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The Best Lego Jurassic World Set In 2019

Sunday, December 8, 2019

In this guide we’ll look at the best Lego Jurassic World sets. We’ve compared design, detail, difficulty and cost to give you our top recommendations.

10. Dilophosaurus Ambush

You know you're in trouble in the Dilophosaurus Ambush when that little green monster flares its neck at you. You'll need to grab it with the winch before its snapping jaws get too close — but be careful that it doesn't set off the exploding feature on the Jeep.

  • Comes with two minifigures
  • A good buy for fans of original film
  • Many pieces also found in other sets

9. Raptor Escape

Charlie and Echo are on the loose in Raptor Escape. Can you herd them through the trap's closing gate using the ATV, or will you need to break out the missile launcher? The hungry creatures are all set to eat something — better hope it's not you.

  • Holding pen with searchlight
  • Entire tower is collapsible
  • Door is a little flimsy

8. Triceratops Rampage

The Triceratops Rampage features an egg-spinner amusement park ride, along with an entrance gate and a collapsible fence. Youngsters are sure to enjoy acting out dramatic scenes as the heroes pursue the fearsome, three-horned escapee with a hanging carrot as bait.

  • Includes 4 figurines
  • Downloadable companion app
  • Too simple for older kids

7. Baryonyx Face-Off

With the Baryonyx Face-Off, builders as young as 7 can help Owen Grady, Claire Dearing, and other movie-inspired characters chase the creature through the jungle. Included is a cool Jeep and a trailer with a highly detailed interior.

  • Posable dino with claws
  • Chest full of treasure
  • Some pieces come apart easily

6. Pteranodon Capture

One of the most exciting aspects of the film was that some dinosaurs took to the skies, and now you can as well, thanks to the Pteranodon Capture. The frightful winged creature can pick up the trooper with its claws or use them to take down the helicopter.

  • Tranquilizer gun and trap shooter
  • Cockpit holds a minifigure
  • Rotor blade actually spins

5. T. Rex Tracker

If you forgot to lock the gate, you'll need the T. Rex Tracker to save your coworkers from the angry beast's snapping jaws. Once you catch it with the harpoon trap shooter, you can toss it in the cage and send it back home, where it belongs.

  • Good set for beginners
  • Includes awesome motorcycle
  • Can store lots of stuff in the truck

4. Indominus Rex Breakout

It's not cheap, but the Indominus Rex Breakout will allow you to recreate one of the most thrilling scenes from the movie. Will you be able to bring down the giant monster with your helicopter or will you need to take off after it in the gyrosphere?

  • Rare doctor wu figurine
  • Tower with research lab
  • Functional feeding crane

3. T. rex vs Dino-Mech Battle

With the T. rex vs Dino-Mech Battle kids can role-play using the short-armed, yet imposing, creature that has met its match in the form of a mechanical foe. In the meantime, the human characters can search for the precious gems hidden in the Isla Nublar volcano.

  • Battle-ready boat with stud shooters
  • 4 baby velociraptors
  • Highly detailed design

2. Carnotaurus Gyrosphere

When the ferocious theropod of the Carnotaurus Gyrospherecloses in, you can help Owen, Claire, and Franklin roll away to safety in their clear, spinning orb. They can also make their escape in the mobile control center truck, which features a 2-seater cab and a shooter.

  • Includes a nest with eggs
  • Exploding lava rocks
  • Many pieces are unique to this set

1. Raptor Rampage

When you think "Jurassic World," you think of velociraptors, and with the Raptor Rampage you can have Blue and Charlie pay a visit to the mobile vet unit. Use the motorbike and flare gun to get their attention before you nail them with the tranquilizer gun.

  • Rotating rooftop shooter
  • Miniature cell phone
  • Quick and easy to assemble

Source: https://wiki.ezvid.com/

Dinosaur Surprise: Scientists Find Collagen Inside a 195-Million-Year-Old Bone

Sunday, December 8, 2019

A piece of the 195-million-year-old Lufengosaurus rib, where bits of collagen were found. (Robert Reisz)

Dinosaur paleontology has long been the domain of bones and teeth – but now soft tissues could be changing the game. Scientists say they have discovered collagen preserved in a 195-million-year-old rib from a long-necked Lufengosaurus.

