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Priosphenodon specimens found in Argentina show the Late Cretaceous reptile evolved to have tooth enamel that could withstand wear and tear.

A new study by University of Alberta paleontologists shows that one type of ancient reptiles evolved a special type of tooth enamel, similar to that of mammals, with high resistance to wear and tear. 

The reptile—known as Priosphenodon—was a herbivore from the Late Cretaceous period that was about one metre long. Part of a group of reptiles called sphenodontians, they had the unique trait of adding new teeth to the back ends of their jaws instead of replacing them where they fell out.

“Priosphenodon has the strangest teeth I have personally ever seen,” said Aaron LeBlanc, a post-doctoral fellow in biological sciences and lead author on the study. “Some aspects of their dental anatomy are reminiscent of what happened in the evolution of early mammal teeth.” 

The specimens were found in Argentina’s Río Negro province as part of ongoing collaborative fieldwork and research between U of A paleontologist Michael Caldwell and Argentinian paleontologist and fieldwork leader Sebastián Apesteguía. 

To look closely at the teeth of Priosphenodon, the researchers cut open pieces of jaw and examined tissue-level detail preserved inside the teeth, and used non-invasive CT scans to examine more complete jaw specimens.

“Priosphenodon enamel is not only thicker than that of most other reptiles, the enamel crystals are ‘woven’ into long threads that run through the whole width of the enamel. These threads are called enamel prisms, and they are almost exclusively found in mammals,” said LeBlanc, who is working under Caldwell’s supervision. 

“Our results suggest that strong selective pressures can force reptiles to come up with some very innovative solutions to the problems associated with tooth wear and abrasive diets—some of which mirror what happened in our earliest mammal ancestors.”

The scientists also noted there is one kind of lizard alive today that has prismatic enamel like Priosphenodon—the spiny-tailed lizard of Australia. Like Priosphenodon, it mostly eats plants and has lost the ability to replace its worn teeth. However, the two reptiles are not closely related. 

Hans Larsson from McGill University also collaborated on the study, which was funded by the Agencia Nacional de Promoción Científica y Tecnológica in Argentina, National Geographic and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

The study, “Unique Tooth Morphology and Prismatic Enamel in Late Cretaceous Sphenodontians from Argentina” was published in Current Biology.

Source: www.folio.ca/

A species of plant that grew about 400 million years ago (Early Devonian period) produced a spectrum of spore sizes, which is an essential innovation necessary for all advanced plant reproductive strategies, including seeds and flowers.

The Devonian period is one of the most important time periods for the evolution of land plants. It witnessed diversification from small mosses to towering complex forests.

The development of different spore sizes, or heterospory, represents a major modification to control reproduction — a feature that later evolved into small and large versions of these reproductive units.

“Think of all the different types of sexual systems that are in flowers — all of that is predicated on having separate small spores, or pollen, and big spores, which are inside the seeds,” said senior author Dr. Andrew Leslie, a researcher in the Geological Sciences Department at Stanford University.

“With two discrete size classes, it’s a more efficient way of packaging resources because the big spores can’t move as easily as the little ones, but can better nourish offspring.”

The newly-discovered plant species belongs to the herbaceous barinophytes, an unusual extinct group of plants that may be related to clubmosses, and is one of the most comprehensive examples of a seemingly intermediate stage of plant reproductive biology.

“Usually when we see heterosporous plants appear in the fossil record, they just sort of pop into existence,” Dr. Leslie said.

“We think this may be kind of a snapshot of this very rarely witnessed transition period in evolutionary history where you see high variation amongst spores in the reproductive structure.”

Dr. Leslie and colleagues analyzed fossilized plants from the collections of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

From about 30 small chips of rock originally collected from the Campbellton Formation of New Brunswick in Canada by paleobotanist and co-author Dr. Francis Hueber, they identified more than 80 sporangia (reproductive structures).

The spores themselves range from about 70 to 200 microns in diameter.

While some of the structures contained exclusively large or small spores, others held only intermediate-sized spores and others held the entire range of spore sizes — possibly with some producing sperm and others eggs.

“It’s rare to get this many sporangia with well-preserved spores that you can measure,” Dr. Leslie said.

“We just kind of got lucky in how they were preserved.”

Together with the previously described plant group Chaleuria, the new species represents the first evidence of more advanced reproductive biology in land plants. The next example doesn’t appear in the fossil record until about 20 million years later.

“These kinds of fossils help us locate when and how exactly plants achieved that kind of partitioning of their reproductive resources,” Dr. Leslie said.

“The very end of that evolutionary history of specialization is something like a flower.”

