dinosaurs

Titanosaur is One of the Largest Dinosaurs Ever: Giant Model Takes Over Museum in NYC

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It’s times like this that I really miss living in New York City. The American Museum of Natural History is one of my favorite places on the planet. Why is that? Because they build GIGANTIC dinosaur models that barely fit in the museum’s halls. Today the AMNH unveiled another must-see exhibit: a cast of a 122-foot-long dinosaur. Meet the titanosaur!

Titanosaur-Dinosaur
©AMNH/D.Finnin

The giant dino cast is so big its 39-foot neck protrudes through the doorway towards the elevator doors. To put its size into perspective – at a total of 122 feet, the titanosaur is 30 feet longer than a blue whale! This species of dinosaur is so new the paleontologists who discovered it haven’t named it yet. All we know is that it belongs to a group known as titanosaurs, and it is one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered.

Scientists believe this species of titanosaur lived in the forests of today’s Patagonia about 100 to 95 million years ago, during the Late Cretaceous period, and weighed in at a whopping 70 tons! Its massive bones are filled with air pockets, so they are relatively light. It’s the only way a land animal could get so big.

The giant herbivore’s remains were excavated in the Patagonian desert region of Argentina by a team from the Museo Paleontologico Egidio Feruglio led by José Luis Carballido and Diego Pol. According to Scientific American, After 18 months of excavations, the researchers uncovered 223 fossilized bones from six individual titanosaur dinosaurs, including an 8-foot-tall femur, or thighbone. Judging by the image below, it looks like the excavation team was super excited about their discovery.

A team member is dwarfed by a bone of the gigantic dinosaur excavated in Patagonia. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Alejandro Otero
A team member is dwarfed by a bone of the gigantic dinosaur excavated in Patagonia. Photo: Courtesy of Dr. Alejandro Otero

How on Earth did they make that gigantic cast? The AMNH flew down to Argentina and took 3D scans of all the bones in the field as well as in the lab, so they had the skeleton completely digitized. They used that data to carve bones out of giant slabs of foam. They molded all of the carved elements and cast the bones out of fiber glass. The cast was then painted and mounted. Neat stuff.

©AMNH/D.FINNIN
©AMNH/D.FINNIN

If you plan on visiting this incredible exhibit you have a little time. The titanosaur will be on display at the AMNH in New York City until January 2020.

Titanosaur is One of the Largest Dinosaurs Ever: Giant Model Takes Over Museum in NYC

KRYSTIAN SCIENCE TV Roundup: Giant Robot Duel, New ‘Gnarly’ Dinosaur, and a Shark Photobomb

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KS_LOGOs2_TVbroadcastIN CASE YOU MISSED IT!

1) AMERICA CHALLENGES JAPAN TO A GIANT ROBOT DUEL

2) NEW DINOSAUR ‘WENDICERATOPS’ ROCKS GNARLY HOOKS & HORNS

3) NASA BRINGS SPACE FLIGHTS BACK TO AMERICAN SOIL

&

4) GREAT WHITE SHARK PHOTO-BOMB

Video

Japan Lets Robots Run the World’s Wackiest New Hotel – There is Even a Dinosaur in a Bow Tie

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KS TechnologyWhen you enter Japan’s new Henn-na Hotel you are greeted by an English speaking robotic dinosaur in a bow tie, next to a multi-lingual fembot, ready to check you in. Other robots greet guests and serve coffee – a robot even brings your luggage to your room. They have also ditched traditional room keys for face recognition technology, making them one of the first hotels to do so.

This innovative low-cost hotel claims to be the ultimate destination for efficiency and productivity, which makes sense given the fact that its almost entirely run by ‘state-of-the-art’ environmentally friendly smart robots.

Henn-na Hotel Dinosaur

One night at the Henn-na Hotel, which roughly translates to ‘strange hotel’ in English, starts at 9,000 yen ($80).

The hotel in Sasebo, Japan, opens to the public today. Some feel the robot staff is a bit gimmicky – but the hotel claims the theme is cutting edge and will help them save on labor costs.

