a range of Cretaceous aged sites that have been found in North America, South America and Asia.

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Dinosaur detectives. M. Lockley

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But these 鈥渟coops and hummocks鈥� differ in their detailed structure when compared to definitive dinosaur nests. Dinosaur nests tend to be circular, rather flat-bottomed, usually have traces of egg shell and are typically surrounded by a rim-like perimeter wall.

In fact, these new and distinctive structures show no evidence of what appear to be conventional dinosaur nest structure or scattered egg shell fragments. They are elongate, concave depressions with sediment clearly heaped to one side. In many instances, they display scrape marks that appear to have been made by dragging claws.

These structures are most comparable to the 鈥渓eks鈥� produced by living ground-nesting birds. Leks are effectively display arenas in which male birds perform a courtship ritual that can include dancing, showing off their feathers and making calls to attract the attention of nearby females.

探花直播researchers suggest the geological structures were originally created by theropods, the group of dinosaurs most closely related to living birds and which includes Tyrannosaurus Rex. Theropods may well have been very like modern birds in their behaviour and made the scrapes as part of the production of a display arena for courtship. However, it seems likely that if these marks were leks they would have been next to actual breeding/nesting sites, but so far no trace of nests has been discovered.

Tracking down Cinderella

探花直播frustrating thing about ichnology is that while the tracks and traces left by living creatures can be matched to observations of their actual behaviour, this is rarely the case when it comes to the fossilised traces of dinosaurs. Trying to tie the identity of fossilised tracks to the original track-maker has been a persistent problem for palaeontologists. It鈥檚 rather like the hunt for Cinderella: they have to look for animals that lived at the exact time the tracks were formed, with feet bones the right size and shape to precisely fit the shoe of the fossilised footprint.

Fossilised tracks and traces used to be rather disparaged by palaeontologists because the difficulties surrounding the identity of the actual track-maker seemed more or less insurmountable. However, the past few decades has seen a growing appreciation of the information that can be gleaned from such tracks and traces.

This includes the local environmental conditions when the tracks were made, the texture of the sediments that the creature was walking upon, and the details of foot placement, stride length and stride pattern. These can reveal a surprising amount of information about the way the track-maker walked, its posture and even the likely speed at which it was moving 鈥� very reminiscent of the skills demonstrated by Conan Doyle鈥檚 heroic sleuth.

Just a few years ago the question of bird-dinosaur affinities was also a topic that was very hotly disputed. 探花直播discovery of feathered theropods in the 1990s finally proved that theropod dinosaurs were ancestral to living birds. Although we can鈥檛 yet be sure, the new research suggests some dinosaurs may have been not just anatomically similar to birds but also have shared some mating behaviours. This gives rise to the amusing possibility of a dancing T. Rex trying to impress his potential mate.

David Norman, Reader in Paleobiology, Curator of Palaeontology, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, 探花直播 of Cambridge

This article was originally published on 探花直播Conversation. Read the original article.

探花直播opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the 探花直播 of Cambridge.

David Norman (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences) discusses how palaeontologists can interpret fossil footprints to find clues as to whether dinosaurs performed dance-like mating rituals.

Xing Lida and Yujiang Han

Tyrannosaurus tango

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Opinion: Six amazing dinosaur discoveries that changed the world

Anonymous — Mon, 30 Nov 2015 02:14:22 +0000

Recently, an auction of a dinosaur skeleton, discovered in Jurassic-aged rocks in the US, was held in West Sussex, England. 探花直播skeleton was that of a largely complete, immature, three-metre long carnivorous dinosaur: Allosaurus fragilis 鈥� 鈥渄elicate strange reptile鈥�. It was anticipated that the specimen would sell for somewhere in the region of 拢300,000-拢500,000. Interestingly, bidding stopped before the reserve price was reached, so the specimen is still on the open market.

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Allosaurus Scott Hartman, Author provided

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探花直播price or value of fossils has a history that is practically as long as the science of palaeontology (the study of fossils) itself. Believe it or not, the tongue-twister 鈥渟he sells seashells on the seashore鈥� has its origin in the work of one of the earliest and most celebrated fossil collectors, Mary Anning. Mary lived during the early decades of the 19th century and had the knack of finding fossils, including those of seashells 鈥� bivalves, brachiopods, belemnites and ammonites 鈥� along the shores of Dorset and in the crumbling Jurassic cliffs, which she then sold.

