Latest news with #dinosaur
BBC News
3 days ago
- General
- BBC News
'Rock Showman' uncovers sandstone stegosaur near Whitby
A geology tour guide has discovered a fossilised dinosaur footprint believed to be 170m years old along the coast near Cousins, aka the "Rock Showman", was taking a school trip on an educational fossil walk at Saltwick Bay when he noticed the imprint in a sandstone said: "The kids were all very excited. It was great to have this find shared with others, and to have it as such an authentic learning experience."The fossil, believed to be a stegosaur footprint, is now on display at nearby Whitby Holiday Park's Jet Bistro and is free for the public to visit. The fossil was located next to one of the regular footprints Mr Cousins visits with his tour groups, but had previously been buried out of sight under the verify his discovery, Mr Cousins contacted his friend, the palaeontologist Dr Liam Herringshaw, who used an app to take a 3D scan of the Herringshaw explained: "Middle Jurassic footprint-bearing sandstones are found in rocks across the North York Moors and along the tops of many of the cliffs along the North Yorkshire coast."The thing that I think surprises people is that they're really quite common - in the world they're not but in Yorkshire we've got rocks that are just the right age, just the right type and they happen to pop out on the beaches of Whitby, Scarborough - quite a few places up and down the coast." Explaining how these fossils continued to appear, he said: "Almost all the dinosaur footprints we find on the Yorkshire coast come from sandstones that were formed in the middle of the Jurassic period."In the last few million years, the pressure of Africa and Europe colliding and building mountains like the Alps and Pyrenees, that stress has caused tectonic forces to push our crust back up again."Although still awaiting official confirmation, Mr Cousins believes the footprint came from the back foot of a stegosaur, dating back around 170m years."It's always really special when I find something like this along the coast, particularly when it's clear enough to be able to say 'I'm pretty sure this is that'," he said."With dinosaur footprints it's most likely you're not going to be able to say it's this creature or that creature, it's a front leg or back leg but then you'll get some prints which are just a textbook case."Mr Cousins and Dr Herringshaw work together at Earth Science Outreach UK, a charity they jointly founded with the aim of engaging the public with local geology and palaeontology events and men are passionate that any finds are accessible to the public, to further knowledge and understanding of the prehistoric his background in both geology and the performing arts, Mr Cousins can often be seen performing as 'Mr Rock Showman' at science fairs, museums and festivals, as well as leading educational walking tours to spot fossils along the beaches of North Yorkshire."To me, all of the North Yorkshire stretch of coast is an outdoor museum," Mr Cousins added."One of the pleasures of my life is that I get to take people out to this coastline, and help them understand what they're looking for." Listen to highlights from North Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Independent
6 days ago
- Health
- The Independent
Scientists look to dinosaurs for modern cancer treatment
A decade-long study by Anglia Ruskin University and Imperial College London suggests dinosaur fossils could hold the key to new cancer discoveries and influence future treatments. Researchers identified preserved red blood cell-like structures in a dinosaur fossil, raising the possibility of studying ancient tumours. The study began in 2016 after the discovery of a tumour in the jaw of a Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus, a duck-billed dinosaur that lived 66-70 million years ago in present-day Romania. Scientists drilled into the fossil and used scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to identify low-density structures resembling red blood cells. Researchers want to understand the molecular building blocks of cancer from an ancient perspective, potentially leading to better treatments by studying soft tissues and proteins that survive over time.
Telegraph
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
BBC's Walking With Dinosaurs in row over fossilised faeces
The BBC has been accused of misleading viewers over fossilised dinosaur faeces. A 2ft-long slab of ancient Tyrannosaurus Rex excrement is shown in the first episode of the broadcaster's new Walking With Dinosaurs programme. However, this fossil was found at the site six years ago and was not unearthed during a recent dig. The show does not acknowledge this and has been criticised for insinuating that it was a contemporary finding. The programme focuses primarily on a three-year-old Triceratops called Clover and tells the story of her trying to avoid a T-Rex with visual effects and CGI. But it also shows other fossils being unearthed at a site in Montana, and then later cuts to researchers analysing a slab of rock which is revealed to be T-Rex excrement. 'The team has tracked down a remarkable fossil with a chilling tale to tell,' the narrator says. 'It may look like a nondescript bit of rock but the shape and texture tell the experts this is a coprolite – fossilised faeces.' However, the specimen was first dug up in 2019 at the Hell Creek excavation site in Montana, and has been on display at an Arizona museum since 2020. It holds the world record for the largest coprolite by a carnivorous animal and is called Barnum after the person to first find the fossil. 'Totally misleading' The fossil was not dug up at the site while the show was being filmed, leading to accusations of 'misleading' viewers. The BBC programme never said it was found during filming and does not show it being dug up, despite it being shown alongside modern footage. Alec Shelbrooke, the Tory MP for Wetherby and Easingwold, called the programme 'totally misleading' for how it integrated the Barnum specimen into the show. 'The BBC must always remember that education is at the core of its charter,' he told the Daily Mail. 'A public sector broadcaster must employ the highest standards when making documentaries, and not become distracted by a desire to entertain. 'We're seeing too many programmes like this which don't actually portray the facts. I would expect an organisation like the BBC to be absolutely crystal clear about what is being shown and not try to cheat viewers.' A BBC spokesman said: 'The programme does not say that this coprolite specimen was found at the dig site. 'As the commentary says: 'The team has tracked down a remarkable fossil with a chilling tale to tell'. 'The specimen comes from the collection of coprolite specialist George Frandsen. It was brought to the site to illustrate what T-Rex commonly ate, which was important information for the story. 'Palaeontologists sometimes bring fossils into the field when attempting to build a wider picture of the prehistoric landscape they are studying. 'The coprolite specimen was used during the course of filming in exactly this manner.' 'Nothing fake about it' Steve Brusatte, consultant and palaeontologist on Walking With Dinosaurs, said: 'There isn't anything remotely fake about it. 'The fossil coprolite is genuine, and the voiceover makes it clear that the palaeontologists tracked down the fossil from elsewhere, so I don't see what the issue is. 'If they, say, reburied the coprolite and reenacted it being dug up, then that would be misleading, but that isn't what is shown on screen. 'Sometimes palaeontologists do bring fossils discovered previously to a dig site, to compare to the fossils they are finding, or to help train their team, and we've done this before on digs I've been on.'
