Dr Dean Lomax, a world-renowned palaeontologist and an Honorary Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, played a pivotal role shaping the scientific narrative in the film, and sharing his profound insight and expertise about the impressive creatures that once roamed the Earth.

Dr Lomax will introduce the documentary at a star-studded, red carpet premiere in the heart of Hollywood on November 3.

He said: “This film is for everyone who ever played with dinosaurs as a kid, wanted to be a palaeontologist and dig up dinosaurs, or loved movies like Jurassic Park and Jurassic World.

“It’s a timeless story that will inspire girls and boys across the planet to pursue science in a variety of disciplines - not just palaeontology - as well as boost attendance at natural history museums for decades to come.

“The film not only captures the buzz about dinosaurs in popular culture but dives deep into the science – speaking with researchers from around the world, discussing recent discoveries and challenging our preconceptions about dinosaur science.

is written and directed by father and teenage son Tony and James Pinto - both first-time filmmakers.

What started as a passion project six years ago gained huge traction on the crowdfunding platform Indiegogo. Now, it has reached the big screen in Hollywood to be played in front of hundreds of dinosaur fans, celebrities, and world-renowned experts in the field.

The documentary follows dino-obsessed teenager James and his father on a journey around the world, interviewing more than 65 seasoned palaeontologists, including Dr Lomax, amateur fossil hunters, artists, and dinosaur fanatics from the United States, Canada, UK, Morocco, China, and Patagonia.

On this global adventure, together they track down the director of Jurassic World, see the world’s largest dinosaur toy collection, and dig up real dinosaur bones.

Tony Pinto said: “ isn’t the traditional computer-generated dinosaur reconstructions and celebrity-narrated prehistoric documentary. Instead, we introduce the genuine voices of working palaeontologists, science communicators, artists, and dinosaur fanatics to tell a brief history of palaeontology and explore the world’s fascination with dinosaurs in popular culture.”

is G-rated, 90 minutes long, and anticipated to be available for purchase or streaming in early 2024. 

Find out more and view the trailer : .   

Headlining the two-day dino event is multi-award-winning British palaeontologist, celebrated author and TV host, Dr Dean Lomax from the UK. Lomax, who is an affiliated scientist at The University of Manchester, England, recently made international headlines when he led the excavation of one of the greatest discoveries in British palaeontological history, the 10-metre-long ‘Rutland Sea Dragon’.

The event will also feature a sneak peek of ‘WHY DINOSAURS?’ an ambitious dinosaur-themed documentary directed, filmed and edited by Tony and James Pinto, a father and son from Simi Valley, California. Over five years in the making, the film has been greatly anticipated since its announcement and successful crowdfunding campaign.

Based in the town of Thermopolis, the Wyoming Dinosaur Center originally opened its doors in 1995 and boasts a world-class museum and many active dinosaur dig sites. Unique fossils such as ‘Jimbo’ the Supersaurus, the largest dinosaur in Wyoming, along with the smallest dinosaur in Wyoming, ‘Lori’, a close cousin of Velociraptor, are on display along with an impressive global fossil collection and the only Archaeopteryx fossil outside of Europe.

Lomax will be returning to Wyoming after first visiting in 2008, then just an 18-year-old teenager straight out of high school. Growing up in the town of Doncaster, England, Lomax did not have the grades or finances to initially go to university and even failed science in high school. When the Wyoming Dinosaur Center offered Dean the chance of a lifetime to volunteer and follow his dreams, he jumped at this opportunity and even sold his possessions (including his childhood Star Wars collection!) to fund the trip.

Now, 15 years later, Lomax is a renowned expert on ichthyosaurs who has discovered and named multiple new species, written best-selling books and hosted TV shows. His unconventional journey into science began in Wyoming and highlights the importance of following your passion and never giving up on your dreams. “I wouldn’t be the person I am today if it wasn’t for the opportunity I was given to come to Wyoming and volunteer at the WDC in 2008. The WDC provided me with the vital experience I needed to get my foot on the ladder and work out how to make it in such a competitive field.”

The University of Manchester academic will deliver several talks showcasing his research, including naming an ichthyosaur after Mary Anning and co-describing the Velociraptor-like dinosaur from the Wyoming Dinosaur Center collections, Hesperornithoides, and his work on the infamous ‘Rutland Sea Dragon’. He is eager to return to Wyoming and share his passion for palaeontology with the public.

“We are proud to have launched Dr Dean Lomax’s career and to have him come back to Wyoming and share his story, which will no doubt inspire many people. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center is committed to teaching the importance of palaeontology and every year we see the impact we have on individuals and families by providing exciting, personal educational experiences to both adults and young people. Jurassic Fest will provide an opportunity to listen and learn from renowned fossil experts and get your hands dirty.” Added Angie Guyon, the WDC’s director.

Highlighting Wyoming’s rich dinosaur history, father and son team, Tony and James Pinto will be showcasing their upcoming international documentary, “WHY DINOSAURS?”

For Tony and James, this is a thrilling opportunity to finally reveal some of their hard work right in the heart of dinosaur country: “Some really important moments in the movie were filmed right here, so we’re grateful to the Wyoming Dinosaur Center for rolling out the red carpet for us yet again”, added Tony. Wyoming and the museum feature heavily in the movie which will be shown as part of a special screening at the local auditorium.

Jurassic Fest will provide dinosaur fans of all ages the opportunity to dig up dinosaurs with Dr Lomax, hunt for new dinosaur sites, and explore the fossil-rich formations that surround the Wyoming Dinosaur Center. The WDC has active dinosaur dig sites just 10 minutes from the museum, where bones of famous dinosaurs like Allosaurus and long-necked giants like Diplodocus and Brontosaurus are excavated.

Alongside the special digging and dino-hunting opportunities, Jurassic Fest will also offer special behind-the-scenes tours of some of the amazing fossils at the museum, provide an opportunity to clean dinosaur bones and speak to leading scientists. A stellar line-up of exciting speakers will also be sharing their passion for the past, each with a strong connection to the WDC, including Jimmy Waldron of the hit podcast ‘Dinosaurs Will Always Be Awesome’, author of ‘Passion in the Bones’ Elaine Howard from Florida, Dr Laura Vietti from the University of Wyoming and Dr Brandon Drake from the University of New Mexico.

Jimmy Waldron is a former WDC volunteer who operates DWABA, inc., a non-profit mobile museum that brings real and replica dinosaur fossils to low-income communities. The Orlando-based organization presents, as Waldron says: “unique experiences with heart, accessibly engaging science, and a life-sized robot dinosaur named Poe”. Jimmy has featured on the popular show ‘Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend’, and will share the incredible impact the Wyoming Dinosaur Center creates for paleoentrepreneurs!

Angie Guyon hopes that Jurassic Fest will deliver an educational, fun, and inspiring two-day event that will highlight the fascinating work of palaeontologists and science communicators which will help to capture the global importance of Wyoming’s prehistoric history. “The variety of hands-on activities will provide the public with an opportunity to gain first-hand experience, listen to a series of inspirational lectures and discover more about the research and excavation of local dinosaur finds from the Morrison Formation. This is not to be missed.”

The two-day dino extravaganza will take place on June 23-24, 2023. Tickets and more information can be found at the following address:  

The Yorkshire coast is renowned for producing some visually and scientifically incredible fossils, including thousands of dinosaur footprints. A popular destination for professional palaeontologists and fossil fans, people come from far and wide to see what they can find; however, it is not every day that a footprint measuring 80 centimetres in length is discovered. 

This record-breaking print was found by local archaeologist Marie Woods in April 2021. She had gone out along the coast and found this amazing fossil completely by chance. In her excitement and disbelief, Marie made contact with local fossil experts, but none were aware of the track she was describing. Following this, she then contacted Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at The University of Manchester and author of Dinosaurs of the British Isles.

Marie, who is now a co-author of the study, said: “I couldn’t believe what I was looking at, I had to do a double take. I have seen a few smaller prints when out with friends, but nothing like this. I can no longer say that ‘archaeologists don’t do dinosaurs’. At the time of the discovery, it generated a lot of public interest and I was overwhelmed with the messages on social media from people around the globe.”

This latest, scientifically significant footprint to be found along the Yorkshire Coast is one of only six similar prints to have been recorded in the area, the first being found in 1934. The tridactyl (three toed) print is the largest on record. The previous print, on display in the Rotunda Museum, Scarborough, was discovered in 2006, by John Hudson, the lead author of the new study describing the giant find.

Local geologist, Hudson, said: “This important discovery adds further evidence that meat-eating giants once roamed this area during the Jurassic. The type of footprint, combined with its age, suggests that it was made by a ferocious Megalosaurus-like dinosaur, with a possible hip height between 2.5 and 3 metres.” Megalosaurus was the first dinosaur to be formally described, in 1824.

After numerous conversations and the exchange of images, which showed extensive fragility, it was clear that immediate action was required to recover the important specimen from the shoreline. Leaving it would see it exposed to further erosion and damage from the tide or complete loss through landslips.

Working together, the team had to move quickly and arranged for the specimen to be safely and responsibly collected. The specimen was expertly recovered by experienced fossil collectors, Mark, Aaron and Shae Smith of Redcar. As the rescue mission went underway, it came to light that the track had actually been spotted five months earlier, by local fossil hunter and co-author of the new study, Rob Taylor. However, at the time of initial discovery the track was not fully exposed, and therefore the full extent and importance of the footprint had not been fully realised.