The study, described in the journal Nature Communications, are more than 100 million years older than the previous record-holder, shattering the notion that such soft tissues are short-lived and cannot be preserved. These kinds of samples could offer paleontologists a whole new window through which to study these long-gone creatures.

“This finding extends the record of preserved organic remains more than 100 million years, and highlights the importance of using in situ approaches to these types of investigations,” the study authors wrote.

For a long time, scientists believed that protein molecules could only last about 4 million years or so; only hard tissues like bone and teeth could be preserved over longer geologic time scales. Soft tissues like cartilage and muscle typically decay long before they can be preserved.

Recent studies have begun to challenge that notion. A study in 2015 found evidence of and red blood cells within a 75-million-year-old claw from a carnivorous dinosaur. That finding met with no small amount of skepticism, said Susannah Maidment, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Brighton who was not involved in the current study but who co-authored that 2015 paper.

“Now, the weight of evidence has really shifted,” she said. “There are instances in the fossil record where protein can be preserved over really quite long geologic timescales, and we haven‘t hit the boundary yet of what those geologic timescales are.”

The new fossil evidence comes from a Lufengosaurus, a genus of early sauropodomorph dinosaurs that probably walked on two legs instead of four (unlike their fellow long-necked cousins, the sauropods). Rather than removing the sample from the bone, and thus risk damaging or contaminating it, the scientists used confocal Raman spectroscopy and a type of infrared spectroscopy to study the insides of the bones in detail.

Within a rib, the scientists found fragments of proteins, likely from the collagen in the bone‘s vascular canals. Those canals were also polka-dotted with collections of hematite – an iron oxide that may have come in part from hemoglobin and other iron-rich proteins in the dinosaur‘s . It‘s possible that this iron may have acted as an antioxidant, the authors wrote, preventing the proteins from decaying further.

“The characteristic infrared absorption spectra of collagen and protein provide undeniable, clear evidence that collagen and protein remains were preserved inside the osteonal central vascular canals of this early dinosaur,” the study authors wrote.

Comparing the collagen locked in the bones of different species could compel researchers to redraw parts of the dinosaur family tree, Maidment said. That‘s because the proteins in collagen are closely tied to their particular animal group – which could allow scientists to use the samples almost like soft-tissue “fingerprints.”

“As paleontologists, the only thing we have to build a family tree of the dinosaurs is their bones,” she explained. “Now biologists of course have DNA, but we don‘t have DNA so we only look at the bones. Our is very much restricted to looking at the hard parts – and that might be swaying our calculations a little bit. If we were able to extract collagen and carry out collagen fingerprinting on these bones, then we would have a whole independent line of evidence.”

For now, scientists are still trying to figure out how these protein fragments really managed to last so long in the first place. And the next challenge, Maidment said, will likely be figuring out how to safely extract these remnants so they can be studied in even greater detail.

More information: Yao-Chang Lee et al. Evidence of preserved collagen in an Early Jurassic sauropodomorph dinosaur revealed by synchrotron FTIR microspectroscopy, Nature Communications (2017).

Source: https://livingstonledger.com/

Origolestes lii: New Cretaceous-Period Mammal Unveiled

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Life reconstruction of Origolestes lii. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

Paleontologists have discovered the remains of a previously unknown symmetrodont mammal that lived alongside dinosaurs in what is now China. The fossils provide a record of the final steps in the evolution of mammals’ multi-boned middle ears.

“While modern mammals owe their keen sense of hearing to the three tiny bones that form the complex architecture of the middle ear, these tiny ossicles were once instead part of the jaw, which served a dual function for both chewing and hearing in our earliest ancestors,” said Dr. Fangyuan Mao, a researcher in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, the CAS Center for Excellence in Life and Paleoenvironment, and the American Museum of Natural History, and her colleagues.

“The evolutionary event in which jaw bones were co-opted to form the tri-ossicular hearing apparatus of mammals is widely recognized. However, fossilized examples demonstrating the intermittent steps are elusive.”

“The detached auditory bones of the newly-discovered Cretaceous mammal represent an important final step in the evolution of the definitive mammalian middle ear.”

The ancient mammal belongs to Symmetrodonta, a group of Mesozoic mammals and mammal-like synapsids.

Named Origolestes lii, the creature was part of the famous Jehol Biota, an early Cretaceous terrestrial and freshwater ecosystem preserved in a multi-layered rock formation cropping out in the Chinese provinces of Liaoning, Hebei and Inner Mongolia.