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Dinosaurs are fossils and do have a value, but I am only really interested in their value as scientific objects. Here are some of the discoveries that really have made a difference to science.

Megalosaurus

Pride of place must go to Megalosaurus bucklandi 鈥淏uckland鈥檚 big reptile鈥� 鈥� because it proved to be the earliest discovered and scientifically described dinosaur.

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Megalosaurus jaw Buckland Author provided

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It鈥檚 remains, though incomplete, began to be collected from quarries at the village of Stonesfield in Oxfordshire in about 1815. 探花直播bones, teeth and jaws were passed to Oxford 探花直播 Museum, where they still reside, and were studied by the greatest living anatomist of the time Georges Cuvier, who visited Oxford (and its custodian William Buckland) from Paris to see the material.

William Buckland (with Cuvier鈥檚 help) described these fossils in a scientific article published in 1824. Buckland as well as Cuvier deduced that the bones belonged to a gigantic reptile, the like of which had not been seen before. Over the next decade and half more large fossil reptile bones were recovered in England and reviewed by the British anatomist Richard Owen. In 1842 Owen decided that these fossils were so utterly different from any known reptiles that they deserved to be classified as a completely new group of giant fossil reptiles: Dinosauria 鈥� 鈥渢errible, or fearfully great, reptiles鈥�. Prior to 1842 nobody had heard of dinosaurs, the rest is, in essence, history. And Megalosaurus was the first.

Archaeopteryx

Charles Darwin profoundly disturbed the established Victorian world and galvanised scientific interest in evolution when he published his book On the Origin of Species in 1859. With masterly circumspection, his book laid out the reasons for concluding that organic life had changed or evolved over the immensity of geological time.

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Archaeopteryx restored Robert Nicholls. Sedgwick Museum, 探花直播 of Cambridge

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By an astonishing coincidence, a fossil was discovered in a quarry in southern Germany just one year after the publication of Origin. This fossil comprised the major part of the crow-sized, delicately-boned skeleton of a creature that was named by Richard Owen Archaeopteryx lithographica (鈥渁ncient wing on writing stone鈥�).

探花直播fossil was extraordinary because around the bones were seen the impressions of feathers (which of course implied that this was a bird) yet what was also seen in the skeleton were clear traces of teeth (no bird has teeth), hands with three well-developed clawed fingers (no bird has clawed fingers of that type) and its tail comprised a long string of small bones from which radiated a fan of feathers (no bird has a long string of tail bones).

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Archaeopteryx NHM Author provided

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This animal was an absolutely perfect 鈥渕issing link鈥� that connected living birds with feathers, to the group of scaly reptiles with teeth in their jaws, clawed fingers and long bony tails. Just a few years after this discovery was announced a friend and colleague of Darwin鈥檚, Thomas Henry Huxley, suggested on the basis of the structure of Archaeopteryx, that birds and dinosaurs (not just any old reptile) were close relatives.

Not many agreed with Huxley at the time, but he has been proved to have been absolutely correct. Its original remains are preserved at the Natural History Museum, London.

Diplodocus

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Diplodocus Scott Hartman

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Andrew Carnegie was a profoundly wealthy industrialist based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania during the latter half of the 19th century. After he had amassed his fortune, Carnegie began to spend his money philanthropically. News came to him of the discovery of impressive dinosaur skeletons in the American mid-west so he decided he wanted one for his new museum ( 探花直播Carnegie Museum) in Pittsburgh. So he financed expeditions to northern Wyoming and southern Utah to find some more dinosaurs. And find them they did, including a near complete skeleton of the biggest dinosaur discovered to date.

探花直播skeleton was named Diplodocus carnegiei 鈥撀�"Carnegie鈥檚 double-beam". 探花直播entire animal, as reconstructed (with just a few additions for completeness, such as 鈥渂orrowed鈥� front feet from another animal altogether) was over 25 metres long and dwarfed in size and completeness anything discovered up to that date.

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Diplodocus at the Natural History Museum Valdiney Pimenta/flickr, CC BY

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So proud of this dinosaur was Carnegie that he had many copies cast in plaster and sent to museums around the world. 探花直播giant dinosaur in the main hall of the Natural History Museum in London is a cast of Carnegie鈥檚 Diplodocus.