The team’s paper was published in the May 4, 2020 issue of the journal Current Biology.

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Nikole K. Bonacorsi et al. 2020. A novel reproductive strategy in an Early Devonian plant. Current Biology 30 (9): 388-389; doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.03.040

Source: www.sci-news.com/

An analysis of the fossilized teeth of Deinonychus antirrhopus, a species of wolf-sized dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived between 115 and 108 million years ago (Cretaceous period) in what is now the United States, adds to the growing evidence that this and other raptors were not complex social hunters by modern mammalian standards.

The image of the highly intelligent, pack-hunting raptor has become engrained in scientific literature and popular works alike.

First proposed to explain the relatively common co-occurrence of large herbivorous dinosaurs and much smaller Deinonychus antirrhopus from the Cretaceous of North America, a wolf-like social hunting structure has become the standard depiction of raptors in popular works over the last three decades.

“Raptorial dinosaurs often are shown as hunting in packs similar to wolves,” said Dr. Joseph Frederickson, a vertebrate paleontologist and director of the Weis Earth Science Museum at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh Fox Cities Campus.

“The evidence for this behavior, however, is not altogether convincing. Since we can’t watch these dinosaurs hunt in person, we must use indirect methods to determine their behavior in life.”

“Though widely accepted, evidence for the pack-hunting dinosaur proposed by Yale University paleontologist John Ostrom is relatively weak,” he added.

“The problem with this idea is that living dinosaurs (birds) and their relatives (crocodilians) do not usually hunt in groups and rarely ever hunt prey larger than themselves.

“Further, behavior like pack hunting does not fossilize so we can’t directly test whether the animals actually worked together to hunt prey.”

Paleontologists recently proposed a different model for behavior in raptors that is thought to be more like Komodo dragons or crocodiles, in which individuals may attack the same animal but cooperation is limited.

“We proposed in this study that there is a correlation between pack hunting and the diet of animals as they grow,” Dr. Frederickson said.

In Komodo dragons, babies are at risk of being eaten by adults, so they take refuge in trees, where they find a wealth of food unavailable to their larger ground-dwelling parents. Animals that hunt in packs do not generally show this dietary diversity.

“If we can look at the diet of young raptors versus old raptors, we can come up with a hypothesis for whether they hunted in groups,” Dr. Frederickson explained.

To do this, Dr. Frederickson and his colleagues from the University of Oklahoma and the Sam Noble Museum analyzed the chemistry of teeth from Deinonychus antirrhopus.

“Stable isotopes of carbon and oxygen were used to get an idea of diet and water sources for these animals,” he said.

“We also looked at a crocodilian and an herbivorous dinosaur from the same geologic formation.”

The paleontologists found that Cretaceous crocodilians, like modern species, show a difference in diet between the smallest and largest teeth, indicating a distinct transition in diet as they grew.

“This is what we would expect for an animal where the parents do not provide food for their young,” Dr. Frederickson said.

“We also see the same pattern in the raptors, where the smallest teeth and the large teeth do not have the same average carbon isotope values, indicating they were eating different foods. This means the young were not being fed by the adults, which is why we believe Jurassic Park was wrong about raptor behavior.”

The research is published in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.

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J.A. Frederickson et al. Ontogenetic dietary shifts in Deinonychus antirrhopus (Theropoda; Dromaeosauridae): Insights into the ecology and social behavior of raptorial dinosaurs through stable isotope analysis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, published online May 3, 2020; doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.109780

Source: www.sci-news.com/

There is renewed excitement around Jurassic World: Dominion after Battle At Big Rick and with franchise writer/ director Colin Trevorrow at the helm.

After the first two installments of the Jurassic Park sequel series got mixed reviews, Jurassic World 3 is reviving excitement in the franchise. 2015's Jurassic World takes place 22 years after the events of the very first Jurassic Park (1993). After production stalled on a fourth Jurassic Park movie, director Steven Spielberg suggested that writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver explore the possibility of a functioning theme park, which is what Jurassic World gave audiences.

In the capable hands of Operations Manager Claire Dearing (Bryce Dallas Howard), the park is everything fans could have dreamed of and more. But as is usually the case in the world of dinosaur theme parks, chaos ensues when the park's latest genetic hybrid, the Indominus Rexs, breaks lose and terrorizes park attendees, including Claire's own nephews, forcing Claire to ask Navy veteran and Velociraptor trainer, Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) for his help.