Using high-resolution CT scanning and other imaging efforts, Dr. Mao and co-authors were able to study structures of the creatures’ auditory bones and cartilage, which lacked the bone-on-bone contact of earlier species.

Skeleton of Origolestes lii. Image credit: Mao et al, doi: 10.1126/science.aay9220.

“The multidirectional movements of the mandibular during chewing are likely to be one of the selection pressures that caused the detachment of the auditory ossicles from the dental bone and the Mecke’s cartilage,” Dr. Mao said.

“This decoupled feature in Origolestes lii bridges the morphological gap between the transitional and the definitive mammalian middle ear and represents a more advanced stage in the evolution of the mammalian middle ear,” the study authors explained.

“From the perspective of morphology and function, the decoupled hearing and chewing modules eliminated physical constraints that interfered with each other and possibly increased the capacity of the two modules to evolve.”

“Therefore, the hearing module may have had greater potential to develop sensitive hearing of high frequency sounds, and the chewing module may have been able to evolve diverse tooth morphologies and occlusal patterns that facilitated consuming different foods.”

The study was published in the journal Science.

_____

Fangyuan Mao et al. Integrated hearing and chewing modules decoupled in a Cretaceous stem therian mammal. Science, published online December 5, 2019; doi: 10.1126/science.aay9220

Source: www.sci-news.com/

Eobodotria muisca: New Fossil Fills Gap in Evolution of Comma Shrimps

Friday, December 6, 2019

Eobodotria muisca bridges an approximately 165 million year gap in the cumacean fossil record. Image credit: Javier Luque.

A new species of comma shrimp that lived during the mid-Cretaceous period, between 95 and 90 million years ago, has been identified from well-preserved fossils found in Colombia. Named Eobodotria muisca, the ancient crustacean bridges an approximately 165-million-year gap in the fossil record of comma shrimps (order Cumacea).

Comma shrimps, also known as hooded shrimps, are tiny marine arthropods with unusual comma-shaped bodies.

Even though they are an abundant group, with nearly 2,000 species distributed throughout the globe, they have one of the poorest fossil records among crustaceans.

“Comma shrimp are small, delicate crustaceans with one of the poorest fossil records among marine arthropods,” said Dr. Javier Luque, a postdoctoral researcher at Yale University.

“There are eight families, over 165 genera and close to 2,000 species of living comma shrimp, and despite living in soft sediments with high potential for fossilization worldwide, none of them have known fossils,” he added.

“This means that we had no idea about when modern comma shrimp evolved, until now. Our new fossil discovery is one of a kind and represents the oldest modern comma shrimp known, and a first for the Neotropics.”

Dr. Luque and colleagues found over 500 individuals of Eobodotria muisca at the site of Boyacá in Colombia.

The 6-8-mm-long specimens were preserved in such detail that even their eyes, antennae, mouthparts, legs, guts and hairs were easy to distinguish.

“These fossils are of hundreds of adult males, which likely died suddenly in the water column while swarming during mating, falling slowly through the water with little or no damage. This left them in truly stunning condition,” said Professor Sarah Gerken, from the University of Alaska Anchorage.

The excellent condition of the fossils allowed the team to create a 3D reconstruction of what they might have looked like while alive.

“The key morphological features that define cumaceans are simply missing from the other fossils. The 160-million-year-old Jurassic species from France is a true cumacean, but the few specimens known are not preserved in detail to elucidate any family relationship or even determine their sex,” Professor Gerken said.

“Our new fossil from Colombia, represented by hundreds of individuals, is the first confirmed fossil that belongs to a living family of comma shrimp, the Bodotriidae, and dramatically extends the fossil record of the family for nearly a hundred million years,” Dr. Luque said.

The team’s paper was published in the December 4, 2019 issue of the Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

_____

Luque Javier & Gerken Sarah. 2019. Exceptional preservation of comma shrimp from a mid-Cretaceous Lagerstätte of Colombia, and the origins of crown Cumacea. Proc. R. Soc. B 286 (1916); doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.1863

Source: www.sci-news.com/

This Is The Ultimate Dinosaur Road Trip

Friday, December 6, 2019

Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP

Eighty million years ago, a ferocious predecessor of Tyrannosaurus rex stalked the western shore of an ancient seaway that flooded through North America, slicing the continent in two.