A co-author of the new study, Dr Dean Lomax from The University of Manchester, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Mark, Aaron and Shae for rescuing this important specimen and ensuring that it was saved for science. Now that the specimen has been studied, plans are in motion for it to go on public display, to spark the imagination of the next generation of fossil hunters.”

Marie and Rob donated the specimen to Scarborough Museum and Galleries. It has now been examined by both John Hudson and Dr Dean Lomax, with additional input from Dr Mike Romano from the University of Sheffield. Dr Romano has conducted over 20 years of research on the Yorkshire Coast, especially collecting and studying hundreds of dinosaur tracks. The team compared the new specimen with similar tracks collected from across the globe, especially in Europe and North America.

“The east coast of Yorkshire is known as the Dinosaur Coast for very good reasons”, said Dr Romano. A huge number of dinosaur tracks, ranging in the thousands, have been discovered. As a result, this stretch of coastline is considered one of the best places in the world for dinosaur footprints. Although first documented way back in 1907, it was not until the 1980s that finds were being reported on a regular basis (by amateurs as well as professional geologists), until today approximately 25 different types of footprints have been recognised. 

Dr Romano added: “Although these different types do not necessarily represent the same number of different dinosaurs, they do indicate a diverse ecosystem of animals including both carnivores and herbivores that roamed the Jurassic coastal plain and fluvial complex some 160-175 million years ago. The prints also allow us to interpret their behaviour. Thus, we have records of walking, running and swimming dinosaurs.”

Dr Lomax added: “This is a wonderful find. Not only does this specimen represent the largest theropod footprint found in Yorkshire, but by studying the angle of the footprint, its shape, and the impressions of the claws, the fossil provides insights into the behaviour of this individual from around 166 million years ago. In fact, features of the footprint may even suggest that this large predator was squatting down before standing up. It’s fun to think this dinosaur might well have been strolling along a muddy coastal plain one lazy Sunday afternoon in the Jurassic.” Dr Lomax is also the author of “Locked in Time”, a book which focuses on exceptional evidence of prehistoric animal behaviour.

The footprint, which is now in the guardianship of Scarborough Museum and Galleries, will hopefully go on public display with the Rotunda Museum’s other fossil footprints, once conservation has been completed.

The new study is published in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society and is open access.

The world’s first complete skeleton of a prehistoric reptile brought to the attention of science was discovered a little over 200 years ago and named ‘Proteosaurus’. Unfortunately, that fossil was destroyed in an air raid in May 1941, during WWII, with no copies thought to exist.

Now, palaeontologists have found and identified two plaster casts (copies) held in collections outside of the UK which have revealed new information about this historically significant fossil. The casts were discovered by Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist and Visiting Scientist at the University of Manchester, and Professor Judy Massare, from the State University of New York, Brockport, USA.

The new research has been published today in the journal, , one of the journals of The Royal Society, which published the original paper on the discovery of this skeleton in 1819.

The skeleton was found in 1818 in Lyme Regis, Dorset, UK, almost certainly by pioneering palaeontologist, Mary Anning. The Jurassic fossil was of a type of ancient marine reptile called an ichthyosaur. Often misidentified as swimming dinosaurs, these reptiles superficially looked like dolphins or sharks and appeared before the first dinosaurs evolved.

The fossil was subsequently acquired by a prolific collector, Lt-Col. Thomas James Birch, who sold it to the Royal College of Surgeons, London in 1820, to raise funds for Mary Anning and her family who were struggling to pay rent.

The discovery came at a time when people began to look scientifically at such finds. Ichthyosaur remains had been found before then, but nobody could work out exactly what they were so each new find added another piece to the prehistoric puzzle. This fossil was, at the time, the most complete ichthyosaur skeleton ever found, and was studied by a British surgeon, Sir Everard Home, who published his findings in the journal of The Royal Society in 1819. Sadly, the specimen, along with many other objects, was destroyed when a bomb hit the Royal College of Surgeons in May, 1941.

Dr Dean Lomax said: “When research on this fossil was published, it was still more than 20 years before the word ‘dinosaur’ would be invented. This and other early ichthyosaur finds sparked a major interest in collecting more of these curious, enigmatic creatures. The discoveries and research on ichthyosaurs played an important role in establishing palaeontology as a scientific discipline.”

Dr Lomax and Professor Massare have worked together for more than a decade and have made several important finds whilst studying historic collections. They even named a new species of ichthyosaur after Mary Anning in 2015, Ichthyosaurus anningae.

In 2016, whilst researching in the collections of the Peabody Museum, Yale University, USA, Lomax and Massare came across a very old cast of an ichthyosaur, which they identified as the first-known cast of Home’s specimen, the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton, discovered in 1818. Up until this point, there was no record that any casts existed.

Prior to Lomax and Massare’s recognition of the Yale specimen being a cast of Home’s ‘Proteosaurus’, “Peabody curatorial staff assumed that the specimen was a real ichthyosaur fossil and not a plaster cast painted to look like the original fossil from which it was moulded”, said Daniel Brinkman, the Museum Assistant in vertebrate palaeontology at the Yale Peabody Museum. All that is known about the Yale cast Brinkman explained: “Is that it was purchased by Yale Professor Charles Schuchert as part of a large collection of fossils from the estate of Frederick A. Braun, a professional collector and dealer, and later donated by Schuchert to the Peabody in 1930.” According to Brinkman: “We, unfortunately, don’t know who made the cast or when nor do we know when or from whom Braun acquired it for his collection, though it must have been before his death in November, 1918.”

In 2019, Dr Lomax visited the Natural History Museum, Berlin, Germany, to study the collections and was astonished to find a second cast of the ichthyosaur. This one, however, was in much better condition than the cast at Yale, which is ironic considering that the original was destroyed during WWII.

“When Dr Lomax visited our collections, he kept asking me for information about this cast and I couldn’t help him very much because of missing records and labelling of the specimen”, said Dr Daniela Schwarz, the scientific head of collection of fossil reptiles at the Natural History Museum, Berlin.

Dr Schwarz continued: “So when I learned about the outcome of his detective work and that this important specimen’s cast now rested in our collections for more than a century, I was really stunned! This discovery once more demonstrates the necessity to carefully preserve also undetermined and casted material in a natural history collection for centuries, because in the end, there will always be someone who discovers its scientific value!”

Studies of both casts have shown that they were made at two different times. The Yale cast might even be a very old cast made when the ichthyosaur was still in Birch’s possession.

Professor Massare said: “In Home’s 1819 article, he illustrated the original skeleton. This drawing by William Clift was the only visual evidence we had of the ichthyosaur. Now, having two casts, we can verify the reliability of the original illustration by comparison with the casts. We have identified a couple of bones that Home missed, and found a few discrepancies between the drawing and the casts.”

“When we discovered the casts, we felt compelled to submit our research to The Royal Society, especially because they had played a major role in publishing the first accounts of ichthyosaurs in the scientific literature over 200 years ago,” Lomax explained.

“We hope that our discovery of these two casts might encourage curators and researchers to take a closer look at old casts in museum collections,” added Professor Massare.

Discovered beneath a field grazed by an ancient breed of English Longhorn cattle, the roughly 183-million-year-old fossils are stunningly well preserved like they were frozen in time.

Contained within three-dimensionally preserved limestone concretions, the remains of fish, ancient marine reptiles, squids, rare insects and more have been revealed for the first time by a team of palaeontologists. The fossils come from an inland rock layer that was last exposed in the UK more than 100 years ago and represented a unique opportunity to collect fossils from a time when this part of the country was deep underwater.

The newly found site is at Court Farm, Kings Stanley near Stroud, Gloucestershire and was discovered by Sally and Neville Hollingworth, avid fossil collectors who recently uncovered the remains of mammoths in the nearby Cotswold Water Park which was featured in the BBC One documentary “Attenborough and the Mammoth Graveyard” in 2021.

Sally and Neville explained: “These fossils come from the Early Jurassic, specifically a time called the Toarcian. The clay layers exposed at this site near Stroud have yielded a significant number of well-preserved marine vertebrate fossils that are comparable to the famous and exquisitely preserved similar fauna of the Strawberry Bank Lagerstätte from Ilminster, Somerset – a prehistoric site of exceptional fossil preservation. Excavations at Kings Stanley over the last week have revealed a rich source of fossil material, particularly from a rare layer of rock that has not been exposed since the late 19^th ���Գٳܰ���.”

Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist and a Visiting Scientist at The University of Manchester, who recently led the excavation of the Rutland ichthyosaur that also dates to the Toarcian geological age, was part of the team and said: “The site is quite remarkable, with numerous beautifully preserved fossils of ancient animals that once lived in a Jurassic sea that covered this part of the UK during the Jurassic. Inland locations with fossils like this are rare in the UK. The fossils we have collected will surely form the basis of research projects for years to come.”

Many of the specimens collected will be donated to the local Museum in the Park, Stroud, where they will form a significant part of the museum’s palaeontology collections. One of the team members, Alexia Clark, who is the museum’s Documentation and Collections Officer said: “We’re excited to expand our knowledge of the geology of the Stroud District and we are looking forward to a time when we can share these amazing finds with our members and visitors. Being part of the excavation team has been a real privilege and I can’t wait to share details of that experience through our members’ newsletter”.

Among the best finds were several fossil fish with excellent details of their scales, fins and even their eyeballs. One of the most impressive discoveries was a three-dimensionally preserved fish head, belonging to a type of Jurassic fish called Pachycormus. The fish looks as if it is ‘leaping off the rock’ that it was contained inside. A digital 3D model of this fossil by Steven Dey of ThinkSee3D.