Telegraph
19-05-2025
- Science
- Telegraph
‘River of Death' wiped out thousands of dinosaurs in one day
An ancient riverbed in Canada has been dubbed the 'River of Death' after more than ten thousand dinosaur bones were found at the site. Skulls, hips, ribs and femurs are often unearthed at the location of the dig on a hillside in Alberta, and studies show they all date back to a single moment 72 million years ago. It is thought that more than 10,000 dinosaurs perished in one day as a consequence of freak weather, which probably flooded a popular migration route. Every bone found at the site is from a species called pachyrhinosaurus, a smaller and older relative of the triceratops that has the trademark neck frill of its relative, but a large bony mass on its nose instead of a horn. The site and dig is the focus of an episode of the BBC's new Walking With Dinosaurs television programme, which will use visual effects to retell the story of the prehistoric event. Pachyrhinosaurus measured up to 20 feet in length and could weigh more than two tons when fully grown, but the specimens found at the River of Death are of all ages, including juveniles and infants. Prof Emily Bamforth, a palaeontologist and curator at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Alberta, told Science Focus magazine: 'There are upwards of 10,000 individuals preserved here. 'It's one of the densest bone beds in North America – we're talking 100 to 300 bones per square metre, and the site stretches back into the hill for at least a square kilometre. It's a hugely dense bone bed that is very, very large – and that makes it tremendously significant.' She added that the fossilised remains of the herd of dinosaurs revealed a tragic tale. 'We know they all died at once in some kind of catastrophic event, and we know that whatever killed them wiped out almost every member of the herd indiscriminately – big, little, old and young,' said Prof Bamforth. The scientists at the site believe a flash flood, possibly caused by a monsoon or a hurricane, may have triggered a deluge that trapped the vast herd of animals which were on their way northwards for the summer. The large, heavy animals would have been ill-equipped to survive such a rapid downpour. 'We believe that this was a herd on a seasonal migration that got tangled up in some catastrophic event that effectively wiped out, if not the entire herd, then a good proportion of it,' Prof Bamforth told BBC News. 'These animals are not able to move very fast because of their sheer numbers, and they're very top heavy – and really not very good at swimming at all.' Stones at the site also captured evidence of turbulent water, indicating the power and destruction of the flood. North America is a rich area for palaeontologists, and scientists working on fish fossils in North Dakota have recently found evidence that the Chicxulub meteorite which wiped out almost all dinosaurs 66 million years ago probably hit Earth in the springtime of the northern hemisphere.