Named Lythronax, or "king of gore," this 2.5-ton tyrannosaur stood a menacing eight feet tall and 24 feet long. Its powerful jaws could swiftly grab prey and tear it apart.

Lythronax is one of many magnificent new dinosaurs that paleontologists have unearthed across the northern Colorado Plateau, helping them piece together a complex evolutionary history.

Gazing across these stark desert landscapes, it's hard to envision a lush, verdant Jurassic Park. Yet in Utah alone, scientists have identified more than 100 dinosaur species just since the mid-1990s, says James Kirkland, Utah's state paleontologist.

"We're in the golden age of paleontology right now," said Kirkland. "These past 25 years, we've had a five-fold increase in numbers of dinosaur species identified in Utah. We now have more [known] dinosaur species than any other state in the nation."

Between about 220 and 65 million years ago, dinosaurs on what's now the Colorado Plateau endured dramatic geologic and climatic changes that moved continents, transformed swamplands into sand dunes and created the inland sea where the fearsome Lythronax hunted. To survive, they diverged into a wondrous array of creatures that left behind ample evidence of their presence.

Any dinosaur buff's road trip bucket list has to include the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, a fascinating tour through some of the best paleo sites on the Colorado Plateau. It includes active digs, world-class museums and scenic trails where you can literally track a dinosaur. And the whole loop — plus a couple of essential detours — can easily be done in a week or two.

Let's journey back in time to the dawn of dinosaurs in this region.

1. Horns, wings and the 'king of gore'

A new species of tyrannosaur unearthed in Utah went on display at the state's Natural History Museum in 2013. Al Hartmann/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP

Start in Salt Lake City by "boning up" on paleo history to understand how geology and climate affected dinosaur evolution. The Natural History Museum of Utah takes you back 252 million years to the beginning of the Mesozoic Era, which spanned 187 million years from the early Triassic to the Jurassic to the Cretaceous period.

Most of the dinosaurs are locals, excavated in Utah, including an 80-foot long Barosaurus and groundbreaking new finds like the horned Utahceratops and Lythronax. After its discovery in 2009, the "king of gore" made waves when a research team concluded that this type of tyrannosaur, closely related to T. rex, had evolved some 80 million years ago, 10 million years earlier than previously thought.

Visitors can watch staff prep research specimens in the lab and even take on the role of a paleontologist at a dig.

2. Meet Supersaurus

The Museum of Ancient Life is home to one of the world's largest dinosaur displays. Courtesy the Museum of Ancient Life

Prepare to be dazzled by one of the world's largest dinosaur displays at the interactive Museum of Ancient Life in Lehi, Utah. Here you'll see 60 complete skeletons, including the biggest dinosaur discovered: the 120-foot Supersaurus.

Kids can pretend to be paleontologists unearthing ancient fish fossils in the Junior Paleo Lab. In Dinosaur Revolution, they can mimic dinosaur behavior and undertake "Mesozoic missions" to learn more about these ancient creatures.

3. Dinosaurs frozen in time

Dinosaur bones protrude from a sandstone quarry wall at Dinosaur National Monument. Dinosaur National Monument/National Park Service

Next, head east toward Colorado to see one of the world's premiere dinosaur sites: Dinosaur National Monument. On the way, stop in Vernal at the Utah Field House of Natural History Museum, another fossil hotspot that will get you primed to explore this spectacular dinosaur graveyard.

Straddling the Utah-Colorado border along the Green River just outside Jensen, Utah, Dinosaur National Monument provides an up-close view of Carnegie Quarry, which has produced at least 11 species of dinosaurs over the past century.

These include the formidable predator Allosaurus, the long-necked, plant-eating Diplodocus and the armored Stegosaurus. The Quarry Exhibit Hall encases a massive sandstone wall where visitors gaze in awe at some 1,500 dinosaur bones in situ -- meaning in their original place -- still embedded in rock after tens of millions of years.

4. Grand discoveries in the Grand Valley

An easy loop hike around Dinosaur Hill marks the site where a 70-foot, 30-ton Apatosaurus was excavated. Alamy

First explored by paleontologists in 1899 after the railroad arrived, Colorado's Grand Valley quickly became famous for dinosaurs when Elmer Riggs excavated a 75-foot giant called Brachiosaurus in 1900. A trail circles Riggs Hill and marks the sites of two excavations, including Riggs' big discovery.