Field observations and preparation of the fauna found so far indicate that the Court Farm fossils were rapidly buried, as suggested by the absence of any encrusting animals or burrows in the sediment. The layered concretions around the skeletons formed relatively early before the sediments were compacted, as the original sediment layering is preserved. These concretions prevented further compaction and compression from the overlying sediments during burial and thus preserved the fossils in three-dimensional time capsules.

Neville added, “Using the latest fossil preparation and imaging techniques to understand this unique fauna in more detail will create a rich repository. Also, we will leave a permanent reference section after excavations have concluded. Given the location and enthusiasm from the landowner and local community to be involved it is hoped to plan and develop a local STEM enrichment programme as there will be opportunities for community groups and local schools to be involved in the research, particularly from the Stroud area with a focus of targeting audiences in areas of low STEM capital.”

The landowner, Adam Knight, said: “I’m delighted that after the initial work that Sally and Nev did over three years ago we now have a full-scale dig on the farm involving a range of fossil experts from The Natural History Museum, The University of Manchester, University of Reading and The Open University. On Friday we were also joined by Emily Baldry (16) on a day’s work experience before she goes to University to study palaeontology – it’s wonderful to see her enthusiasm for her chosen profession. It has been a real pleasure to host the dig and I’m excited to see the results of what has been found.”

The team are very grateful to the Geologists’ Association Curry Fund for financing the excavation phase. Going forward, the team will continue to analyse the specimens and publish their research with the fossils planned for display at Museum in the Park, Stroud, and at the Boho Bakery Café at Court Farm, Kings Stanley, Gloucestershire. 

In an expedition led by The University of Magallanes (UMAG) in the Tyndall Glacier area of Chilean Patagonia during March and April 2022, within the boundaries of the Torres del Paine National Park, the intact remains were delicately collected using a helicopter.

Nicknamed “Fiona”, the ichthyosaur is a 4-metre-long pregnant female, containing several embryos that was initially discovered in 2009 by Magellanic palaeontologist and researcher at the GAIA Antarctic Research Centre, UMAG, Dr Judith Pardo-Pérez. Given the remote nature of the find, requiring a 10-hour-hike or horse ride to reach the site, collecting this vitally important specimen was no easy task. It was only made possible through funding provided by the Chilean National Agency for Research and Development (ANID).

The expedition lasted an intense 31 days and was led by Dr Pardo-Pérez, who is the first female palaeontologist to lead a major expedition in Patagonia. The complex logistics, the difficulties of camping and moving around in a rocky area with wildlife including puma, and the extreme weather conditions made this journey an almost titanic challenge.

The exceptional ichthyosaur is the only pregnant female of Valanginian-Hauterivian age (between 129 and 139 million years old from the Early Cretaceous) recorded and extracted on the planet. “At four metres long, complete, and with embryos in gestation, the excavation will help to provide information on its species, on the palaeobiology of embryonic development, and on a disease that affected it during its lifetime," said Dr Pardo-Perez Pérez, who also reports that, in addition to the ichthyosaur milestone, 23 new specimens have been discovered during this latest campaign, making it, according to Pardo-Perez, the most abundant and best-preserved early Cretaceous ichthyosaur deposit in the world.

"The results of the expedition met all expectations, and even more than expected," says the scientist, specifying that, from these fossil records, "we hope to obtain results on the diversity, disparity and palaeobiology of the ichthyosaurs of the Tyndall Glacier locality, establish degrees of bone maturity and ecological niches to evaluate possible dietary transitions that occurred throughout their evolution and that could help to establish palaeobiogeographical connections with ichthyosaurs from other latitudes".

Dr Pardo-Pérez has visited the Tyndall fossil site more than 10 times since the initial discovery in 1997 and completed a PhD on the ichthyosaurs found in the area. Given the magnitude of the proposed research objectives of this trip, the complexities associated with the terrain, as well as the multidisciplinary nature of the study and science, an international team of collaborators with unique skill sets were involved from across Chile, Argentina and also Germany and the UK.

Part of the team was also Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist and a Visiting Scientist at The University of Manchester, who has studied thousands of ichthyosaurs and who recently led the excavation of the Rutland ichthyosaur, the most complete skeleton of a large prehistoric reptile ever found in the UK. Whilst assisting on-site, Lomax found new specimens including the best-preserved skull of an ichthyosaur found there to date, belonging to a young juvenile.

“The fact that these incredible ichthyosaurs are so well preserved in an extreme environment, revealed by a retreating glacier, is unlike anywhere else in the world. The considerable number of ichthyosaurs found in the area, including complete skeletons of adults, juveniles, and newborns provides a unique window into the past. The international collaboration helps to share this exceptional ichthyosaur graveyard with the world and, to a large extent, to promote science.”

Lomax continued: “The weather was so extreme that we could not get to the ichthyosaur site every day and had to remain in camp. On those days when the team could reach the site, they documented the ichthyosaurs and other fossils and discovered new specimens. Amazingly, on average, two ichthyosaurs were found every day.”

Excavation of Fiona was led by palaeontological technician Jonatan Kaluza from Fundación de Historia Natural Félix de Azara and CONICET (Argentina) and biologist and palaeontological excavator Héctor Ortiz from the Chilean Antarctic Institute and the University of Chile. They spent the entire length of the trip sleeping inside tents by the ichthyosaur, in front of the Tyndall Glacier. To combat the 90 kph winds, heavy rain and snow, a hangar was built over Fiona so that the team could continue to work through the elements, using machinery and excavation tools for the extremely hard terrain.

Battling the challenging elements, the excavation was incredibly tough. “The rock of the outcrop is so hard that it cannot be excavated with a lump hammer, chisel and brush, and we had to cut, drill and break blocks with diamond and high calibre tools. We were only two people who made glacier camp and, in a month of field work, we managed to get the most complete ichthyosaur from the southern tip of America to the world in two helicopter flights,” said Ortiz.

Kaluza added: “this is the hardest excavation I have been in my entire career. This fossil locality in Chilean Patagonia is exceptional and is extremely important to keep the support of the Chilean government to continue researching and protecting this valuable patrimony.”

Another key member of the team was Dr Erin Maxwell, curator of the collection of marine reptiles and fossil fishes of the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart (Germany), an expert world-renowned for her dozens of scientific articles on ichthyosaurs.

For Dr Pardo-Pérez, having experts from the State Museum of Natural History in Stuttgart, Germany, was key. This institution is one of the museums with the longest historical tradition in the study of ichthyosaurs since the 19th century and has a collection of more than 500 specimens. Dr Maxwell added that these records can be used to compare with the new findings from Chilean Patagonia, since "we do not have many marine reptile fossils from this time period worldwide (~130-140 million years ago), and the ones we have are from Europe," she said. Based on this, she emphasized that "the Tyndall locality is very important to fill a gap in our knowledge about the types and general diversity of species that inhabited the ocean in the southern hemisphere, especially in temperate to polar latitudes".

Following the dramatic scenes of a helicopter lifting “Fiona” from her ancient seabed, now high in the Tyndall Glacier, which was once deep underwater the team had to dismantle camp and return to load the ichthyosaur onto a truck. Support was provided by the Mayor of the Municipality of Torres del Paine, Anahí Cárdenas, who facilitated the use of a crane truck to transport the camp and excavation materials to the Torres del Paine National Park and then the excavated specimen to the Río Seco Museum of Natural History in Punta Arenas (approximately 400 kilometres).

Fiona will now be prepared in the palaeontology laboratory of the Río Seco Natural History Museum in Punta Arenas, where it will be temporarily stored for later exhibition. In this respect and as local counterpart of the project, the director of the Museum, Miguel Cáceres, said that this alliance, "allows us to open a new line of temporary work on a large scale such as geology and palaeontology, and also a space for collaboration that helps us, without doubt, to give meaning to this purpose of resignifying natural history in the Region of Magallanes".

For Dr Pardo-Pérez, following the excavation, she believes that the first thing is to implement in situ protection methods to prevent the deterioration of the fossils. "We have almost a hundred ichthyosaurs in the Tyndall Glacier fossil deposit and many of them, unfortunately, will never be excavated, due to the difficulty of access, being in risk areas (cliff edge), and lack of funds etc. The ichthyosaurs that will not be excavated need protection and consolidation in situ, as the erosion to which they are being subjected on a daily basis is destroying them."

All of the above, added to the continuity of palaeontological research in the sector, reaffirms, for the researcher, the need to have a permanent shelter that serves as a place to live during the days of the campaign and as a laboratory for study and analysis during the weeks in which the excavation is being carried out. "This type of scientific infrastructure would put us at the forefront worldwide in terms of palaeontological excavations in remote areas and would give us more safety from the extreme location," says Pardo-Perez.

These ground-breaking discoveries could provide the first ever physical evidence that dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid strike at the end of the Cretaceous. Never before has a dinosaur victim of the asteroid strike been found.

Alongside other extraordinary treasures, these finds will feature in a new 90 minute film– which airs on 15 April on BBC One and iPlayer.

University of Manchester palaeontologists first announced their stunning finds at the Tanis site in 2019 and uncovered a ‘treasure trove’ of geological records to help paint the picture of the final days of the dinosaurs.

Other finds include an incredibly rare pterosaur egg with the fossilised bones of a baby pterosaur inside; a fossilised burrow likely to have been made by an early mammal such as  a Pediomyid - and beautifully preserved Triceratops skin, which is exceedingly rare in the Hell Creek Formation.  