The sequel, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, follows Claire and Owen as they travel to Isla Nublar, the Central American island where the park was built, in an attempt to rescue the abandoned dinosaurs before the island's impending volcanic eruption. What follows is a wild ride into the dark underbelly of black market trading, featuring dinosaurs. Jurassic World 2 introduces the Indoraptor, the latest terrifying creation of Jurassic Park veteran and geneticist Dr. Henry Wu (B.D. Wong), and the Indominus Rex's successor. Both films performed very well at the box office ($1.670 billion and $1.309 billion, respectively) and both were in the Top 3 highest grossing films of their release years, with Jurassic World coming in first place, but they ultimately left something to be desired - and for Jurassic World 3 to improve upon.

Jurassic World Has Been A Letdown So Far

Despite the financial success of both installments, the films were not all they could have been. Jurassic World was lauded for its visual feats and entertainment value, but it failed to match the original film's uniqueness and inventiveness. In fact, the film's greatest flaw is arguably its reliance on nostalgia to get movie-goers into theater seats. There are countless callbacks to the very first Jurassic Park, not least not of which is the theme park itself. Jurassic World (the park) was built on the bones of the abandoned facilities from the first film and there's even a building named the Hammond Research Center, after John Hammond (Richard Attenborough), the man who started it all.

It is said in the film that Dr. Hammond entrusted his dying wish of a functioning dinosaur theme park to Simon Masrani (Irrfan Khan), CEO of Masrani Global Corporation, who is heard quoting Hammond's famous line, "Spared no expense!" Claire and Owen even come across the park's original visitor's center where evidence of Jurassic Park's final, epic fight between the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Velociraptor pack took place over two decades prior. And those are just some of the difficult to miss references; Jurassic World is packed with Easter eggs and visual callbacks that are very likely to fill up that nostalgia gauge.

Fallen Kingdom, while not shy about including its own set of Easter eggs, was an altogether different film and a messy one at that. The first third of the film, which involves humans attempting to rescue dinosaurs from impending extinction, feels very much like the Jurassic Park movies that came before. However, the rest of the movie follows a riskier plot takes involves a corporate conspiracy, human cloning, and bio-engineered weapons.

All of this was designed to set up the sequel hook, what Dr. Ian Malcom (Jeff Goldblum) in his cameo calls a new age in which humans and dinosaurs must co-exist, a plot thread that will no doubt be explored in Jurassic World: Dominion. Where Fallen Kingdom falls short is in the inconsistent tone caused by a quick progression through story beats that are only connected through dialogue and not much else. This could have been better handled, perhaps, had Vincent D'Onofrio's character not been killed off so soon in Jurassic World. Seeing as he was one of the minds behind InGen's bioweapons plan, his presence could have provided a more concrete connection between films and fleshed out the conflict in ways the finished product did not.

Jurassic World 3 Is Getting A Good Balance Of Old & New

In 2019, Jurassic World co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow told Variety that this new film is "a celebration of everything that has existed in the franchise up until now." Trevorrow is back to co-writing Jurassic World 3, alongside Emily Carmichael (Pacific Rim Uprising), as well as directing. In March of 2020, Trevorrow revealed the official title of this latest installment as well as a teaser poster that suggests a return to Jurassic Park's original logo. The simple red, black, and yellow logo with the T-Rex skeleton silhouette is one that everyone recognizes but has gone through a number of changes since it's first use in 1993's Jurassic Park. Further details around the film have revealed that series leads Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are reprising their roles, and Isabella Sermon is coming back as Maisie Lockwood, a character that was introduced in Fallen Kingdom and is likely to play a pivotal role this time around. Jurassic Park 3 will mark the return of key characters, including paleontologist Allan Grant (Sam Neill) and paleobotanist Ellie Sattler (Laura Dern), while further appearances by both Dr. Malcolm and Dr. Wu have been confirmed as well.

Of course, no film should rely solely on what has come before, and evidence of new elements being introduced in this final chapter abound. The casting of Dichen Lachman (Altered Carbon), Scott Haze (Venom), DeWanda Wise (She's Gotta Have It), and Mamoudou Athie (The Front Runner) in mystery roles have also been confirmed. Most interesting of all was the recent set photo that teased a possible sequence taking place in the snow in Jurassic World 3, a first for the franchise. Very little else is known about Jurassic World 3 at this point, but given its return to its roots as well as new elements being introduced, this final chapter is being set up to close the gaps between the two previous installments and its entire cinematic run as a whole. This is no easy task, but with the right balance of the franchise's past and present, it's certainly possible.