Northwest of Grand Junction, stroll the Trail Through Time, a well-interpreted loop passing by the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, where paleontologists have uncovered more than 4,000 dinosaur bones. In nearby McInnis Canyons National Conservation Area, trek up Dinosaur Hill and see where Riggs discovered a 70-foot, 30-ton Apatosaurus. Enjoy magnificent views of Colorado National Monument's rugged canyons and the Colorado River.

A tour of Grand Valley paleo wouldn't be complete without the Dinosaur Journey Museum in Fruita, which boasts skeletons of Velociraptor and Camarasaurus, a 50-foot-long plant eater. The museum features realistic robotic dinosaurs, including a T. rex, Stegosaurus and Triceratops.

Visitors can peer into a working paleo lab and touch actual dinosaur bones and a footprint containing a dinosaur skin impression. Sign up to spend a day at the Mygatt-Moore Quarry, an active dig site where you can volunteer alongside working paleontologists.

5. Track an Allosaurus

Visitors to the Mill Canyon dinosaur track site can walk along an elevated boardwalk above Early Cretaceous-era tracks and contemplate illustrations such as this one by artist Brian Engh. Alamy

Moab is an adventure sports destination and the gateway to two popular national parks: Arches and Canyonlands. But the area also boasts several trails with well-preserved dinosaur tracks.

Check out Copper Ridge, featuring Jurassic-period tracks that include sauropods -- long-necked herbivores -- and the feisty Allosaurus, likely walking along a riverbank. The Poison Spider track site features 10 different carnivorous dinosaurs.

The crown jewel is Mill Canyon, where you can walk an elevated boardwalk above hundreds of younger Cretaceous-period tracks made 110 million years ago. Panels along the boardwalk feature vivid artwork depicting these dinosaurs in formerly lush, watery landscapes teeming with crocodiles.

"It's probably one of the best dinosaur track sites you can visit in the United States," said paleontologist Rob Gay, director of education at the Colorado Canyons Association.

Stop at Moab Giants, an interactive museum showcasing what scientists are learning from dinosaur tracks. Walk a half-mile trail with 130 realistic, full-size replicas of local dinosaurs.

The Museum of Moab exhibits local specimens, including Gastonia, an armored, Cretaceous dinosaur with long spikes protruding from its body and tail. The museum is due to fully reopen in 2020 after remodeling; contact the museum about special programming in the meantime.

6. The ultimate dinosaur graveyard

Passing through the gorgeous red-rock country of the southern San Rafael Swell, State Route 24 offers a scenic drive to the tiny town of Hanksville and the remarkable Hanksville-Burpee Dinosaur Quarry.

Perhaps the largest single dinosaur site in North America, it's chock full of skeletons -- so many that full excavation could take centuries. After just a decade, the quarry has produced everything from tiny prehistoric animals to 70-foot-long giants.

Like Dinosaur National Monument, the Hanksville-Burpee Quarry was once part of a big river system that buried and preserved remains, which helps explain the rich diversity of specimens. "It's one of the most beautiful dinosaur sites of the Jurassic that I know of," said Kirkland.

The Burpee Museum of Natural History offers public tours when its crews are excavating. Contact the BLM field station in Hanksville to plan your visit, which requires a high clearance vehicle.

7. Astonishing new discoveries

Over the past 20 years, the Kaiparowits Plateau has yielded some of the most remarkable paleontological discoveries in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times/Getty Images

After touring nearby Capitol Reef National Park, drive southwest to one of the hottest paleo research sites in the country: Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.

Groundbreaking new finds -- including Lythronax and an armored, knobby-headed species of ankylosaur discovered in 2008 -- occur here almost every year. Paleontologists are amassing a remarkable trove of data about the late Cretaceous (near the end of the age of dinosaurs) from about 70 to 100 million years ago, a slice of time not well represented elsewhere on the Colorado Plateau.

At that time, the dramatic expanses of sandstone were a flat, humid land of redwood, pine and ginkgo forests. Visit Escalante Petrified Forest State Park to see Jurassic-period stone remnants of similar trees, then continue on Scenic Byway 12 toward Bryce Canyon National Park.

