Paleo discoveries of 2019

A new year for new discoveries.

A skull nearly a meter in length that was found 60 years ago has been identified as Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. The skull was dated to be 200 mya, so Early Jurassic.

It looks like the prehistoric whale, Basilosaurus, was an apex predator that liked to chomp the heads of its prey.

In other words, it was a 50 ft long Orca that aimed for the head.

It looks like the feather came before the dinosaur.

Rhedosaurus wrote:

It looks like the feather came before the dinosaur.

Hmmm, if this is so, that could mean that most if not all dinosaurs had some form of integument!

CT-1138 wrote:

Rhedosaurus wrote:

It looks like the feather came before the dinosaur.

Hmmm, if this is so, that could mean that most if not all dinosaurs had some form of integument!

At least when it comes to theropods anyway.


A new theory says that tectonic shifts, not the meteorite/comet caused the death of the non-avian dinosaurs.

A new species of shark that was found at the same site as Sue was has been named and described as Galagadon nordquistae.



It was just a foot to 18 inches long.

Wasn't that the name of the actress in Wonder Woman?

The 210 million year old (Late Triassic) archosaur Smok was capable of biting through bone via that one find in Poland.

A dinosaur relative found in Antarctica has been named and described as Antarctanax shackletoni.

A newly named and described long spined dicraeosaurid from Patagonia, Bajadasaurus pronuspinax, had shed light on defensive measures that the dicraeosaurs used.

A new species of oviraptoroid found in Mongolia has been named and described as Gobiraptor.

A newly named and described titanosaur from Tanzania, Mnyamawamtuka moyowamkia, had heart shaped tailbones.

A new tyrannosaur has been found.

It has been named and described as Moros intrepidus and was found around the same area that Siats, the super allosaur was found which was 96 million years old. It was around the size of a mule deer and the specimen was mostly full grown.

It looks like T. rex may have been a cute fluff ball as a baby.

Wallaby sized dinosaur found and described in Australia as Galleonosaurus dorisae. It lived 125 mya.

Young birds during the Late Cretaceous had to be fast on their feet.

It looks like the T. rex known as Scotty was larger then Sue.

I'm pretty sure that Sue is longer, though.

It says here that Scotty was 13 meters long, while Sue was only 12.3 meters long, so it looks like Scotty holds that record too.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-scotty-trex-biggest-ever-1.5068830

Nice to see that my home country now holds the Rex record

Tyrant Lizard wrote:

It says here that Scotty was 13 meters long, while Sue was only 12.3 meters long, so it looks like Scotty holds that record too.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-scotty-trex-biggest-ever-1.5068830

Nice to see that my home country now holds the Rex record

13 meters = sightly over 42.6 feet long. That is huge. In one of my books, it said that Sue was longer but Scotty was overall larger, so it does make sense for Scotty to be longer then Sue as well.

More news on Scotty.

He was at least 30 when he died. And I've read 35 is still possible. So not only was Scotty a big boy, but he was also basically grampa compared to all other T. rexes, with Sue being the exception.

It does make me wonder what the size cap on a giant therapod like a Rex would be, as it almost looks to me like they just keep getting bigger until they die. Hypothetically speaking, if a Tyrannosaurus were kept in a controlled environment, had the best possible diet, got the perfect amount of exercise, etc etc etc, and was able to live to...say...50 years old, would it keep growing, or would it cap off at about 40-45 feet?

I know that reptiles typically only grow to accommodate their range as well as age. If you can keep one alive 50 years, it'll keep growing, but only as it's resources allow. If it's left in an enclosure like Paddock 9, it'll grow less than if it were in a space the size of the original Tyrannosaur Paddock.

Tyrant Lizard wrote:

It does make me wonder what the size cap on a giant therapod like a Rex would be, as it almost looks to me like they just keep getting bigger until they die. Hypothetically speaking, if a Tyrannosaurus were kept in a controlled environment, had the best possible diet, got the perfect amount of exercise, etc etc etc, and was able to live to...say...50 years old, would it keep growing, or would it cap off at about 40-45 feet?

There are a few undescribed specimens-Celeste comes to mind-that are supposed to be a bit larger, but Celeste hasn't been described yet and is only 15-20% complete and nobody has tried to find more of here remains.

42-43 ft seems to bee largest confirmed size, but it's safe to say that 44-45 ft is still very much possible.

66-million-year-old deathbed linked to dinosaur-killing meteor: Fossil site preserves animals killed within minutes of meteor impact
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/03/190329144223.htm
Paleontologists have found a fossil site in North Dakota that contains animals and plants killed and buried within an hour of the meteor impact that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. This is the richest K-T boundary site ever found, incorporating insects, fish, mammals, dinosaurs and plants living at the end of the Cretaceous, mixed with tektites and rock created and scattered by the impact. The find shows that dinosaurs survived until the impact.

A new type of lambeosaur, crested hadrosaur, has been found in Alaska.

Liquid blood and other well preserved organs found in a 42,000 year old foal.

Talks of cloning it are really happening.

A new species of ankylosaur found in Texas.

A theropod found in the Zuni Basin segment back in the 1990's has been described as a new tyrannosaur, Suskityrannus hazelae. It lived 92 mya in the Middle Cretaceous period.

A new bat winged dinosaur from China has been named and described as Ambopteryx.

It looks like the only birds to have survived the K-T events were ground dwellers that eventually evolved to fly.