A few things robots are not in charge of at the Henn-na Hotel include monitoring security footage and making the beds. 🏨

 

Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: AP
Image: AP
Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: AP
Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: AP
Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: Henn-na Hotel
Image: AP
Japan Lets Robots Run the World’s Wackiest New Hotel – There is Even a Dinosaur in a Bow Tie

Newly Discovered Wendiceratops Dinosaur Displays ‘Gnarly’ Hooks and Horns

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KS NatureWhen you think epic horned dinosaur you probably think Triceratops – well, think again! Triceratops had a cousin that lived 79 million years ago, making it one of the oldest horned dinosaurs. It’s known as Wendiceratops pinhornensis, and its unique hooks and horns give paleontologists clues about how horned dinosaurs evolved.

Source: Secret Location/PLOS ONE
Source: Secret Location/PLOS ONE

The dinosaur’s fossilized bones were discovered on the Pinhorn Provincial Grazing Reserve in Alberta by Canadian fossil hunter Wendy Sloboda in 2010 – hence the name Wendiceratops pinhornensis!

While the name might be cute, there is nothing dainty about this 1-ton, 20-foot long dinosaur. It features two large horns on its brow, one horn on its nose, and a highly-decorated frill around its neck that literally curls in on itself giving it the appearance of hooks. Paleontologist David Evans, from the Royal Ontario Museum, explains that this dino’s frill makes it unique.

“The frill is sort of ornamented by a pretty spectacular wave of gnarly hooks that project forward,” Evans says.

Scientists recovered over 200 different bones from virtually all parts of the skeleton (from four different individuals) including multiple, well-preserved pieces that contribute to the fancy ornamented frill. But it’s not just the frill that makes this animal special – it’s the large horn over its nose, which is the earliest occurrence of a prominent nose horn in this dinosaur family.

Michael Ryan, a paleontologist with the Cleveland Museum of Natural History, says “beyond its odd, hook-like frill, Wendiceratops has a unique horn ornamentation above its nose that shows the intermediate evolutionary development between low, rounded forms of the earliest horned dinosaurs.”

Not only does Wendiceratops help scientists understand the early evolution of skull ornamentation – its crazy frill projections and horns make it one of the most striking horned dinosaurs ever found. Wendiceratops pinhornensis is now on display at Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum.

For more information check out Ryan and Evans’ description of their dinosaur in PLOS ONE.

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Newly Discovered Wendiceratops Dinosaur Displays ‘Gnarly’ Hooks and Horns

Top 10 Crazy New Species Found in 2014: A Cartwheeling Spider, Neon Sea-Slug, and the Bird From Hell

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KS Strange ScienceScientific American shared a list of the top 10 most interesting new species discovered last year. The fascinating list was published by the International Institute for Species Exploration (IISE) at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry on May 21. Explore the new creatures below!