All the discoveries that feature in the documentary help build a detailed picture of what life was like at Tanis at the end of the Late Cretaceous – the very end of the dinosaurs’ 165 million year reign. With exclusive access to DePalma’s dig over three years, this film brings to life, in unprecedented detail, the lost world of the last days of the dinosaurs; revealing, in compelling CGI scenes, what happened when the asteroid struck the planet.

In the programme Sir David Attenborough joins DePalma and Professor Phil Manning of The University of Manchester, as they investigate ejecta spherules from Tanis which have been preserved in amber. Further analysis shows one spherule appears to have a fragment inside which could be a microscopic piece of the asteroid itself, perfectly preserved inside the spherule for 66 million years.  Described by Prof Manning as something that could be “a piece of the bullet that killed the dinosaurs”, this could be physical evidence linking the Tanis dig site to the Chicxulub impact.

The cameras also capture the moment DePalma and his team unearth the leg of a small, herbivorous dinosaur called a Thescelosaurus, a dinosaur that itself may have witnessed the cataclysmic impact. This is the first time that the fossil of a dinosaur that appears to have been killed by the asteroid impact has been uncovered.

Robert DePalma says: “This is the most incredible thing that we could possibly imagine here, the best case scenario….The one thing that we always wanted to find in this site and here we’ve got it”. Robert DePalma has been digging at Tanis for a decade, and Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough captures the moments he and his team come across the extraordinary finds that help us piece together what happened, hour by hour, on the day the dinosaurs were wiped out.

The programme also follows Robert as he examines a fossilised pterosaur egg at a research facility in Oxfordshire, the Diamond Light Source Synchrotron. The baby is still inside the egg and scans reveal that the pterosaur may have been able to fly shortly after hatching, and that some pterosaur eggs were soft-shelled, like those of turtles.

Dinosaurs: The Final Day combines stunning CGI storytelling, not only to animate Tanis and these discoveries, but also to transport David Attenborough back to the Late Cretaceous. It is based upon the remarkable evidence unearthed by Robert and his team at Tanis, which brings to life in more detail than ever before, the lost world of the last days of the dinosaurs and uncovers the mystery of what happened when the Chicxulub asteroid collided with Earth.

Arthropods, the group of animals that includes creepy crawlies like spiders and woodlice, are the largest phylum in the animal kingdom and are found everywhere from the deepest ocean trench to the top of Mount Everest.

shows the newest addition to the group is a 520-million-year-old (about 10 times as old as the dinosaurs) organism called Erratus sperare. Erratus sperare was discovered in the Chengjiang Fossil Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Yunnan, China. The Chengjiang Fossil Site preserves an ancient underwater ecosystem which included the relatives of some well-known arthropod fossils like trilobites and anomalocarids.

Modern water dwelling arthropods have biramous limbs, legs that have two parts – one for breathing and one for walking – but how such specialised limbs evolved was a mystery. Some of the earliest fossil arthropods, like Anomalocaris, had swimming flaps that may have doubled as gills, but until now researchers didn’t know how arthropods made the jump from these specialised flaps to the biramous limbs of modern arthropods.

Erratus sperare provides the missing link between arthropods that used such specialised flaps and arthropods with biramous limbs. It has both legs and flaps.

Dr David Legg, one of the authors of this study, said: “Fish aren’t the only organisms that have gills! Arthropods have gills too… they just have them on their legs. When it came to arthropods, however, we just weren’t sure where these gills came from.

“Thanks to this new fossil, Erratus sperare, we now have a much clearer idea. These gills also probably went on to evolve into the wings of insects and the lungs of terrestrial arthropods like spiders so were a very important innovation.”

The study, “Seasonal calibration of the end-Cretaceous Chicxulub Impact Event”, provides new evidence that helps us to understand the significance of the timing for the events that brought an end to the dinosaurs—and 75% of life on Earth. Spring time, a season associated with new life, saw the death of an ~160 million year old dynasty and changed the course of evolution of life on Earth.

A team led by University of Manchester PhD student Robert DePalma examined the Tanis research site in North Dakota, USA, one of the most highly detailed Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) boundary sites in the world, to understand the inner workings of the extinction event.

DePalma said: “This project has been a huge undertaking but well worth it. For so many years we’ve collected and processed the data, and now we have compelling evidence that changes how we think of the KPg event, but can simultaneously help us better prepare for future ecological and environmental hazards”.

“Extinction can mark the end of a dynasty, but we must not forget that our own species might not have evolved if it weren’t for the impact and the timing of events that saw the end of the dinosaurs".

Previous research has clearly documented the cataclysmic Chicxulub asteroid impact that hit the Yucatan Peninsula 66 million years ago. The impact triggered the most infamous extinction event in Earth’s history, dramatically changing global biomes in ways that directly relate to our current global ecological crisis. What remains unknown are the finer details of what happened in between impact and the resulting crash in global ecosystems.

Using multiple lines of evidence including radiometric dating, stratigraphy, fossilised remains of biological marker species, and a distinctive capping layer of iridium-rich clay, DePalma’s team previously documented that the new site that has been named Tanis, contains the only impact-caused vertebrate mass-death assemblage at the KPg boundary. The site was unequivocally dated from end of the Cretaceous, within the first hours of the Chicxulub impact (DePalma et al., 2019).

The same study documented that a massive surge of water, associated with vast earthquakes triggered by the impact, was the cause for the rapidly deposited sediments that locked-in the evidence used in this study. The densely packed tangle of plants, animals, trees, and impact ejecta has enabled an unprecedented opportunity to refine details on the KPg event, the biota that succumbed to it, and the environment in which they lived.

However, time of year plays an important role in many biological functions— reproduction, feeding strategies, host-parasite interactions, seasonal dormancy, breeding patterns, to name a few. It is hence no surprise that the time of year for a global-scale hazard can play a big role in how harshly it impacts life. The seasonal timing of the Chicxulub impact has therefore been a critical question for the story of the end-Cretaceous extinction. Until now the answer to that question has remained unclear.

Since 2014, the interdisciplinary team have applied a combination of traditional and cutting-edge techniques to piece together evidence that has enabled the identification of the season in which the Chicxulub impact event took place. Robert DePalma, lead author on the study, said: “The work at Tanis has been enriching and incredibly enjoyable. That solid connection to prehistory provides our whole team an opportunity of a lifetime".

The team used growth lines that were preserved in the fossil bones of fish that died in the powerful impact-triggered event at Tanis site. These growth lines provide a unique record of the fish life histories, and enabled the season during which they died to be deduced from the bony growth pattern. The unique structure and pattern of the growth lines, similar to a barcode, provide the evidence that all of the fossil fish examined died during the Spring-Summer growth season. Isotopic analysis of the growth lines in the fish bones provided independent confirmation of this, showing a yearly seasonally driven oscillation that also terminated during the Spring-Summer growth.

The team used multiple additional lines of evidence to verify the isotopic data. The examination of juvenile fossil fish, aided in part by cutting-edge Synchrotron-Rapid-Scanning X-Ray Fluorescence (SRS-XRF) carried out at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL), provided a novel way of dating the seasonal variation observed in fossils from the deposit. By comparing the sizes of the youngest fish to the growth rates of analogous modern fish, the team predicted how long after hatching they were buried. Comparing this to known modern spawning seasons enabled the team to deduce the seasonal range that was represented by the deposit at Tanis— Spring to early Summer.

Loren Gurche, a co-author on the study, said: “Animal behavior can be a pretty powerful tool, so we overlapped even more evidence, this time of seasonal insect behavior, such as leaf mining and mayfly activity. They all matched up…everything points to the fact that the impact happened during the northern hemisphere equivalent of Spring to Summer months".

The study provides long-awaited evidence that helps confirm previous studies on the timing of the KPg mass-extinction. The multiple lines of evidence discovered in this study are essential to reconstructing the causes of post-impact biotic response and extinction patterns. That knowledge is not only pertinent to scientists and natural historians but is directly applicable to life today. The fossil record is a key to understanding the response of life to global-scale hazards, whether they be past, present or future. Professor Phil Manning, co-author on the study, stated: "The hindsight that the fossil record provides can yield critical data, which can be applied today, so that we might plan for tomorrow".

Static dinosaur fossils captured frozen in time have driven curiosity for hundreds of years with popular media making a leap to bring them to life on the big screen. Now for the first time the remarkable prehistoric world is being told through 50 astonishing fossils each a snapshot of how these animals lived, not always harmoniously.

Dr Dean Lomax, from The University of Manchester, examines the extraordinary direct evidence of fossils captured in the midst of everyday action: dinosaurs sitting on their eggs like birds, Jurassic flies preserved while mating, a T. rex infected by parasites. Each fossil, he reveals, tells a unique story about prehistoric life.

From dinosaurs fighting to their deaths to elephant-sized burrowing ground sloths, this book takes readers on a global journey deep into the earth’s past. Locked in Time showcases fifty of the most astonishing fossils ever found, brought together in five fascinating chapters that offer an unprecedented glimpse at the real-life behaviours of prehistoric animals.

Dr Lomax said: “I’ve spent more than a decade researching and writing Locked in Time, having been inspired by an incredible Jurassic fossil I first saw in 2008. My hope is that the book, and the fossils therein, will encourage you to look at fossils and prehistoric life with an entirely new perspective, helping to show that these once living, breathing animals were as real as you and me.”