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Science
- The Guardian
A T-rex with lips? Predators with pink eyebrows? Walking with Dinosaurs is back to challenge everything you know
I've been under work pressure many times before, but nothing has prepared me for this. In Alberta, Canada on a palaeontology dig being filmed for the return of the BBC series Walking with Dinosaurs, I have been allowed to unearth a dinosaur bone. It has not seen the light of day for about 73m years, and now, armed with just a hammer, awl and brush, I am chipping away at the rock around it to bring it to human eyes for the first time. One tap too hard in the wrong place and the fossilised bone could break. Fortunately, I'm guided by more than just my recollections of the archaeology series Time Team. Overseeing me at Alberta's Pipestone Creek Bonebed is leading Canadian palaeontologist Emily Bamforth, one of the advisers on the revival of WWD – the hit turn-of-the-millennium series which recreated extinct species through CGI and animatronics. The bones we are excavating, Bamforth says, are thought to have been caused when a flash flood or fire engulfed a herd of horned, herbivore dinosaurs (found only in North America) called Pachyrhinosaurus. As if the poor creatures hadn't suffered enough, they now have me trying to unearth them. At first it is hard to differentiate between rock and remains. But Pipestone Creek Bonebed has one of the densest concentrations of dinosaur bones in the world, up to 200 bones per square metre. The prehistoric graveyard contains an estimated 10,000 creatures that will take more than a century to excavate – so it is not long before the 'bone salad', as one of the dig team calls it, is apparent. Fortunately, with Bamforth's guidance (and while humming the Jurassic Park theme tune under my breath) I complete my task without breaking anything. I then watch her team expertly remove a large bone from the ground using a plaster 'jacket' to protect it during its journey to be cleaned and analysed in a laboratory at the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum where Bamforth is curator. Her work, and that of more than 200 palaeontologists around the world, has helped inform the look of the new WWD, with their discoveries informing the dinosaurs' behaviours and appearance on screen. A lot has changed since the Kenneth Branagh-narrated series first aired in 1999, including the fact that many people now believe dinosaurs, like dragons, did not actually exist. WWD showrunner Kirsty Wilson explains that talking to people while travelling during the two years of filming, she realised, 'so many people … used to seeing [dinosaurs] in Jurassic Park etc … think of them as mythical animals'. One taxi driver even asked her if dragons are real. Whether our post-factual world, AI or the popularity of TV series such as House of the Dragon are to blame, who knows? But Wilson hopes this series will disabuse people of that notion. She says whereas the original WWD 'was purely visual special effects and animatronics [with] no dig sites involved at all, this time around, we're … doing our homework for the audience to see. We wanted to feature the real science that goes on.' Focusing on one individual dinosaur in each of the six episodes – now narrated by actor Bertie Carvel – is another difference from the 1999 original. This will, Wilson says, 'bring to life really cracking stories that will keep everybody engaged. What we really hope is that people will be emotionally involved with these animals as real animals.' They range from a single dad Spinosaurus – the largest carnivorous dinosaur to walk the earth – to a lovesick, herbivore Lusotitan. Thomas says the genesis for reviving WWD was its 25th anniversary plus the runaway success in 2022 of a show she worked on called Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough, which used a prehistoric graveyard to tell the story of the demise of the giant reptiles. Wilson explains: 'We wanted to bring back WWD and tap into that nostalgia, legacy, and all the things that made the series so brilliant, but also completely reimagine it … bring it up to date and do something new and exciting with it.' That includes the latest thinking about some dinosaurs' appearance, which might prove a huge surprise. In the Currie Museum's lab and collection, Bamforth and WWD assistant producer Sam Wigfield show me some of the fossils of leaves, skin, teeth and bone that have changed palaeontologists' view of dinosaurs. 'In our Tyrannosaurus rex episode, the T rexes have lips, which is not a Jurassic Park feature because they want to show off all the teeth. But actually the growing consensus is they had lips, which is less Hollywood, but more scientifically accurate,' says Wigfield. As well as showing that various dinosaurs were feathered, the reptiles will also be depicted in a much more exciting range of skin tones than the previous brown or green. 'In the natural world we see a vast array of very bright colours,' says Bamforth. 'We worked with palaeontologists and experts to introduce flashes of colour … So we have Albertosaurus – terrifying predators – with pink eyebrows.' To make the show more realistic, the computer-generated dinosaurs have been put against real-life locations similar to their own habitat. Crew members like Wigfield and production manager Emma Chapman acted out the parts of the creatures using cutouts, tape measures and tennis balls on poles so every move could be worked out. They even used pizza boxes on their feet to smooth over their tracks to save having to pay VFX specialists to 'wipe out' their prints on screen. Chapman – who has been instrumental in making the show's logistics work – recounts another trick used to save VFX money: 3D-printing a giant blue screen dinosaur head to get the right ripples in water. Getting moving water to look natural is expensive, so a 2-metre model of a Spinosaurus head was made and shipped to the filming location in Portugal. But she says even that was quite challenging, 'because the director wanted it to sink, because a Spinosaurus swims. So we were in a swimming pool, burrowing holes in it to try to get this thing to sink!' Due to fans' love for the first series, there is 'added pressure', says Chapman, but after the release of the trailer, excitement is building among fans of the original – many of whom now have children and will bring a new generation to what Thomas calls the 'BBC's iconic intellectual property'. With its worldwide appeal (the first series was watched by 700 million viewers globally) WWD is likely to make the Philip J Currie Museum a TV tourism hotspot, particularly as it is offering 'palaeontologist for a day' trips to go on a dig. Speaking after my dig, Bamforth says she is 'hopeful' WWD will make dinosaurs 'more real for people' who may 'struggle to understand that dinosaurs were real in the sense that animals today are real. It's so long ago and they're so alien to anything we have today.' Walking with Dinosaurs airs on BBC One and iPlayer on 25 May