Colin Trevorrow Is A More Exciting Filmmaker Again (Thanks To Star Wars)

What has fans really excited over Colin Trevorrow's involvement in the franchise's development this time around is Trevorrow's work on Star Wars 9, which he was also initially set to direct. However, Lucasfilm executives were not satisfied with Trevorrow's plans for the film, which was tentatively titled Duel of the Fates. Trevorrow left the project, citing creative differences, and he was ultimately replaced by J. J. Abrams. His original script was scrapped, and the movie instead became The Rise of Skywalker. Since then, details of Trevorrow's plans for Star Wars 9 have been revealed and it has restored faith in Trevorrow as a filmmaker after the problematic plot of Fallen Kingdom.

His plans for Star Wars 9 kept elements from The Last Jedi that would have made Duel of the Fates a much more cohesive sequel. For example, one key difference was the subject of Rey's parentage. In The Last Jedi, it was revealed that Rey's parents were no one of consequence, a refreshing take in a universe filled with legacy characters living in the shadows of those who came before. Although this was altered in Rise of Skywalker, Trevorrow's original plot would have followed through the groundwork laid out by Rian Johnson in The Last Jedi. With many disappointed in The Rise of Skywalker, and Trevorrow's sequel seen as more appealing, it's meant his stock has surprisingly risen back up through him not making a movie. As Jurassic World 3 will round out a new trilogy, just as his Star Wars 9 would have done, there's renewed hope and faith that he knows how to craft a satisfying sequel.

Battle At Big Rock Setup A Better Jurassic World 3

Set one year after Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Battle At Big Rock is a short film directed by Colin Trevorrow. It takes place at the titular Big Rock National Park in northern California, about 20 miles north of where the dinosaurs of Fallen Kingdom were let loose, and it chronicles the first major confrontation between humans and dinosaurs in this new, uncertain era. Battle At Big Rock stars Andre Holland and Natalie Martinez as the main characters. They and their three kids are camping peacefully at Big Rock when a fight breaks out between a family of Nastuoceratops and a hungry Allosaurus. In its quick 8-minute run, the short delivers a compelling story that is simultaneously bone-chilling,  thrilling, and heart-warming.

Battle At Big Rock gets to the core of Jurassic Park in a way that the two sequel series films tried to hit, but fell just short of. Jurassic Park isn't just a scary monster movie or an action-adventure genre flick; it's a story about human survival and what it takes. Holland's character tells his family in Battle At Big Rock that they need to look out for each other because that's what family does. It was the same philosophy that drove the cast of Jurassic Park, a story that threw together many unrelated characters who were suddenly forced to rely on each other if they wanted to survive their encounter with these dangerous, prehistoric animals.

By the end of the Jurassic Park, respect between characters had been earned, prior meaningless attachments had been shed, and a newfound appreciation for what life is about was at the forefront of everyone's mind. Looking back, the only characters who died in Jurassic Park were the ones who went off on their own without any help from or regard for their fellow human family; characters like the greedy programmer, Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight); the brilliant but sometimes cruel chief engineer, Ray Arnold (Samuel L. Jackson); the shallow and self-centered lawyer, Donald Gennaro (Martin Ferrero); and the serious but over-confident game warden, Robert Muldoon (Bob Peck). Alone, they didn't stand a chance.

The existence of dinosaurs alongside humans should drive people to consider their limited time on Earth and their place in history, but in Jurassic World, dinosaurs were relegated to tourist attractions, and in Fallen Kingdom, they became horrible creatures that kill and should be feared. In between all that is a cast of human characters whose motivations are tenuous and whose connections to each other are not very believably portrayed. Between Trevorrow's growth as a filmmaker since Jurassic World and his work on Battle at Big Rock, the promise that Jurassic World 3 will deliver a story that is equal parts nostalgia, action, and heart is just on the horizon.

Source: https://screenrant.com/

Vanessa Keebler, 32, from San Antonio, Texas, transformed her 18-month-old son Maddox’s room into an incredible homage to his favourite animals.

If your child is obsessed with dinosaurs, the lockdown might be the perfect time to transform their room into a Jurassic Park haven.

Vanessa Keebler, 32, from San Antonio, Texas, transformed her 18-month-old son Maddox’s room into an incredible homage to his favourite animals.

Vanessa told discount code community LatestDeals.co.uk  "I’m a stay at home mum to a wild little 18-month-old with a huge imagination.

"My husband and I thought it was time to introduce a 'big boy' bed to Maddox. I thought giving him a whole room makeover would be setting the stage for the transition.

"We were blessed with Kota the dinosaur from my sister, and every day Maddox would greet Kota with a huge roar and we’d constantly find him playing with his toy dinosaurs.

"I figured why not redo his room to where he can let his imagination run wild and make the transition to a big boy bed welcoming.”