Keep your eyes peeled for a sign along the byway announcing The Blues, a panorama of blue-gray shale badlands that have produced many of the monument's recent dinosaur discoveries. The Blues are evidence of the inland Cretaceous sea that divided North America, creating a separate continent called Laramidia.

Check out a 95 million-year-old oyster bed along Cottonwood Canyon Scenic Backway, a remote dirt road providing access to gorgeous hiking trails through slot canyons and alongside cottonwood-shaded streambeds (high-clearance vehicles required).

The BLM visitor center in Big Water features an exciting exhibit of horned dinosaurs adorned with giant spikes and shields, including Triceratops. Don't miss the Twenty Mile Wash Dinosaur Trackway, where hundreds of tracks and even tail marks spread out across a pale sandstone outcropping.

8. Largest collection of dinosaur swim tracks

St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site is home to life-size models, a unique collection of dinosaur swim tracks and enormous rock slabs containing preserved dinosaurs. St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site

In the two decades since a local optometrist unearthed dinosaur tracks at his farm, paleontologists have pulled thousands of fossils from what's now known as the St. George Dinosaur Discovery Site.

You'll see enormous rock slabs that preserve dinosaurs in situ. Scientists have found evidence of local dinosaurs sitting on the edge of a vast prehistoric lake, and the museum claims the world's largest collection of dinosaur swim tracks. Recovered fish bones and scales suggest some ate fish and shared the lake with crocodiles.

Drive from the museum to the Warner Valley Track Site, an easy hike ringed with brilliant red cliffs. Signage describes large carnivorous dinosaur tracks around 190 million years old.

9. The mystery of 12,000 bones

Since it was first excavated in the 1920s, some 12,000 bones belonging to at least 74 dinosaurs have been unearthed at Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, now the site of Jurassic National Monument. Alamy

Finally, return to the San Rafael Swell to tour the densest known concentration of Jurassic dinosaur bones in the world at the Cleveland-Lloyd Dinosaur Quarry, now the centerpiece of the brand new Jurassic National Monument. Some 12,000 bones representing at least 74 different dinosaurs have been recovered here since the 1920s.

The museum features an enormous Allosaurus along with skulls of Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and Camarasaurus. At the quarry, peer over a balcony into light gray limestone to pick out the jet-black bones. Scientists are still unraveling the mystery of why so many dinosaurs died here.

10. The quarry and the ancient sea

On your way back to Salt Lake City, stop in Price at the Prehistoric Museum to learn more about the quarry and the ancient sea that so powerfully affected life here.

Before you go: Remember that removing dinosaur and other vertebrate fossils from public lands is illegal. When in doubt, ask.

Be safe: This is a breathtakingly beautiful region, but its rugged, remote terrain and extreme temperatures prove deadly every year. Check out these common-sense safety tips at visitutah.com.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/

'Jurassic World 3' Filming Under Working Title 'Arcadia', Heading to Canada in 2020

Friday, December 6, 2019

'Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom'. (Credit: Universal)

The third film in the Jurassic World series will shoot under the working title of Arcadia and is set to head to Canada in the first quarter of next year.

According to the latest issue of Production Weekly, with a tip of the hat to Jurassic Outpost, the movie will shoot under that working title, which was also the name of the boat which transported the dinosaurs off Isla Nublar in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom.

An entry on the Directors Guild of Canada’s latest list of productions taking place in British Columbia reveals that Arcadia will be filming in Vancouver between 24 February and 6 March.

Previous films in the franchise have also utilised working titles to conceal their productions, including Ebb Tide for Jurassic World and Ancient Futures for Fallen Kingdom.

The third Jurassic World movie — a continuation of the Jurassic Park franchise — will see Colin Trevorrow return to the director’s chair after ceding control to J.A. Bayona for 2018’s Fallen Kingdom.

Trevorrow remained aboard to co-write the script with his regular collaborator Derek Connolly.

Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Nick Robinson and Ty Simpkins in 'Jurassic World'. (Credit: Universal)

Jurassic World 3 will take place in a world in which dinosaurs are able to roam, after multiple species escaped during the conclusion of Fallen Kingdom.

That strand was picked up by the short film Battle at Big Rock, which Trevorrow directed in secret prior to its release earlier this year.

The new film will also bring in members of the original Jurassic Park cast, including Sam Neill and Laura Dern as well as Jeff Goldblum, who appeared briefly in Fallen Kingdom.