WALKING STICK Measuring at 23 centimeters long—yes, as long as a human forearm—Phyganistria tamdaoensis is a member of the family of “giant stick” insects, the largest insects in the world. The creature’s stick like body makes it a master of camouflage, which helps explain how it eluded discovery in its habitat in Vietnam—until now. Photograph by Jonathan Brecko
BONE-HOUSE WASP: A wasp found in the Gutianshan National Nature Reserve in eastern China, Deuteragenia ossarium has gained notoriety for its morbid nesting habits. It builds its nests in hollow plant stems made of cells separated by soil walls, with each cell hosting an individual egg. To prepare the nest, it kills and deposits a spider in a cell as food for the larva when it hatches, lays an egg in that cell, then repeats the process for each consecutive cell. The wasp fills the last cell with up to 13 dead ants, which serve as a chemical barrier to the nest by camouflaging it with the odor of decay. Photograph by Merten Ehmig
CARTWHEELING SPIDER Meet the arachnid world’s top gymnast. Cebrennus rechenbergi is a hunting spider found in the deserts of Morocco. This spider is the only species to “cartwheel,” which allows it to move two times faster than running when escaping from danger. Its unique movement inspired a biomimetic robot that walks and rolls. Photograph by Ingo Rechenberg, Technical University Berlin
PHOTOGENIC SEA SLUG: This gastropod, Phyllodesmium acanthorhinum, sports vivid shades of blue, red and gold. Its discovery helped scientists understand the symbiosis that occurs in members of this genus. Algae called zooxanthellae typically exist symbiotically with coral, where they exchange nutrients via cycles of respiration and photosynthesis. In sea slugs a type of tri-species symbiosis occurs when algae residing in a slug’s gut draw nutrients from coral its host consumes, in turn furnishing the slug with the nutrient products of photosynthesis. Photograph by Robert Bolland
SOLITARY BROMELIAD: Tillandsia religiosa, a solitary flowering plant with rose-colored spikes and flat green leaves, grows in rocky terrain in Morelos, Mexico. T. religiosa has long been known to native people of the region, who incorporated it into nacimientos (altar scenes depicting the birth of Christ) at Christmas. Yet scientists have only recently described it. Photograph by A. Espejo
INDONESIAN FROG: Limnonectes larvaepartus is a small fanged frog found in forests on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia. It is unique in that the female’s eggs are fertilized internally and she gives birth to live tadpoles. Of the 6,455 known species of frogs, fewer than a dozen undergo internal fertilization. And apart from this new species, all frogs either lay eggs or give birth to froglets. Photograph by Jimmy A. McGuire
CORAL PLANT: Found only on the southwestern slopes of Mount Mignan in the Philippines, Balanophora coralliformis is an endangered plant that parasitizes the roots of other plants. Its rough, elongated, repeatedly branching, aboveground tubers set it apart from other species of its kind. Photograph by P.B. Pelser & J.F. Barcelona
WHITE-SPOTTED PUFFERFISH: In 1995 scientists described an underwater phenomenon akin to crop circles on the sea floor off the coast of Japan’s Amami-Oshima Island. Marine exploration led to the discovery that these large geometric designs are actually the nests of a pufferfish known as Torquigener albomaculosus. The fact the culprits who made them eluded scientists for 10 years earned T. albomaculosus a place on the list. Male pufferfish build these intricate nests by wriggling around in the sand on the ocean floor. The nests are intended to attract females and designed to minimize ocean current at the center of the nest to protect the eggs. Photograph by Yoji Okata
THE X-PHYLA: Residing on the sea floor off the coast of Australia, Dendrogramma enigmatica is notable for its tiny size and mushroomlike shape. It resembles members of the phyla Cnidaria (jellyfish, corals, sea anemones and hydras) and Ctenophora (comb jellies) but lacks key evolutionary traits of both. Consequently, scientists have proposed that D. enigmatica might be a member of its own new phylum. Photograph by Jørgen Oleson
CHICKEN FROM HELL Anzu wyliei is a bird like dinosaur that inhabited North American 66 million years ago. Because its relatives are chicken-size and the fossils were discovered at the Hell Creek Formation in South Dakota, A. wyliei received the nickname “chicken from hell.” Its genus name, Anzu, derives from the feathered demon “Anzû” of Babylonian mythology. Illustration by Mark A. Klingler
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It’s Hard For Little Girls to Find Spaceships, Trains, and Dinos at the Clothing Store – Don’t Worry, Moms Got This!

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KS_LOGOs2_PopCultureTwo Washington moms started a science-themed clothing line for girls after they realized they couldn’t find clothes featuring dinosaurs, trains, or rocket-ships in the girls department – I guess that is just little boy territory!

BuddingSTEM, created by Jennifer Muhm and Malorie Catchpole, offers a complete line of girls’ clothes celebrating science, space, dinosaurs, and more; perfect for girls ages 18 months to eight years old.

“STEM” stands for science, technology, engineering and math.

BuddingSTEM

As a young woman obsessed with science, this story really warms my heart. Growing up, I had a few gender neutral hand-me-downs with basic math symbols on them, but nothing as cool as this!

Jennifer Muhm, 37, told ABC News, “We’re not anti-princess. We’re not anti-pink. We’re not anti-girly. We just think there needs to be more than just that offered for our girls.”

Muhm first realized this was a serious issue when her 5 year old daughter wanted to be an astronaut for Halloween in 2013 and they could only find boys modeling the space-themed costume in the catalogue.

She explained to her daughter that she could be anything she wanted to be, but she couldn’t stop thinking about how unfair the situation was. What were little girls supposed to wear that wanted to explore the universe and dig for dinosaurs?

By April 2014, Muhm and Catchpole filed their business registration for buddingSTEM.

BuddingSTEM 2 BuddingSTEM 1

Thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign, buddingSTEM has raised more than $56,000!

The buddingSTEM clothing line will be available on their website starting in July.

It’s Hard For Little Girls to Find Spaceships, Trains, and Dinos at the Clothing Store – Don’t Worry, Moms Got This!