Fossils allow us to picture the forms of life that inhabited Earth eons ago. Humans’ obsession with discovering more about these long lost animals and the way they lived is ever-present. How did these animals actually behave? How they reproduce and raise their young, how they hunt their prey or elude their predators? What would it be like to see prehistoric animals as they lived and breathed?

“The rocky remains of long-dead animals and plants immediately spring to mind when we think of fossils, and it might seem that we could never learn anything about behaviour from a seemingly lifeless ‘rock’.” Said Dr Lomax. “And yet, some exceptional fossils preserve direct evidence of behaviours, providing an incredible insight into an ancient world. Many of these fossils are largely unbeknown to the public, such as the ‘fighting mammoths’, a unique fossil of two entangled bull mammoths found in Nebraska, USA, in 1962, which is today on display at the Trailside Museum, University of Nebraska.

“Many people see prehistoric animals, especially dinosaurs, as movie monsters; creatures that roared from fight to fight. But prehistoric animals were real animals, they were every bit as varied and complicated as today’s wildlife. Locked in Time illustrates this point with 50 of the world’s most amazing fossils, each possessing direct evidence of specific behaviours. Painting so much beautiful and spectacular complexity has been one of the highlights of my career.”

Many recall behaviours typical of animals familiar to us today, evoking the chain of evolution that links all living things to their distant ancestors. Locked in Time allows us to see that fossils are not just inanimate objects: they can record the life stories of creatures as fully alive as any today. Striking and scientifically rigorous illustrations by renowned palaeoartist Bob Nicholls bring these breathtaking moments to life.

Dr Dean Lomax is an internationally recognised palaeontologist and Visiting Scientist at The University of Manchester, author, television presenter, and science communicator. His books include Dinosaurs of the British Isles (2014) and Prehistoric Pets (2020).Bob Nicholls is a world-renowned natural history artist who specializes in the reconstruction of prehistoric animals, plants, and environments. His illustrations and models have been published in more than forty books and exhibited in over forty museums, universities, and visitor attractions around the world.

Locked in Time: Animal Behavior Unearthed in 50 Extraordinary Fossils, is published by , May 18, 2021.

An incredibly rare dinosaur embryo discovered perfectly preserved inside its egg has shown scientists new details of the development and appearance of sauropods which lived 80 million years ago.

Sauropods were the giant herbivores made famous as being ‘veggie-saurs’ in the 1993 film Jurassic Park. The incredible new find of an intact embryo has shown for the first time that these dinosaurs had stereoscopic vision and a horn on the front of the face which was then lost in adulthood.

The international research team say that this is the most complete and articulate skull known from any titanosaur, the last surviving group of long-necked sauropods and largest land animals known to have ever existed.

The sauropod egg was discovered in Patagonia, Argentina, in an area not previously known to provide evidence of dinosaur fossils. It was imperative the egg was repatriated to Argentina however as it is illegal to permanently remove fossils from the country.

Dr John Nudds from The University of Manchester said: “The preservation of embryonic dinosaurs preserved inside their eggs is extremely rare. Imagine the huge sauropods from Jurassic Park and consider that the tiny skulls of their babies, still inside their eggs, are just a couple of centimetres long. 

“We were able to reconstruct the embryonic skull prior to hatching. The embryos possessed a specialised craniofacial anatomy that precedes the post-natal transformation of the skull in adult sauropods. Part of the skull of these embryonic sauropods was extended into an elongated snout or horn, so that they possessed a peculiarly shaped face.”

The examination of the amazing specimen enabled the team to revise opinions of how babies of these giant dinosaurs may be hatched and to test previously held ideas about sauropodomorph reproduction. The elongated horn is now thought to have been used as an 'egg tooth' on hatching to allow babies to break through their shell.

The findings, published today in , were the result of a novel technique to reveal embryonic dinosaurs in their shells. The embryo within the egg was revealed by carefully dissolving the egg around it using an acid preparation. The team, with lead author Martin Kundrat of  in Slovakia, were then able to perform a virtual dissection of the specimen at the (ESRF) in Grenoble.

Sauropod embryology remains one of the least explored areas of the life history of dinosaurs. The first definitive discovery of sauropod embryos came with the finding of an enormous nesting ground of titanosaurian dinosaurs discovered in Upper Cretaceous deposits of northern Patagonia, Argentina, 25 years ago. This new discovery however, is the first time a fully intact embryo has been able to be studied.

Other eggs were also found at the Argentinian site which the scientists now aim to examine in a similar fashion. It is thought that some of the eggs could contain well-preserved dinosaur skin which could help further piece together the mysteries of some of the most fascinating animals to ever walk the Earth.

New fossil data show that our fishy ancestors may have risen to dominance by becoming predators of their ancient jawless cousins.

Palaeontologists at The University of Manchester have revealed the changing pattern in bite marks in fossil record of early vertebrates through time, and unlocked the circumstances of our own evolution.

Almost all modern vertebrates alive today are jawed vertebrates, such as mammals, birds and sharks, but 400 million ago jawless fishes were the more diverse. Previous theories explaining the change from jawless to jawed vertebrate dominance included changing environment and climate, competition, or predation by giant sea scorpions. Now new research, published in , implicate another cause - jawed vertebrate predators.

By studying fossilised jawless fish, researchers from the University’s found that the frequency of bite marks increased through time, reaching a peak toward their extinction. The bite marks included, scratches, gouges and puncture marks in the skeleton of heterostracans, a group of jawless fish. 91ֱ��ing the patterns of these bite marks found that they were associated with the occurrence of jawed vertebrates; as such, our jawed relatives are implicated in the predation and demise of our jawless relatives, quite possibly contributing to their extinction.

“It is really exciting to be able to find direct evidence of an ecological interaction between fossil organisms from millions of years ago, especially one that helps us construct our own distant evolutionary history.” said Dr Robert Sansom.

Dr Emma Randle, currently a Scientific Associate at said: “Hetersotracan jawless fishes are really interesting as they are some of the first vertebrates to have bone - in the form of an armour-like ‘exoskeleton’. They thrived for many millions of years and came in a variety of beautiful forms often dominating the environments they were found within. Ultimately, like other varieties of armoured jawless vertebrates, they became extinct towards the end of the Devonian Period, but leave us a fossil record that helps us reconstruct the early evolutionary history of all vertebrates”

The researchers were able to unlock these evolutionary dynamics by studying over 2800 fossils, ranging over 50 million years, from the Silurian & Devonian periods (430 to 370 million years ago). The groups implicated as the main predators were placoderms, heavily armoured jawed vertebrates, and sarcopterygians, the lobe finned fish. The predators most associated with bite marks was Panderichthys, a key fossil for reconstructing the transition from sea to land, another important step in our own evolutionary history.

Reference: Randle, E & Sansom, R. 2019. ‘Bite marks and predation of fossil jawless fish during the rise of jawed vertebrates’ Proceedings of the Royal Society B. Published 18.12.2019.

A new scientific study led by researchers at has re-examined a series of fossil skulls from the UK, providing new insights into two species of extinct marine reptiles.

Dr Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist at The University of Manchester, worked with colleagues from the and the to investigate fossilised 3D skulls of 190 million-year-old ichthyosaurs from the Early Jurassic.

Whilst researching the fossil collections of the New Walk Museum, Leicester, England, the team studied an almost complete skull of an ichthyosaur with all of the bones of the skull roof preserved, in exceptional detail.

The find provided new information about the anatomy of the skull in a species known as Protoichthyosaurus.

Previously, many Protoichthyosaurus fossils had thought to be the same as a closely related, but contemporary species called Ichthyosaurus. However, in 2017, Lomax and his team found that the two species differed greatly in the number of fingers on each limb, which has been the key characteristic used to tell them apart.

“Protoichthyosaurus has three 'primary' fingers, whereas Ichthyosaurus always has four 'primary' fingers,” explains Dr Lomax. However, this was not always sufficient to tell the species apart, as many fossils are only partial fragments of the original animal, so confusion remained.

In the new study, the researchers have identified a further difference between Protoichthyosaurus and its close cousin, based on the skull at New Walk Museum and Art Gallery, Leicester. They found that the two ichthyosaurs vary in the shape of the skull, and particularly how the individual skull bones fit together.

Dr Mark Evans of the University of Leicester’s Centre for Palaeobiology Research said: “This skull was discovered in the nineteenth century at the village of Barrow-upon-Soar in Leicestershire. The Early Jurassic rocks from this area were extensively quarried to make cement, and many fossils were discovered in the process. The fossils from Barrow are frequently preserved in three dimensions, as was the case with the skull we studied; unfortunately all the old quarries have now disappeared and been built on.”

Dr Lomax said: “Despite hundreds of skulls of Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs being known, many of them are often poorly preserved, damaged or crushed, or simply are not exposed in the right view. As such, finding a specimen that shows how all of the skull bones fit together adds considerably to our understanding of ichthyosaur skull anatomy.”

He continued: “In addition, with the identification of this new skull, we compared it with as many other good skulls of Ichthyosaurus as possible, most of which were first found over 150 years ago; our findings support that the two species are distinct in the skull as well as in other parts of the skeleton.”

Dr Lomax is a renowned ichthyosaur expert, having started his career by identifying a new species of Ichthyosaurus at the Doncaster Museum and Art Gallery, which was misidentified as a plaster cast. He is a visiting scientist The University of Manchester, where he completed both his MPhil and PhD. Recently, he gave a about his unorthodox journey into academia and palaeontology.

A team of palaeontologists from the UK and US have identified a one of a kind 150 million-year-old dinosaur skeleton. The specimen has been classified as a new species to science with the discovery also raising questions about the evolution of avian flight.