Returning star Bryce Dallas Howard told Cinema Blend she wanted the third film to take place in “a world with dinosaurs everywhere”.

She added: “I want for the third Jurassic World to be able to blow your mind in terms of being like: 'Whoa, this is where this technology can go. This is what the world could really turn into if this technology fell into the wrong hands.'“

Jurassic World 3 is due to be released on 11 June 2021.

Source: https://sports.yahoo.com/

New Jurassic World Movie Gets a Prequel Comic Series

Friday, December 6, 2019

A new motion comic helps explain the events that take place after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, unleashing dinosaurs on the entire world.

Universal Pictures has released a brand new motion comic, detailing the events that happen after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. Similar to Colin Trevorrow's short film Battle of Big Rockthis comic provides a new look at the new world where dinosaurs roam free among us.

In Fallen Kingdom, the captured dinosaurs on the mainland escape their cages, running amok in our world. The film ends with moments of impending danger such as Pteranodons in Vegas, A T-rex facing a lion at the zoo, and Blue the raptor looking over a suburban neighborhood. Furthermore, several species and DNA samples purchased at the Lockwood auction are taken away by the various governments and the insanely rich, which can't help the new era that's dawning.

The new motion comic, "A Rising Tide" takes one of those moments from the film and expands upon it. It begins with Dr. Ian Malcom's words from the film: 'These creatures were here before us...and if we're not careful they're going to be here after..." Newscaster Rebecca Ryan speaks to that grave warning, detailing the mass protests happening at the Capitol, with protestors wanting rights and protections to be granted for dinosaurs similar to that of any other animal. However, her broadcast is interrupted by an incident in Hawaii. During a big wave surf competition, surfers were disturbed and attacked by the massive Mosasaurus. Fans of the Jurassic World franchise will remember that the Mosasaur was the featured water attraction when the park was still active.

The beginning of this incident is seen at the end of Fallen Kingdom, so it's pretty interesting to see it played out here. The Mosasaur was a break out fan favorite dino, being featured in both the first and second Jurassic World films. Rebecca Ryan gives some more details on the hulking creature that are pretty fun to learn, such as the fact that the Mosasaur must have traveled almost five thousand miles to get to the shores of Oahu from Isla Nublar. She also shares that the animal is fifteen tons, meaning that it will be quite the challenge to contain. Furthermore, one of the surfers being interviewed is wearing a Jaws t-shirt, a fun nod to Steven Speilberg's work on both the Jurassic Park and Jaws franchises.

"A Rising Tide" is the first of a four part motion comic series. Hopefully the rest of the series will show more angles to the new era that has begun for mankind. Perhaps what happens to the Pteranodons in Las Vegas? Whatever the case, this new Jurassic World keeps getting bigger and better ahead of the eventual third film.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Mimodactylus libanensis: New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in Lebanon

Thursday, December 5, 2019

Life reconstruction of Mimodactylus libanensis. Image credit: Julius T. Csotonyi.

Paleontologists in Lebanon have discovered the extremely well-preserved fossilized remains of a previously unknown Cretaceous-period flying reptile.

Pterosaurs were highly successful flying reptiles — not dinosaurs, as they’re commonly mislabeled — that lived at the same time as nonavian dinosaurs, between 210 million and 65 million years ago.

Some pterosaurs were the largest flying animals of all time, with wingspans exceeding 30 feet (9 m) and standing heights comparable to modern giraffes.

The newly-discovered species was a comparatively small pterosaur, with long wings and a wingspan of approximately 4.3 feet (1.32 m).

Named Mimodactylus libanensis, it lived 95 million years ago (Cretaceous period) in the middle of what is now called the Tethys Seaway, a vast expanse of shallow marine waters filled with reefs and lagoons, separating Europe from Africa and stretching all the way to Southeast Asia.

“The diversity of pterosaurs was much greater than we could ever have guessed at, and is likely orders of magnitude more diverse than we will ever be able to discover from the fossil record,” said Professor Michael Caldwell, a paleontologist at the University of Alberta.

Mimodactylus libanensis: (a) photo and drawing of the complete specimen; (b) close up of scapula and coracoid; (c) detail of the wrist, showing the relation of the pteroid and the carpus; (d) detail of the humerus. Scale bars – 50 mm in (a) and 10 mm (b-d). Image credit: Kellner et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54042-z.

