John Pickrell's Blog, page 2
August 1, 2014
New Jurassic World poster released
Last week a new teaser poster for 2015′s Jurassic World (Jurassic Park IV) was released at the Comic-Con event in San Diego, California. It’s a moody looking image featuring a lone and disappointingly featherless Velociraptor (to see what a Velociraptor would really have looked like, click here) It’s caused some ripples of excitement across the ... [Read more...]
July 25, 2014
New species, Kulindadromeus, hints all dinosaurs were feathered
New dinosaur discoveries (such as four-winged Changyuraptor) seem to come nearly every week these days, but few are this exciting. Fossils of a new species from Siberia may be some of the best evidence yet that feathers were not restricted to the carnivorous theropods but were in fact a trait shared by all groups ... [Read more...]
VIDEO: Anzu wyliei
Anzu wyliei – United States, Late Cretaceous (66 million years ago), described 2014 From the Hell Creek formation of the Dakotas, Anzu has been described by the Smithsonian Institution and Carnegie Museum scientists who found it as the ‘chicken from hell’ and a cross between an emu and a lizard. Only the second feathered ... [Read more...]
What would a feathered Velociraptor look like?
The fourth installation of the Jurassic Park movie series, Jurassic World, is being filmed in Hawaii and New Orleans right now, and is due to hit cinemas in June 2015. But the film has courted controversy for a number of reasons, not least for the suggestion that its representations of dinosaurs are inaccurate and ... [Read more...]
July 24, 2014
Relationships of the theropod dinosaurs
Source: Information from M Benton (2014), Vertebrate Palaentology, 4th edn, Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley-Blackwell; and personal communication with Professor Mike Benton.
July 18, 2014
Beautiful new Archaeopteryx fossil found
The earliest specimen of Archaeopteryx – the ‘first bird’ – was discovered in 1861 and was recognised as a missing link between reptiles and birds. Though they are incredibly important fossils, Archaeopteryx specimens have been very hard to come by. Since 1861 only 11 full body specimens (most missing their skulls), and one lone ... [Read more...]
July 15, 2014
Changyuraptor: New four-winged dinosaur found
In the early stages of evolving flight, feathered dinosaurs tried an interesting experiment: they developed four wings. These small dinosaurs – such as Microraptor, Anchiornis and Xiaotingia – had long flight feathers on their hind limbs as well as their fore limbs, and they had long bony tails, similarly replete with large feathers. It appears ... [Read more...]
June 10, 2014
AUDIO: Chatting to ABC Alice Springs
I had a good chat to Nadine Maloney yesterday on ABC Alice Springs about Flying Dinosaurs. Listen to the clip here.
June 2, 2014
VIDEO: Talking flying dinosaurs with ABC News 24
I stopped by for a chat last night about Flying Dinosaurs with Scott Bevan and Laetitia Lemke on ABC News 24.
AUDIO: ABC Queensland interview on dinosaur-bird link
This afternoon I had a good chat to Rebecca McLaren on ABC Queensland about Flying Dinosaurs and the dinosaur-bird link. A lot has changed in the world of dinosaurs since Jurassic Park was released in 1993. The original film would look – and sound – very different if it were made today. Would Tyrannosaurus rex ... [Read more...]