During the summer of 2001, the skeleton was discovered while removing overlying rock during the excavation of Wyoming’s longest dinosaur, . The quarry was located in the steep slopes of the famous Morrison Formation. Most dinosaur fans will be familiar with other Morrison Formation celebrities such as Stegosaurus, Diplodocus and Allosaurus. This new chicken-sized, carnivorous dinosaur lived in a world populated by giants. It is the smallest dinosaur ever found in Wyoming.

Co-author of the study, Bill Wahl, who is the preparation laboratory manager at the and the palaeontologist who found and collected the specimen, recalled just how exciting the find was: “We were removing a ledge of overburden rock and found – unfortunately with a shovel – some tiny, delicate bones poking out. We immediately stopped, collected as much of the bones as possible and spent the next few days frantically searching for more. Only after some of the bones were cleaned did we realise that we had found something spectacular.”

In 2005, the specimen was donated to the Big Horn Basin Foundation, a research and educational non-profit that in 2016 merged with the Wyoming Dinosaur Centre to form a new non-profit foundation, where the specimen is now curated.

The specimen has been known in scientific circles for several years, but only by its nickname ‘Lori’, or as ‘the Lori specimen’. Yet, it had remained the subject of unpublished research until now. The study was published in , co-author Dean Lomax is a palaeontologist and visiting scientist at The University of Manchester who first saw the specimen in 2008 (then aged 18).

“I remember the first time I laid my eyes on this little dinosaur. Even back then, I knew it was a significant discovery. But, it wasn’t until 2015 when our dino team formed and we began to study ‘Lori’ in much more detail than ever before. In fact, the project took a major step forward with a successful crowdfunding campaign launched through experiment.com in 2016, for which we are grateful to everybody who kindly donated and helped make this project happen”.

Lori has also now received its formal, scientific name, Hesperornithoides miessleri. Hesperornithoides is a combination of ‘Hesper’, referring to the discovery in the American West, and ‘ornis’ for the bird-like form of the dinosaur, whereas the species name honours the Miessler family, whose land the specimen was found on and who have been avid supporters of the project.

One of the other key findings of the study relates to the origin of avian (bird) flight. In particular, Hesperornithoides is a highly terrestrial proto-bird, suggesting that many features we associate with being bird-like evolved in dinosaurs that lived out their lives on the ground.

Lead author and PhD candidate at , Scott Hartman said: “We wanted to expand the dataset used to test dinosaur-bird relationships, so we added hundreds of new species and tens of thousands of new characters. We found that Lori is a primitive member of a group of dinosaurs that includes Troodon, but perhaps more importantly we discovered that the smaller details of the family tree of bird-like dinosaurs isn’t quite as resolved as some researchers would claim.”

Hartman continued: “For example, it only takes a few changes in the dataset for Hesperornithoides to be found as a closer relative of Velociraptor than of Troodon. One robust finding we did come up with is that even as the interrelationships changed, the primitive members of all these groups were non-flying ground dwelling dinosaurs. That means that some small relatives of Velociraptor such as Microraptor that looks like it could have glided evolved this separately from the modern bird family.”

The evolutionary use of colour for mammal’s survival in the wild is evident from, red foxes, to zebras. Today an international team, led by researchers from The University of Manchester, publish research revealing the evidence of colourful pigments from ancient mouse remains.

Colour plays an important role in the evolution of life on Earth, it has also played a role in the selective processes that have steered evolution for hundreds of millions of years.

The paper, ‘Pheomelanin pigment remnants mapped in fossils of an extinct mammal’ is published in the journal . The work marks a major scientific breakthrough in our ability to define fossilised colour pigments in long extinct species for the first time.

This new study applied X-ray imaging to several three million year old fossils in order to untangle the story of key pigments in ancient animals and reveal how we might recognise the chemical signatures of specific red pigments in long extinct animals to determine how they evolved.

, the lead palaeontologist on the paper explained: “The fossils we have studied have the vast potential to unlock many secrets of the original organism. We can reconstruct key facets from life, death and the subsequent events impacting preservation before and after burial. To unpick this complicated fossil chemical archive requires an interdisciplinary team to combine their efforts to crack this problem. In doing this, we unlock much more than just palaeontological information.”

Professor Roy Wogelius, co-author and geochemist said: “This was a painstaking effort involving physics, palaeontology, organic chemistry, and geochemistry. By working as a team, we were able, for the first time, to discover chemical traces of red pigment in fossil animal material. We understand now what to look for in the future and our hope is that these results will mean that we can become more confident in reconstructing extinct animals and thereby add another dimension to the study of evolution.”

The new research reveals that not only may chemical traces of dark black pigments be present within exceptionally preserved soft tissues, but that traces of the much more elusive red animal pigment may be resolved. The chemical residue of black pigment, which colours such animals as crows, was first resolved by this team in a previous study nearly ten years ago. But the red pigment, characteristic of animals such as foxes, is far less stable over geological time and proved much more difficult to detect.

Professor Wogelius went on to say: “We had data which suggested red pigment residue was present in several fossils, but there was no useful data available to compare this to in modern organisms. So we needed to devote several years to analysing modern tissue before we could go back and review our results from some amazing fossil specimens. In the end, we were able to prove that detailed chemical analysis can resolve such pigment residue, but along the way we learned so much more about the chemistry of pigmentation throughout the animal kingdom.”

To unlock the fossil patterns, the 91ֱ�� team collaborated with scientists at some of the brightest sources of light on the planet, using synchrotron radiation at the (USA), and also at the (UK) to bathe the fossils in intense x-rays. It is the interaction of these x-rays with the chemistry of these fossils that enabled the team to be the first to recognise the chemistry of red (pheomelanin) pigmentation in fur from exceptionally well preserved 3 million year old mouse fossils.

The key to their work was identifying trace metals incorporated by ancient organisms into their soft tissues, and comparing these to the modes of incorporation into living species. The chemistry shows that the trace metals in the mouse fur are bonded to organic chemicals in exactly the same way that these metals are bonded to organic pigments in animals with high concentrations of red pigment in their tissue.

The scientists have also translated the chemical findings into sound waves so people are able to hear frequencies of sound associated with differing pigment colours present in the fossils.

In order to make absolutely sure of their findings, modern comparison standards were analysed both by synchrotron radiation and by specialists in pigment chemistry based at the .

Prof. Manning finally added: “Palaeontology offers research that is more than relevant to our everyday life. Information gleaned from the fossil record is influencing multiple fields, including; climate research, the burial of biowaste and radwaste, the measure of environmental impact of oil spills on living species with techniques developed on fossil organisms. Whilst our research is firmly anchored in the past, we set our sights on its application to the future.”

Dinosaurs went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous Period 65 million years ago. Now scientists have found extraordinary evidence which documents the colossal asteroid impact event.

It was widely accepted that the Chicxulub meteorite impact was a major cause, as is evidenced by a vast 93 mile wide crater beneath the Yucatan Peninsula. This is possibly the best known of the five largest mass extinction events to effect Earth.

The devastation caused by the impact included massive tsunami-like surges, thus-far known only from marine deposits. Similar high-energy deposits are unknown in the continental KPg (Cretaceous-Paleogene) record. An international team of scientists, led by Robert Depalma (a PhD student at ) working with Prof. Phil Manning (The University of Manchester) publish on a new site in that has such an onshore inundation-surge deposit.

The site has been discovered in the dinosaur-rich ‘badlands’ of the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota. Chicxulub ejecta (microtektites, impact-melt glass) is found at the site within the event deposit that is capped with an iridium-rich impactite revealing that its timing coincided with the Chicxulub impact event. The site has an array of terrestrial (reptilian, dinosaurian, etc.) and marine (ammonites, sharks, microfauna, etc.) life and is the first direct evidence of larger organisms killed by the Chicxulub impact. Deposited rapidly by repeated inland-directed surges, the sedimentary layers at this new site resulted in the finest temporally resolved KPg boundary succession recognized in the geologic record.

Prof Phil Manning (The University of Manchester) who is a co-author on this study said: “Robert Depalma has led the way in an extraordinary study of this unique geological and palaeontological treasure trove. The sediments, fossils and associated impact debris make this an important site for those who study the extinction event that helped wipe-out the dinosaurs.”

The impact event occurred at the end of the Cretaceous Period and was among the largest asteroid impacts in effect Earth. This event is intimately associated with a global or ‘mass extinction’. This was without any doubt a pivotal event in Earth’s history, as the ensuing extinction directly paved the way for many species that populate the planet today, including ourselves. A meticulous understanding of the immediate and more long-lasting effects post-impact is essential to resolving the specific consequences of the impact, and the shift from Cretaceous to Paleogene biomes.

Prof Manning went on to say: “Our understanding of the extinction of the dinosaurs is blurred by time and then masked further by the geological record. To find a site that might help paint a picture of the final day or even hours of the Cretaceous might seem impossible.”

The Chicxulub impact was a massive, a global extinction, which extinguished upwards of 75% of life on Earth within a geologically short span of time. Climatic shifts ensued at the same time, and, much sooner after impact, water displacement by the ~10 km-wide impactor was recorded by tsunami (tidal wave) or seiche (tectonically activated) deposits around the Caribbean and what was then the ‘proto’ Gulf of Mexico. Aside from theoretical calculations, however, many of the immediate effects of the impact, especially within the proximal ~2100 miles close to the crater, are incompletely resolved. The complex interplay between the hot vapor plume, molten ejecta, and “wet” plume of vaporized carbonate target rock, for example, is incompletely understood.