The almost complete skeleton of Mimodactylus libanensis — including the skull and lower jaw — was recovered from the Hjoûla Lagerstätte of the Sannine Limestone near the town of Hjoûla, Lebanon.

The ancient reptile likely fed on crustaceans, catching its prey at the surface as do modern seabirds such as the albatross and frigatebird.

It differs from the other Afro-Arabian pterosaur species named to date and is closely related to the Chinese species Haopterus gracilis, forming a new group of toothed pterosaurs.

“This means that this Lebanese pterodactyloid was part of a radiation of flying reptiles living in and around and across the ancient Tethys Seaway, from China to a great reef system in what is today Lebanon,” Professor Caldwell said.

paper on the discovery of Mimodactylus libanensis was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

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A.W.A. Kellner et al. 2019. First complete pterosaur from the Afro-Arabian continent: insight into pterodactyloid diversity. Sci Rep 9, 17875; doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-54042-z

Source: www.sci-news.com/

The Mandalorian’s Bryce Dallas Howard Reveals Jurassic World Homage

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

The way the All Terrain Scout Transport made its appearance in the last episode of The Mandalorian may have rung a bell to many fans of the sci-fi genre. That big footprint and the pursuit in the woods led many fans to draw a comparison between the bipedal walker of the Galactic Empire and a Tyrannosaurus rex from Jurassic World. Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter, The Mandalorian director Bryce Dallas Howard explained that the production’s intention was actually to pay homage to the Jurassic franchise.

“I never felt like I’d seen an AT-ST really be as scary as it could be given its stature and power,” Howard said. “I was first thinking, ‘What’s the scenario where there’s a village of people and there’s some monster in the woods?’ and not knowing exactly what that monster is but it’s a threat.”

Right now, Howard is focusing on her directing career. In the past, though, she starred in many films, including 2015’s Jurassic World and its sequel Fallen Kingdom.

Howard then revealed that the Jurassic reference is not the only homage she paid to some of her previous works.

“There’s a shot behind Omera (Julia Jones) and Mando (Pedro Pascal) when they’re looking out at the children when they’re inside the cottage,” she explained. “We did French overs for that, which is a tiny homage to a scene that I had with Joaquin Phoenix in The Village. And then, of course, with all the AT-ST stuff, Jurassic is definitely a really great reference for that — when you’re on the run from a monster in close proximity and that monster is thirty-feet high.”

You may argue that the AT-ST hasn’t got that many sharp teeth. But we are pretty sure it makes up for the absence of them with those lethal lasers.

Source: www.comingsoon.net/

Jurassic World 3: Exciting Fan Theories And More

Wednesday, December 4, 2019

Director Colin Trevorrow teases new dinosaur species in "Jurassic World 3."

"Jurassic World 3” will be about the dinosaurs living and thriving on the mainland after escaping the island where they were confined to. What will this new world look like? Some fan theories have explored what the next story can be about.

One of the fan theories about the next movie suggests that the plot will be set in a post-apocalyptic world in America, Screen Rant reported. Director Colin Trevorrow has already said that the humans will lose in a war against dinosaurs, and this may be the plot of the next movie.

According to the fan theory, there are some similarities between “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes.” Just as the apes took over earth and a few surviving humans struggled to fight against them, there may be a time jump in the upcoming film that shows a similar situation, but it will the dinosaurs ruling the planet.

One of the popular dinosaurs in the new trilogy has been the Mosasaurus. According to another fan theory, “Jurassic World 3” may be like the thriller “JAWS” if the Mosasaurus is given a prominent role.

Since genetic engineering has been a big part of the franchise, it is possible that the next big villainous dinosaur is a human hybrid. There have been attempts to weaponize the dinosaurs in the past, and that may finally happen in the next movie.

While the fans wait for the next big dinosaur adventure, a new motion comic has been released that fills the gaps between movies, CBR reported. The first comic titled “Rising Tide” is set after the events in the sequel, and the series may give clues about the plot of the upcoming movie.

Very few details about Trevorrow’s movie have been released online. Apart from Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard, the other cast members who have been confirmed for the film are Sam Neill, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Dern, Justice Smith, and Daniella Pineda, Collider reported.

“Jurassic World 3” will be released on June 11, 2021.

Source: www.ibtimes.com/

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