Vanessa set about transforming the room on as tight a budget as possible, managing to pull together the whole look for $300 (£241).

“We are like many families where there is only one income and I try to do things within our means,” she explains. “At first, I debated about having wallpaper in his room as an accent wall, but while looking at wallpaper I found that it was a bit too pricey and not ideal for the texture walls I currently have.

“Thinking outside the box I am a Cricut owner and thought to make my own stencils to achieve a wallpaper ‘look’, as I already had vinyl which typically runs anywhere from $15-$30 (£12-£24) for a roll.

“I used my Cricut machine to create my own stencils using vinyl, and drew with chalk first before buying red and brown sample paint from Home Depot.

“My husband built the bed from scratch, and we spent about $100 (£80) on materials for the bed such as a power drill, sandpaper and a table saw.

“I bought faux plants on Amazon, wood dinosaur cutouts on Etsy and chalk paint from Amazon.”

Vanessa says the transformation is the perfect project to complete during the lockdown, when many of us are stuck at home.

"This project would probably take two to three days total to complete,” she adds. “It’s a way to keep busy, get creative and think like a child. What better time to do a room makeover than now?

"You can mostly find everything online nowadays. Amazon is my go-to for everything and anything. Etsy is a great way to support creative artists for unique finds!

“When Maddox saw the room, he had a big old grin on his face and looked around and of course climbed into his bed. His eyes are really expressive because they’re so big. I can definitely tell he approved.

"I felt so happy once it was completed to have accomplished something that allowed me to be creative and was thrifty, all done by my crafty hands!"

Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk  comments: “Many of us have DIY projects we’ve been putting off, but the pandemic means that keeping costs down is more important than ever.

“Vanessa has so many great ideas for keeping a transformation on a budget - making your own stencils and building your own bed is genius, and will also help pass the time productively during the lockdown!"

Source: www.birminghammail.co.uk/

Movie history has time and again provided the world with crucial moments that seem ripe for rethinking. What if Batman saved Rachel Dawes instead of Harvey Dent in The Dark Knight? How different would things have been if J.J. Abrams directed the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy? It’s stuff like this, on either side of the screen, that make people really think, and Steven Spielberg’s adaptation of Jurassic Park has its own “what if” scenario to be discussed: what if Dennis Nedry (Wayne Knight) had escaped the dinosaur park with those stolen embryos?

A lot of stuff could have happened differently, even though this plotline seems to be an open and shut case in the world of Jurassic Park’s movie franchise. Had things gone the other way, it quite possibly would have altered the world in new and terrifying ways, with some of those same events from Jurassic World’s series of events happening much sooner.

Life is about to find a way to make things even crazier in the Jurassic Park timeline, as we’re looking at what could have happened if Dennis Nedry had succeeded in his grand act of thievery. But first, let's go over how history shook out in its current context.

What Happened To Nedry And The Embryos In Jurassic Park

As the story of Jurassic Park currently goes, disgruntled park employee/I.T. traitor Nedry stole some corporate goodies in the form of one embryo for every dinosaur intended to be on Isla Nublar. Per an agreement with corporate spy Lewis Dodgson, an employee for rival company BioSyn, Dennis shut down the park security fail safes so he could escape without consequence and make himself a much richer man.

It might have worked, if it wasn’t for the fact that a gigantic hurricane hit Jurassic Park at that very moment. Dennis Nedry almost made it out scot free too, as all he had to do was winch his Jeep out of an unfortunate predicament in order to make his way to the docks. Of course, nature intervened in the form of an errant Dilophosaurus, which blinded and eventually ate Nedry in said Jeep. Those embryos would be lost to the muds of time, never to be recovered… unless you count Telltale Games’ Jurassic Park: The Game as canon, and even then the results vary.

What If Nedry Escaped Jurassic Park With The Embryos

Here’s where things get interesting for our purposes. Let’s say that Dennis Nedry bested the Dilophosaurus and got off the island. The immediate consequence would be that Nedry would receive the rest of his $1.5 million payout from the generous auspices of Lewis Dodgson and BioSyn. Dennis Nedry’s greed would be satisfied, and Jurassic Park would have proceeded the same way it always has.

However, thanks to the Isla Nublar incident leading to horrific lawsuits and payouts that pushed InGen to the brink of bankruptcy, its competition catching up on a decade’s worth of research would be even more of a crushing blow to the company’s fortunes. Nedry would be rich enough to help BioSyn buy out InGen for a song, which would prevent some of the further events in the Jurassic Park franchise from even happening.

