Rareresource
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Free of dinosaurs, birds gorged until flightless
SPOILT for food and with their dinosaur predators recently extinct, few birds put on so much weight they became too fat to fly.
DNA examination of giant birds such as emus and ostriches, led by Australian National University's Matthew Phillips, discloses how birds such as the Australasian emu and cassowary, the now-extinct New Zealand moa, the South American rhea and African ostrich scattered around the globe.
The study proposes that flightless birds known as ratites were not necessarily relics of the super continent Gondwana - which drifted apart 100 million years ago to form continents including Africa, Australia and South America - but were able to fly to new lands.
Dr Phillips, an evolutionary biologist, said molecular dating had proposed that the ancestors of these birds became flightless independently about 65 million years ago, around the similar time Dinosaurs became extinct.
Life without dinosaurs not only eliminated a predator, the birds were left with more vegetation to feed on and could spend more time on the ground foraging without worrying about the need to fly from danger.
Labels: Dinosaur bones, Dinosaur picture, Dinosaurs games, Dinosaurs movie, New Dinosaurs
posted by Tamil Nadu ,Tamilnadu Government,Places,Wild Life,Hill Stations,Temples,Sports,Accomodation,Cusine,Fine Art
@ 8:10 AM
permanent link | Post a Comment |
0
comments
Friday, January 8, 2010
Korean dinosaur photo book hits shelves
A book of dinosaur fossils found out on the Korean Peninsula was published on Tuesday, a rare photo guide to the reptiles that left their last footprints on southern coasts 80 million years ago.
The publication by the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, a state-run preservation agency, tracks a series of landmark discoveries in the country last year, including the fossil of a horned dinosaur that scientists say is an unknown species, and footprints of a baby dinosaur that are the smallest of their kind found so far.
Paleontologists say dinosaurs existed in Korea from 120 million to 80 million years ago, throughout much of the Cretaceous period, the last stage of the Mesozoic era and the heyday for dinosaurs. Their fossils, relatively well-preserved and discovered in a richly diverse spectrum across the southern South Korean coasts, at present registered on a tentative list of the World Heritage site, en route to gaining major recognition.
"Many of them were only known in academia, and the major merit of this book is that it comes with photographs and effortless texts so that they can be known to ordinary people. Our idea was that people can use it as a guide when they go observe the footprints," said Lim Jong-deock, chief curator at the institute and one of the seven co-authors of the book, "Dinosaur Fossils of Korea." Lim stressed the book is the primary full collection of Korean dinosaur fossils designated as a natural heritage here. Its English edition is expected later on this year.
Labels: Dinosaurs movie, Dinosaurs research, Real Dinosaur picture, Walking with Dinosaurs
posted by Tamil Nadu ,Tamilnadu Government,Places,Wild Life,Hill Stations,Temples,Sports,Accomodation,Cusine,Fine Art
@ 9:40 AM
permanent link | Post a Comment |
0
comments
Thursday, January 7, 2010
William May, dinosaur creator, dies
WILLIAM H. ''Billy'' May, the theatrical producer who produced the Walking with Dinosaurs arena show, died in St Vincent's Hospital on New Year's Eve, aged 56, due to complications from pneumonia.
A showman who trained at the New York High School of presenting Arts, May moved to Australia in 1972 at the age of 19 to be with his life partner, producer Malcolm Cooke. Together, the two men worked on more than 40 productions in London,Australia and New York, including the Arts Centre's 2002 production of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a 1983 Broadway musical about Marilyn Monroe (Marilyn - a Fable) and a 1997 West End musical, Always, about the love affair between Edward VII and Wallis Simpson.
May had his share of challenges as well as victories, says Cooke. Always was believed to be the pinnacle of May's theatrical career, but savage reviews closed the show.
They sold May's Skippy film script to Rupert Murdoch at 20th Century Fox, only to have the deal discarded by studio executive Barry Diller, aghast that his boss wanted to greenlight ''a kangaroo movie''.
May was inspired to create his enduringly profitable 2007 touring arena show Walking with Dinosaurs by watching the cranes working overnight to construct the Southern Cross Station.
Labels: Dinosaurs movie, Dinosaurs research, Real Dinosaur picture, Walking with Dinosaurs
posted by Tamil Nadu ,Tamilnadu Government,Places,Wild Life,Hill Stations,Temples,Sports,Accomodation,Cusine,Fine Art
@ 10:03 AM
permanent link | Post a Comment |
0
comments