Deinonychus

In the mid 1960s a young palaeontology professor, John Ostrom from Yale 探花直播 was exploring the badlands of Montana looking for dinosaur fossils. What he found was to change our understanding of dinosaurs, their biology and behaviour in the most extraordinary way. Ostrom discovered the scattered remains of a medium-sized predatory dinosaur which he studied and then named Deinonychus antirrhopus 鈥� 鈥淭errible claw with a counterbalance鈥�.

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Deinonychus Scott Hartman, Author provided

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He realised that this animal was a fast moving, highly intelligent, keen-sighted predator (not at all the slow, lumbering and slow-witted image of the dinosaur that was current at the time). He also showed that it was remarkably bird-like in its anatomy, and suggested that the bird similarities suggested that birds and small predatory dinosaurs were so closely similar that birds probably evolved from them.

These were highly controversial views at the time, even though they echoed the early ideas of Thomas Huxley in the 1860s. They also posed serious biological questions: if birds and dinosaurs of this type are related could it be that some dinosaurs were more like birds in a biological sense? 探花直播debate raged for decades.

Scelidosaurus

I include this dinosaur, which is somewhat less heralded than the others, because it really ought to have been a dinosaur that changed the world.

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Scelidosaurus Gregory S Paul, Author provided

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In 1858 dinosaur bones were discovered in the Jurassic cliffs at Charmouth and soon a nearly complete skeleton of this dinosaur was excavated and given to Richard Owen (the person who invented the Dinosauria) at the British Museum in London.

In the 1860s, Owen named it Scelidosaurus harrisonii 鈥撀�"Harrison鈥檚 shoulder reptile", but almost inexplicably failed to grasp the importance of its anatomy, or the way in which it pointed to the divisions between differing dinosaur groups and, in fact, why dinosaurs had proved so difficult to understand at the time.

Owen had the equivalent of a Rosetta Stone before him, yet he failed to grasp its importance. 探花直播probable reason why such an insightful scientist missed such an important moment is that he was simply too busy, including setting in motion the plans to have an entirely new national museum built. Without Owen the Natural History Museum in London, where the original bones of Scelidosaurus still lie, would not have been constructed. In fact, I am studying them at this very moment 鈥� hence my undoubted bias.

Sinosauropteryx

In 1996 an astonishing discovery was made in Liaoning, China. It comprised a virtually complete skeleton of a small, predatory dinosaur (smaller than, but generally similar to, Deinonychus).

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Sinosauropteryx Author provided

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It was described briefly in 1998 and named Sinosauropteryx prima 鈥� 鈥淔irst Chinese reptile wing鈥� 鈥� but the most extraordinary feature associated with this fossil was that on the rocky slab upon which the skeleton was displayed there were traces of a wispy, dark-staining material that formed a sort of fringe following the body outline, as well as forming a dark spot in the area of the eye, and also formed a dark mass in the area of the gut/body cavity. 探花直播conditions of exceptional fossil preservation associated with these rocks in Liaoning seemed to preserve some remnant of the body tissues of the original animal.

Most intriguing was the fringe of tissue around the body: it looked like fur. 探花直播implication was that it had an epidermal covering (outer coat), perhaps an insulating layer. Given Ostrom鈥檚 earlier work on Deinonychus, the suggestion was made that this was indeed an insulated dinosaur that was able to keep its body warm (rather like a modern bird using fine down-like feathers that might have been preserved as a halo-like fringe when fossilised).

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Still with us? Danny Chapman/flickr, CC BY

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This and subsequent discoveries demonstrated the wisdom of Huxley鈥檚 intuition based largely upon Archaeopteryx and the validity of Ostrom鈥檚 work on Deinonychus. We now know that many (but not all) dinosaurs were feathered, and that some were capable of flight and some were indeed the progenitors of modern birds.

David Norman, Reader in Paleobiology, Curator of Palaeontology, Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences, 探花直播 of Cambridge

This article was originally published on 探花直播Conversation. Read the original article.

探花直播opinions expressed in this article are those of the individual author(s) and do not represent the views of the 探花直播 of Cambridge.

David Norman (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences) discusses the fossil discoveries that really made a difference to science.

David Nicholls. Sedgwick Museum, 探花直播 of Cambridge

Deinonychus

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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Iggy the Iguanodon and the 160-year-old dinosaur song

amb206 — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 08:28:17 +0000

Scroll to the end of the article to listen to the podcast.