Peter Ludlow’s Recovery Efforts In The Lost World Never Take Place

In Steven Spielberg’s sequel, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, John Hammond’s nephew/baddie of the hour, Peter Ludlow (Arliss Howard), had a huge plan to stave off bankruptcy woes: opening a new park in San Diego. That plan relied on a huge team of hunters and mercenaries traveling to Isla Sorna in order to capture free roaming dinosaurs that were bred on the island’s production site.

However, with BioSyn firmly owning InGen after Nedry’s successful theft of those dinosaur embryos in Jurassic Park, Ludlow’s recovery efforts on Site B would never happen. With the entire Las Cinco Muertes island chain now in BioSyn’s possession, the idea of a new park probably wouldn’t fly. The company would want to do something new, though they’d probably keep Peter Ludlow on board to help weather the storm and rally the troops under new management. Which means he’d probably do two big things to make a name for himself in the shadow of his uncle’s failure.

Jurassic World Doesn't Exist

While The Lost World: Jurassic Park has a seemingly questionable place in the Jurassic World canon, Dennis Nedry’s actions are still valid, as Jurassic Park is the only film in the original trilogy we know for a fact is still canonically relevant. So if Nedry escapes with those embryos, and BioSyn buys out InGen lock, stock and barrel, there’s a good chance that Jurassic World never even happens.

As the weakened InGen was never purchased by Simon Masrani and his Masrani Global empire, with John Hammond guiding Simon’s intentions for opening the brand new park, Jurassic World wouldn’t be willed into existence. Theme parks probably aren’t in BioSyn’s immediate plans for the fallen Hammond empire. If you take away John Hammond’s entertainment-minded approach and replace them with Peter Ludlow’s dollar sign-clouded eyes, there’s a massive alternative that comes into play a lot sooner.

Dinosaurs Are Rushed Into Military Applications

Admit it: the other major application of dinosaurs that the Jurassic saga has always played around with is the idea of using prehistoric beings of great strength and power as military pawns. Peter Ludlow, who would still be alive and well since the T-Rex incident in San Diego never happened, would probably help BioSyn make the best of its investment into InGen’s once promising future.

So instead of having to wait until 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom to see dinosaurs auctioned off to the governments with the most money, we’d see a much quicker rush into dinosaurs as weaponry. Which, in turn, leads to more proliferation of genetically engineered living weapons throughout the world, and ultimately one gigantic consequence worthy of Michael Crichton’s worst nightmares.

The World Is Overrun By Dinosaurs A Lot Earlier

When the dinosaurs in Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were unleashed, it may have felt like an inevitability, but at least those creatures had limited numbers. In this timeline where Dennis Nedry’s success drastically rewrite’s franchise history, we now have mass-produced dinosaurs that are in battlefields all over the world.

These creatures won’t stay under humanity's control for long, as life almost always finds a way to subvert our best intentions with such powerful tools. The events at the end of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom seem as if they were fated to happen, and now dinosaurs roam the Earth sooner than ever, and in greater numbers, in the current timeline. This raises the odds of Dennis Nedry probably getting eaten anyway, as dino carnage is indiscriminate in this new world of rampaging beasts.

As the entire series of Jurassic Park/Jurassic World adventures have seen corporate interests lather, rinse and repeat when it comes to creating and unleashing dinosaurs upon the world, it was always at a gradual pace because InGen was the major game in town. Should Dennis Nedry have subverted the company a lot sooner, it would have hastened dinogeddon to the point where you could have shaved a decade or more off the process.

But thankfully that brave Dilophosaurus bought humanity some time by taking out the traitorous Nedry. The Jurassic World, in its own weird balance, continues to turn the way it was meant to, and Jurassic World: Dominion will be our next look into what things look like when dinosaurs roam the earth.

Jurassic World: Dominion is currently slated for a June 11, 2021 debut.

Source: www.cinemablend.com/

Joe Mazzello who played as a child Tim Murphy in the famous franchise ‘Jurassic Park’ is not set to revisit the role, despite the lead character Chris Pratt saying in February that the original cast of the movie is slated to make a return for the upcoming Jurassic World 3.

The lead character Pratt who stars as Owen Grady in the franchise said that the upcoming instalment which is going to come feels like an end for the franchise, telling Elen DeGeneres, that he is not allowed to say anything but he will be saying everything. He does not know that if all of them will be coming back or not in the upcoming movie of the franchise.

But an insider close to the Universal Studios told some of the sources that the movie was in the pre-production before the dangerous COVID-19 struck the whole world and that the original cast Joe who then previously played as the grandson of the Jurassic World founder John Hammond in the both 1993’s Jurassic Park and also the 1997’s Lost World sequel never received a call to return to the set.