Lead author, Robert Depalma said: “A tsunami would have taken at least 17 or more hours to reach the site from the crater, but seismic waves - and a subsequent surge - would have reached it in tens of minutes.”

An international team of scientists, including Prof. Phil Manning, has been exploring the uppermost Hell Creek Formation, a continental sequence in North America preserving the last 1.3 million years of the Cretaceous Period. The team discovered an anomalous, turbulently deposited layer of sediment at a new site they named ‘Tanis’. After many years work on the site and with the analysis of samples back at the lab, the team are sure that the site temporally coincides with the KPg boundary, the point at which the dinosaurs and other life became extinct.

The rapidly emplaced sediment layer was highly conducive to detailed preservation at momentary scale, but also contains ejecta tektites (melted Earth’s crust blasted into the upper atmosphere and returning as small ‘droplets’ of glass). The tektites and other impact-generated debris have been geochemically and geochronologically linked to the Chicxulub impact by the international team. The deposit is capped by a distinct KPg boundary clay, indicating it was deposited in a narrow window of time- after impact yet before settling of the finest impact debris

Perhaps most importantly, the sediment layer, which exhibits bidirectional flow and was likely emplaced by a massive hydro-disturbance such as a tsunami. This event was likely to have been triggered by the Chicxulub impact. Ballistic calculations of ejecta indicate that the ejecta tektites at Tanis would have arrived at approximately the same time as the seismic wave from the Chicxulub crater.

The team reports in the journal that the ultra-high-resolution temporal fidelity of the Tanis site provides the first sub-24-hour chronology of the KPg impact event. The site preserves unprecedented detail of one of the most pivotal moments in Earth’s geologic history, and provides an unmistakable northernmost record of the Chicxulub impact event.

The extraordinary preservation potentially afforded by the rapid emplacement of sediment provides a unique opportunity to examine exceptionally preserved terminal-Cretaceous organisms. The layers of sediment along with the remarkable fossils they contain, combined with the geochemical evidence, delivers unique insight into one of Earth’s most studied mass-extinction events.

Finally, Prof Manning added: “This is just the beginning of a long study on the Tanis site. The PNAS paper provides a geological framework from which broader paleontological work will take place in the future. We can definitely say that the Tanis site was not ‘consumed by the desert in a sandstorm that lasted a whole year’ (as in the Raiders of the Lost Ark), but it is certainly a rosette stone that might help us better read and understand events on the last day of the dinosaurs.”

Scientists at The University of Manchester have joined forces with a major US Museum and European partners to explore an extraordinary Jurassic dinosaur site in the badlands of Wyoming, USA.

Scientists from The University of Manchester will be the academic leaders on the newly announced $27.5 million (£20m) project to explore, research and eventually exhibit fossils from a recently discovered palaeontological site known as the ‘Jurassic Mile’.

will serve as the Mission Jurassic leader, with The University of Manchester’s Prof. Phil Manning and Dr. Victoria Egerton as the lead scientists in the project. The team are partnering with in London and the in Leiden, Netherlands. As a result, more than 100 scientists from three countries will join forces to work in the Morrison Formation of Wyoming to reveal new secrets from this enigmatic period of time.

Prof Manning, Dr. Egerton and the team are calling the fossil-rich, mile-square plot of land, “The Jurassic Mile.” There are four main quarries within the multi-level, 640-acre site that offer a diverse assemblage of Morrison Formation articulated and semi-articulated dinosaurs that has also yielded associated animals, fossil plants in addition to rarely associated dinosaur trackways of the Late Jurassic Period 150 million years ago.

“It is splendid that such an important site has been discovered at just the right time, as the science of paleontology is adapting existing and new imaging techniques to unpick the fossil remains of extinct life.” said Prof Manning, “The imaging work that we undertake at 91ֱ�� is already world-leading and this is a great opportunity to develop this research with other world-class institutions.”

Nearly 600 specimens, weighing more than six tons, have already been collected from this site over the past two years despite the fact that only a fraction of the site has been explored. Included in that are the bones of an 80-foot-long Brachiosaur and 90-foot-long , which have been discovered at the Jurassic Mile. A 6’6” sauropod (Brachiosaur) scapula (shoulder bone) and several jackets containing articulated bones are among the material collected during the 2018 field season. A 5’1” (1.5 metre) femur was revealed at the announcement in Indianapolis on March 25, 2019.

Dr. Jeffrey H. Patchen, President and CEO of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis stated, “We are bringing together an extraordinary international team for the first time that will critically analyze portions of the Morrison Formation in new ways.” Patchen went on to say, “This project reflects a natural synergy between three world-renowned museums, their research scientists and highly-respected research universities, each providing unique elements to complete one of the most interesting chapters in the evolution of Earth.”

Dr. Egerton from the Department of Earth and Environmental Science explained that, “The preservation quality and sheer amount of plants at the Jurassic Mile is extraordinary. During this period, there were no flowering plants and this site provides significant insight to what these giant animals ate and how they may have grown to be so large.”

’ is the world’s largest children’s museum. Its current exhibit has captivated more than 15 million visitors since it opened in 2004 and inspired new generations of explorers and scientists. There, visitors are introduced to some of the finest examples of past life including a rare mummified dinosaur named Leonardo. The first T. rex ever discovered with a wish bone (furcula) and a with a brain tumor (currently being studied by Prof. Manning and Dr. Egerton) are among other amazing fossils found there. A working Paleo Prep Lab at the museum allows visitors to touch real fossils while paleontologists work on real bones and learn the stories behind them.

 palaeontologist Sir Richard Owen first coined the term ‘dinosaur’ meaning ‘terrible lizard. The Natural History Museum Acting Director of Science Richard Herrington says: “The reports from the first excavations reveal it is an exceptional area for further scientific exploration - from the fossils already exposed, the quality of the discoveries so far and the existence of rarely-associated dinosaur trackways.”

Prof. Anne Schulp from The Naturalis Biodiversity Center stated, "Typical dinosaurs of the Jurassic include well known creatures such as Brachiosaurus and Diplodocus. It would be marvelous if we could bring one of those impressive beasts to Naturalis,”

The Jurassic Mile project is already utilising cutting-edge science from the international team. The University of Manchester scientist will use the Stanford Synchrotron particle accelerator along with some of the most powerful computers on the planet, to help resurrect the Jurassic and unearth the lost world and forgotten lives of the Jurassic.

An international team of palaeontologists, including researchers from , have uncovered evolutionary secrets hidden in the 100-million-year-old fossil of a hagfish – a slimy, eel-like scavenger that lived in an ancient ocean.

Researchers from the University of Chicago identified the first detailed fossil of a hagfish along with scientists from 91ֱ��. The 91ֱ�� team were led by Professors Phil Manning and Roy Wogelius, who used powerful x-rays generated at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Lightsource (SSRL) (a cyclic particle accelerator) to scan a unique fossil. The results have helped answer questions on when these ancient, jawless fish branched-off the vertebrate evolutionary tree.

The discovery is incredibly important as it changes our view of the evolutionary lineage that gave rise to modern-day jawed vertebrates, from bony fish to humans. The research is being published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The fossil, named Tethymyxine tapirostrum, was discovered in Lebanon and is a 30 cm long jawless fish embedded in a piece of Cretaceous Period limestone.

Professor Manning, Chair of Natural History at The University of Manchester, said: “This is an extremely significant discovery as it recalibrates our understanding of the evolutionary history of all early vertebrates, an ancestral line that leads to all jawed beasties including us. Humans!

“This wonderful fossil plugs a 100-million-year gap in the fossil record and shows that hagfish are more closely related to the lamprey than to other fishes. The chemical maps produced at SSRL enabled our team to see for the first time the anatomical features so crucial to the interpretation of this very distant relative.”

Lampreys are another form of ancient, blood-sucking, jawless fish also still in existence today. These findings show that both the hagfish and lamprey evolved their eel-like body form and strange feeding systems after they branched off from the rest of the vertebrate line of ancestry about 500 million years ago.

Dr Tetsuto Miyashita, a Fellow in the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy at Chicago, who led the research, added: “This is a major reorganization of the family tree of all fish and their descendants. This allows us to put an evolutionary date on unique traits that set hagfish apart from all other animals.”

Hagfish have a unique defense mechanism in the wild to ward off ocean predators. When being hunted in the sea, they can instantly turn the water around them into a cloud of slime, clogging the gills of would-be predators, such as sharks. It was this ability to produce slime that made Tethymyxine fossil all the more important and rare.

The discrete chemistry locked within the fossil could only be mapped using synchrotron-based imaging techniques developed by the 91ֱ��/SSRL team. 91ֱ�� is an established world leader in the synchrotron-based imaging of fossil remains. This technique has permitted the team to identify the “chemical ghost” of the preserved soft tissue and slime glands of the fossil. Soft tissues are rarely preserved as fossils, which is why there are so few examples of ancient hagfish relatives to study.

The scanning picked up a signal for keratin, the same material that makes up fingernails in humans. Keratin is a crucial part of what makes the hagfish slime defence so effective.

Professor Wogelius, at The University of Manchester, added: “Our team at 91ֱ�� has been using these increasingly sophisticated imaging techniques to help us better understand ancient fossils and resolve chemistry derived from both the organism and the environment in which they were preserved.”