On New Year鈥檚 Eve 1853, a group of entrepreneurs dined inside the mould聽for聽a giant model Iguanodon and, it is reported, sang a rousing song in praise of dinosaurs.聽探花直播chorus runs: 探花直播jolly old beast/Is not deceased/There鈥檚 life in him again! ROAR. 探花直播model that provided an unlikely dinner venue that December evening was part of a set of concrete dinosaurs 鈥� the world鈥檚 first full-size dino-sculptures聽鈥撀爉ade for the Crystal Palace at Sydenham.

Some 160 years on, Cambridge 探花直播 has revived this song in celebration of the Iguanodon (nicknamed Iggy) on display at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences. Barney Brown, the 探花直播鈥檚 head of digital communications, set the dinosaur lyrics to a bluegrass tune which he sings in a gravelly voice.聽It鈥檚 not known when the song was last heard by the public or what the original musical score was.聽探花直播lyrics appear in WJT Mitchell's 探花直播Last Dinosaur Book (1998) 聽and the song is discussed in Science in Wonderland (2015)聽by Melanie Keene (Homerton College, Cambridge).

A plaster replica of a skeleton found in a mine in 1878, Iggy was given to the Sedgwick Museum by the King of Belgium.聽探花直播original creature would have measured 11 metres from nose to tail and weighed more than an elephant. Fossilised bones of Iguanodon or its close relatives, which lived between 140 and 120 million years ago in the Cretaceous Period, have also been found in several places in Britain, notably the Isle of Wight, West Sussex, East Sussex, Surrey, Kent, Dorset, Yorkshire and Potton in Bedfordshire.

Iggy is posed in the 鈥榢angaroo-style鈥� posture that was an early interpretation of the creature's stance. Palaeobiologist Dr David Norman, who was director of the Sedgwick Museum from 1991 to 2011, has shown in the course of his work on dinosaurs that this upright posture would not have been possible for an animal like this; it would have spent much of its time browsing and walking on all four legs.

Research by Norman has shown that three of the fingers of Iguanodon鈥檚鈥榟ands鈥� were modified to form a load-bearing foot with toes that ended in broad, flattened hooves. 探花直播鈥榯humb鈥� was a ferocious dagger-like spike, while its 鈥榣ittle finger鈥� was elongate and prehensile, and could have been used to help grasp clumps of vegetation.

鈥� 探花直播animal's back and tail were stiffened by bundles of bony rods 鈥撀爋ssified tendons 鈥� that you can see if you look along the spine of the animal. These bony tendons would have stiffened the back while it was held more or less horizontally and the tail, which stuck out at the rear, would have acted as a heavy cantilever (or counterbalance) to the front part of the body,鈥� says Norman.

鈥� 探花直播bony tendons running along the sides of the spine would also have prevented the dinosaur from bending the base of its tail, as seen in the skeleton in the Sedgwick Museum, and adopting such a steeply upright posture."

Underneath the skeleton is a fossilised footprint, thought to have been made by an Iguanodon walking on a soft surface. 探花直播footprint was found on the seashore, having eroded out of the cliffs near Atherfield Point on the Isle of Wight. Collections manager Dan Pemberton says: 鈥� 探花直播footprint in the museum is approximately 17 inches, or 43cm, long from the back of the print to the tip of the middle toe. Even bigger footprints can be found in the Cretaceous rocks exposed on the foreshore of the Isle of Wight.鈥�

Iguanodon was one of the first dinosaurs to be discovered and scientifically described by the Sussex-based doctor Gideon Mantell (1790-1852). Mantell at first envisaged Iguanodon as a gigantic lizard-like reptile but later on he thought that it might have resembled something like a giant ground sloth. One of his contemporaries (Richard Owen) 鈥撀爓ho invented the word dinosaur to recognise the existence of a group of stupendously large, extinct reptiles 鈥撀燿educed that it must have been a sort of gigantic reptilian rhinoceros, complete with a horn (a misplaced thumb spike) on the tip of its nose.