The actor also revealed something to the fans that he hopes to find everything out someday what had actually happened to his character which was quite famous. The fans were very much desperate to know what had actually happened why the previous directors or the movie makers did not call the famous actor Joe for his famous role in the franchise.

He also then hinted that he will not reprise his character in the new upcoming franchise. He said that he thinks about this all the time because there is so much for him to think. And it seems like that he is not quite sure when he will be coming or he might come back for the new movie or not.

The fans are really hoping all the original characters to come back to the new part of the movie. As some of them are going to be seen in the new movie so this much is good and appreciated by the fans of the franchise.

Source: https://honknews.com/

Jurassic World: Dominion star Jeff Goldblum has offered an update on where the sequel currently stands.

Co-writer and director Colin Trevorrow had just started production on the third film in the Jurassic World series when the whole industry was forced to shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Goldblum was originally due to return to set alongside Jurassic Park cast members Sam Neill and Laura Dern in the coming days, but the work stoppage has obviously interrupted those plans.

While promoting his new Disney+ show on The Graham Norton Show on Friday night (May 1), the actor updated Norton by revealing he's rehearsing for Jurassic World: Dominion every day.

"We plan to, as much as anybody can, given our uncharted territory, we're all in touch," he explained. "I talk to Laura Dern, and Sam Neill, and Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard and the wonderful director Colin Trevorrow, who has written this third one and going to direct it.

"They had already done a bit of it. I wasn't in it yet. I was meant to leave this week to go to England, where it's all being shot! I would have been at Pinewood Studios right about now, but the calendar has changed.

"Every day I work on my part. This morning, I went over my interesting speeches and scenes, and so I'm very excited about it."

Norton joked that the actor should be "so good by the time it's finally made" with all that practice.

"Good or burnt out," Goldblum admitted. "Absolutely brittle."

The Jurassic World team are definitely planning for the future, having announced a competition this week that will allow one lucky fan to get chomped by a dinosaur in the sequel.

Jurassic World: Dominion has a release date of June 11, 2021.

Source: www.digitalspy.com/

Their passion as geologists helped them discover the remains of a very distant past.

Imagine discovering fossils of dinosaur eggs while on a routine mapping assignment as a geologist!

It was December 1981 and Dr Dhananjay Mohabey was at a limestone mine near Balasinor in Gujarat. The rocks of the Cretaceous age (around 67. 5 million years old) were exposed in a quarry during blasting and while examining the geological sections, he and members of his team noticed 4-5 football-sized bodies of similar size spread in a cluster. In fact, some blocks of limestone had spherical bodies entombed in them and looked like a basket of big eggs.

“My first impression about these spherical football-sized bodies was they were fossil eggs — most probably of dinosaurs, as only large-sized reptiles could lay such big eggs. This was the maiden discovery of dinosaur eggs in the Indian subcontinent,” fondly recalls Mohabey, who has since retired as Deputy Director-General of the 170-year-old Geological Survey of India (GSI).

At the time of the discovery of dinosaur eggs and nests, Mohabey was 28 and newly married. The GSI team he was with was camping in tents at a small village about 100 km from Ahmedabad. Working at dawn and dusk to beat the blazing heat of the day, the team managed to conduct transect surveys. “I was enjoying the fieldwork as I was thrilled with the fossil finds and there was this urge to search for more evidence. The discovery of the dinosaur eggs was no doubt an enthusiasm booster but we had to wait nearly a year to identify and establish our finds to make them acceptable at the international level,” explains Mohabey.

He was attracted to geology while in school. The turning point came in 1966 when Mohabey visited his eldest sister who was married to a geologist at the Bhilai Steel Plant. His brother-in-law was involved in exploring manganese ore deposits in remote parts of Madhya Pradesh. Staying in a British-built bungalow and travelling in a jeep through thick jungles teeming with wildlife and passing by rivers and gurgling streams fascinated the young Mohabey and he desired to become a geologist. His ambition bore fruit when he joined the GSI in 1977.

Assisting Mohabey in his quest for dinosaur fossils since the early days was Rayjibhai Dhulabhai Rathod, a local lad from Kheda district. Mohabey had run into him in 1983 while working on the dinosaur project. He recalls how Rathod had initially helped him in cleaning rock and fossil samples that were collected during the fieldwork.

Even though he had only basic schooling, Rathod was quick to pick up the basics and made pencil illustrations of dinosaur fossils. Impressed by his curiosity and drawing skills, Mohabey took him on field trips only to realise that he was a big help in spotting fossils almost as if he was an amateur paleontologist. Rathod gathered enough experience and knowledge by travelling with Mohabey and other geologists to various locations in Gujarat and soon became an avid fossil hunter and his passion for drawing sketches and making models of dinosaur bones blossomed.

In 1989, Mohabey was transferred from Ahmedabad to Nagpur and parted ways with Rathod, but they were in constant touch telephonically, exchanging news on encounters with dinosaur fossils. Meanwhile, Rathod continued to work for GSI at Raiyoli village with other geologists who got posted to the location and found his skills very useful.

Subsequently, more dinosaur egg and nest-sites were discovered at Raiyoli in Kheda district. Many graveyards and hatcheries representing both Sauropod and Theropod dinosaurs were discovered at a single locality and very soon Raiyoli became an acclaimed dinosaur site.

Working under GSI’s dinosaur research project, Mohabey, accompanied by Rathod and his team, was able to locate numerous dinosaur nest sites with thousands of eggs laid by different types of dinosaurs. After working for nearly 20 years close to home in Raiyoli, Rathod was asked to join the upcoming Indroda Dinosaur and Fossil Park. Spread over 1,000 acres on either bank of the Sabarmati river in Gandhinagar, Indroda Park is regarded as India’s Jurassic Park and maintained by the Gujarat Ecological Education and Research Foundation (GEER). It is also the first dinosaur museum in the country that has fossilised remains and petrified eggs of dinosaurs other than life-size models. Mohabey says that Rathod is well-versed with fossil localities in Gujarat and has played a dynamic role in collecting fossils and setting up the collection in Indroda.

After serving GSI for over 36 years, Mohabey is currently with the Department of Geology, RTM Nagpur University as Senior Scientist and Co-Principal Investigator in the Ministry of Earth Science Research Project for tracking reptiles and plants with environmental changes across Deccan Volcanism (the longest lava mega-flows on Earth, spanning over 1,500 km across the Deccan). He is also a collaborator with the US-based National Science Foundation’s sponsored research project on India at Crossroads during the Cretaceous-Paleogene period.

Meanwhile, Rathod, after nearly 40 years of service with GSI, is on the verge of retirement but continues to attend office in Indroda despite the lockdown. His elder son now works with the GSI. Rathod intends to go back to his home town in Raiyoli and set up a school that will train students to become fossil hunters.

The writer is a wildlife enthusiast and photographer based in Noida.

Source: www.thehindubusinessline.com/

A real-world paleontological discovery leads to Animal Crossing: New Horizons players talking about the now-outdated Spinosaurus fossil model.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons players have likely been spending time in Blathers' museum since the game's most recent update added Redd and his fake painting schemes. However, nobody could have anticipated the real-world paleontological discovery that has given fans of the life-simulation game something to rally behind other than their desire to find a legitimate copy of Johannes Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring.

On Wednesday the science journal Nature published an article produced through the efforts of over a dozen researchers and professors from around the world that presents "unambiguous evidence" that a dinosaur family known as spinosaurids from the Cretaceous era were sometimes semi-aquatic. This development is based on an "unexpected and unique" tail fossil with a "flexible fin-like organ" discovered for the Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus — which Animal Crossing: New Horizons players should recognize as one of the creatures they can donate to Blathers.

According to National Geographic this is a landmark discovery because it makes the Spinosaurus the world's "first known swimming dinosaur." However, Animal Crossing players have taken it upon themselves to flood social media with some humorous takes on how the fossil collection they have been putting together has actually been inaccurate this whole time, and other comments on how interesting it would be if the developers actually updated the Spinosaurus to reflect this new reality.

Fossils have been a collectible item in the Animal Crossing series since the beginning, but in New Horizons they are arguably more popular than ever thanks to the game's realistic museum construction. One player has even imagined a system for a museum gift shop that could duplicate fossils for players, giving them more opportunities to utilize creatures like the Spinosaurus on their islands.

Don't think Animal Crossing fans get to have all the fun with the awe-inspiring world of paleontology, though. At least one video game player who goes by FiniteSly on Twitter pointed out that a swimming Spinosaurus with a long, flat tail resembles the Lagiacrus from Capcom's hugely popular Monster Hunter franchise.

Though Animal Crossing players will have to wait and see if New Horizons updates its Spinosaurus model one day, luckily the game offers plenty to do in the meantime. With the start of May comes a host of new bugs to catch and fish to reel in for those who want to keep the other wings of their museum stocked up.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is out now exclusively for the Nintendo Switch.

Source: https://gamerant.com/