鈥� 探花直播discoveries at Bernissart in Belgium helped greatly to clarify our understanding of this animal, since the skeletons were mostly complete and articulated 鈥� their bones were preserved in more or less the same arrangement as they had been in life,鈥� says Norman. 鈥淓ven so, the animal's typical life posture was misinterpreted because the scientist, Louis Dollo, who described them in the 1880s, was convinced that their habits were like those of giraffes, which feed high in the treetops, rather than like rhinoceroses that browse low to the ground.鈥�

Norman has revealed many new and unexpected aspects of the way of life and general biology of Iguanodon. He has also shown that there was a variety of Iguanodon-like dinosaurs that lived in southern England during the Cretaceous Period including Iguanodon itself, Mantellisaurus, Barilium and Hypselospinus. They were all quite large plant-eaters, and all of them had that very distinctive spiky thumb.

In her book, Science in Wonderland, Dr Melanie Keene (Homerton College) explores the hugely enthusiastic public response to the creation of one of the world鈥檚 first sets of full-sized dinosaur models 鈥� including an Iguanodon based on Owen鈥檚 version of how it might have looked.

She says: 鈥� 探花直播models were made by sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins for the landscaped gardens around the Crystal Palace in 1854. An expanded, commercial version of the Great Exhibition that had been held in Hyde Park three years earlier, the Sydenham enterprise was one vast project of visual education. Visitors described its array of artwork, installations, fountains and glasshouse as like a trip to fairyland, and the concrete monsters were the star of the show.鈥�

Even before the exhibition had opened, the sculpted beasts made it into the newspapers, with coverage of a celebratory meal held in the mould of the Iguanodon model on New Year鈥檚 Eve 1853. That evening, investors, men of science, and Hawkins, had dined in style, and had even joined together in song to hymn their achievement: 鈥楢 thousand ages underground,/His skeleton had lain,/But now his body鈥檚 big and round/And there鈥檚 life in him again!... 探花直播jolly old beast/Is not deceased/There鈥檚 life in him again!/ROAR鈥�.

探花直播Iguanodon model has come to be an iconic part of the South East London landscape, and reproduced in many different media. For example, versions of the Crystal Palace monsters have appeared in many children鈥檚 books over the past 150 years, from E Nesbit鈥檚 Enchanted Castle to Topsy and Tim Meet the Monsters. 鈥淪ome authors, like the singing diners, favoured a resurrectionary theme, modifying the display鈥檚 original didactic intentions and instead converting models such as the Iguanodon into terrifying creatures that came to life at night and menaced the young,鈥� says Keene.

More recent children鈥檚 books have, in line with the increasingly outdated appearance of the creatures, featured the monsters as rather funny-looking friends to children. In 1970 Ann Coates combined both of these elements in her Dinosaurs Don鈥檛 Die (1970), which brought the Iguanodon model back to life as a character, 鈥楻ock鈥�, who befriended her protagonist, Daniel. In the book, boy and creature cross London together to see a more modern interpretation of the Iguanodon on show at the Natural History Museum, the contrast between the old and new forms brilliantly captured in John Vernon Lord鈥檚 evocative illustrations.

Keene adds: 鈥淪urviving the catastrophic fire that destroyed the main building in 1936, these amazing artefacts can still be seen today in Crystal Palace Park, and have most recently been cast as objects in need of conservation. Here in Cambridge, a miniature version of Owen鈥檚 rhinoceros-like Iguanodon can be seen beside the full-sized skeleton in the Sedgwick Museum.鈥�

Next in the Cambridge Animal Alphabet: J is for a creature so clever it has been nicknamed the "feathered ape" by researchers.

Inset images: Louis Dollo supervising the reconstruction of an Iguanodon (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences);聽Iggy's skull. 探花直播entire seketon was dismantled, repaired and repainted in 2004 (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences); Crystal Palace Iguanodon (Wikimedia Commons);聽Woodcut of the famous聽banquet in Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' standing Crystal Palace Iguanodon, New Year's Eve, 1853 (Wikimedia Commons).

The聽Cambridge Animal Alphabet series聽celebrates Cambridge's connections with animals through literature, art, science and society. Here, I is for Iguanodon聽鈥� a聽thousand ages underground, his skeleton had lain, but now his body鈥檚 big and round, and there鈥檚 life in him again!

Visitors described the Crystal Palace's array of artwork, installations, fountains and glasshouse as like a trip to fairyland, and the concrete monsters were the star of the show

Melanie Keene

Jolly Old Beast

Wikimedia Commons

Woodcut of the famous (crowded) banquet in Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins' standing Crystal Palace Iguanodon, New Year's Eve, 1853.

探花直播text in this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. For image use please see separate credits above.

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