Prof. Manning added: “This ‘chemical’ fossil has offered new and exciting evidence that has enabled a more robust reconstruction of the vertebrate family tree. However, it was only made possible through the collaboration of an international team, as Darwin once said, ‘In the long history of humankind (and animal kind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed’”.

A nearly metre-long skull of a giant fossil marine ichthyosaur found in a farmer’s field more than 60 years ago has been studied for the first time.

Using cutting-edge computerised tomography (CT) scanning technology, the research reveals new information including details of the rarely preserved braincase.

The almost 200 million year old fossil, which was found in 1955 at Fell Mill Farm in Warwickshire, had never formally been studied prior to this research.

Now, thanks to data collected from CT scans, the research team were able to digitally reconstruct the entire skull in 3D. It is the first time a digital reconstruction of a skull and mandible of a large marine reptile has ever been made available for research purposes and to the public.

Although thousands of ichthyosaur fossils have been unearthed in the UK, this specimen is particularly important and unusual because it is three-dimensionally preserved and contains bones of the skull that are rarely exposed.

In 2014, as part of a project at Thinktank Science Museum, Birmingham, palaeontologists Dean Lomax, from The University of Manchester, and Nigel Larkin began to study the skull and its incomplete skeleton for the first time and were soon convinced of its importance.

Dean, the lead author and one of the world’s leading ichthyosaur experts, explains: “The first time I saw this specimen I was puzzled by its excellent preservation. Ichthyosaurs of this age (Early Jurassic) are usually ‘pancaked’, meaning that they are squished so that the original structure of the skull is either not preserved or is distorted or damaged. So to have a skull and portions of the skeleton of an ichthyosaur of this age preserved in three dimensions, and without any surrounding rock obscuring it, is something quite special.”

The ichthyosaur was originally identified as a common species called Ichthyosaurus communis, but after studying it closer, Dean was convinced it was a rarer species. Based on various features of the skull, he identified it as an example of an ichthyosaur called Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis. With a skull almost twice as long as any other specimen of Protoichthyosaurus, this is the largest specimen so far known of the species.

Co-author Nigel Larkin added: “Initially, the aim of the project was to clean and conserve the skull and partially dismantle it to rebuild it more accurately, ready for redisplay at the Thinktank Museum. But we soon realised that the individual bones of the skull were exceptionally well preserved in three dimensions, better than in any other ichthyosaur skull we’d seen. Furthermore, that they would respond well to CT scanning, enabling us to capture their shape digitally and to see their internal details. This presented an opportunity that couldn’t be missed”

The skull isn’t quite complete, but several bones of the braincase – which are rarely preserved in ichthyosaurs – are present. To unlock information contained in the skull, these bones were micro-CT scanned at Cambridge University in 2015 by expert palaeontologist and co-author, Dr Laura Porro of University College London (UCL).

The fossil only preserved bones from the left side of the braincase; however, using CT scans these elements were digitally mirrored and 3D printed at life size to complete the braincase. Finally, the entire skull was CT scanned at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) using a scanner typically reserved for horses and other large animals.

Dr Porro added: “CT scanning allows us to look inside fossils – in this case, we could see long canals within the skull bones that originally contained blood vessels and nerves. Scans also revealed the curation history of the specimen since its discovery in the ‘50s. There were several areas reconstructed in plaster and clay, and one bone was so expertly modelled that only the scans revealed part of it was a fake. Finally there is the potential to digitally reconstruct the skull in 3D. This is hard (and risky) to do with the original, fragile and very heavy fossil bones; plus, we can now make the 3D reconstruction freely available to other scientists and for education.”

The use of modern technologies, such as medical scanners, have revolutionised the way in which palaeontologists are able to study and describe fossils.

Dean added: “It’s taken more than half a century for this ichthyosaur to be studied and described, but it has been worth the wait. Not only has our study revealed exciting information about the internal anatomy of the skull of this animal, but our findings will aid other palaeontologists in exploring its evolutionary relationship with other ichthyosaurs.”

Reference: Lomax, D. R., Porro, L. B. and Larkin, N. R. 2019. Descriptive anatomy of the largest known specimen of Protoichthyosaurus prostaxalis (Reptilia: Ichthyosauria) including computed tomography and digital reconstruction of a three-dimensional skull. PeerJ, 7:e6112, DOI 10.7717/peerj.6112

Known as the ‘Icon of Evolution’ and ‘the missing link’ between dinosaurs and birds, Archaeopteryx has become one of the most famous fossil discoveries in Palaeontology.

Now, as part of an international team of scientists, researchers at The University of Manchester have identified a new species of Archaeopteryx that is closer to modern birds in evolutionary terms.

Dr John Nudds, from the University’s , and the team have been re-examining one of the only 12 known specimens by carrying out the first ever synchrotron examination, a form of 3D X-ray analysis, of an Archaeopteryx.

Thanks to this new insight, the team says that this individual Archaeopteryx fossil, known as ‘specimen number eight’, is physically much closer to a modern bird than it is to a reptile. Therefore, it is evolutionary distinctive and different enough to be described as a new species - Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi.

The research, which is being published in journal , says that some of the differing skeletal characteristics of Archaeopteryx albersdoerferi include the fusion of cranial bones, different pectoral girdle (chest) and wing elements, and a reinforced configuration of carpals and metacarpals (hand) bones.

These characteristics are seen more in modern flying birds and are not found in the older Archaeopteryx lithographica species, which more resembles reptiles and dinosaurs.

Specimen number eight is the youngest of all the 12 known specimens by approximately half a million years. This age difference in comparison to the other specimens is a key factor in describing it as a new species.

Dr Nudds explains: “By digitally dissecting the fossil we found that this specimen differed from all of the others. It possessed skeletal adaptations which would have resulted in much more efficient flight. In a nutshell we have discovered what Archaeopteryx lithographica evolved into - i.e. a more advanced bird, better adapted to flying - and we have described this as a new species of Archaeopteryx.”

Archaeopteryx was first described as the 'missing link' between reptiles and birds in 1861 – and is now regarded as the link between dinosaurs and birds. Only 12 specimens have ever been found and all are from the late Jurassic of Bavaria, now Germany, dating back approximately 150 million years.

Lead author, Dr Martin Kundrát, from the University of Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Slovakia, said: “This is the first time that numerous bones and teeth of Archaeopteryx were viewed from all aspects including exposure of their inner structure. The use of synchrotron microtomography was the only way to study the specimen as it is heavily compressed with many fragmented bones partly or completely hidden in limestone”.

Dr Nudds added: “Whenever a missing link is discovered, this merely creates two further missing links - what came before, and what came after! What came before was discovered in 1996 with the feathered dinosaurs in China. Our new species is what came after. It confirms Archaeopteryx as the first bird, and not just one of a number of feathered theropod dinosaurs, which some authors have suggested recently. You could say that it puts Archaeopteryx back on its perch as the first bird!”

REFERENCE: “The first specimen of Archaeopteryx from the upper Jurassic Mörnsheim formation of Germany” 

Dinosaurs could thrive and survive in Earth’s prehistoric, oxygen-thin atmosphere due to having lungs like birds a new study has found.

The study, published in , compared dinosaur lungs to those of living crocodilians, such as crocodiles and alligator, and the lungs of modern-day bird species, such as the ostrich. That’s because crocodilians share a common ancestor with dinosaurs and birds are their modern-day descendants.

PhD researcher, Robert Brocklehurst, from the in the at The University of Manchester, led the study.

He says: “The respiratory system of non-avian dinosaurs has been the topic of considerable study over the years, both in an attempt to shed light on the biology of now extinct members of the dinosaur family, and in order to understand the origins and evolution of modern birds and reptiles.”

To investigate the different kinds of lungs the team used CT scans to look at the lung cavities of four modern crocodilians and 29 modern birds and compare their structure with those of 16 different dinosaur species.

The scans revealed that all of the dinosaurs had vertebrae more similar in shape to those of birds than those of reptiles. Plus dinosaur vertebrae jutted into the lung cavity, the same as found in living birds today.

Robert said: “We thought some of the dinosaurs would have lungs more like birds, and others would be similar to reptiles, but this wasn’t the case at all. Every dinosaur sample we scanned just looked like the birds we scanned.”

As well as using CT scans the team removed the lungs of an alligator and an ostrich, and found the skeletal support structures surrounding the lungs were very different in each animal.

The alligator’s lung cavity was smooth and allowed the lungs and other internal organs to glide as they move to pump air in and out while the animal swims. However, the ostrich lung cavity was found to be furrowed, similar to the dinosaurs.

Robert added: “With this new analysis, we quantitatively show that all non-avian dinosaurs possessed costovertebral joints more similar in structure to birds than to crocodilians.”

This means having more efficient lungs like birds allowed the dinosaurs to adapt and thrive in the oxygen-thin environment where other animals groups would have struggled.

Professor Bill Sellers, co-author of the study and also from SEES, said: “If even the very first dinosaurs to evolve had bird-like lungs, this go some way to explaining why dinosaurs became so the dominant animal species of their time. Other animal groups simply may not have had lungs as well suited to extracting oxygen from the air. That simple evolutionary difference may have let dinosaurs rule world.”

Scientists at the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol have used powerful X-rays to peer inside the skeletons of some of our oldest vertebrate relatives, solving a 160-year-old mystery about the origin of our skeletons.

Living vertebrates have skeletons built from four different tissue types: bone and cartilage (the main tissues that human skeletons are made from), and dentine and enamel (the tissues from which our teeth are constructed). These tissues are unique because they become mineralised as they develop, giving the skeleton strength and rigidity.

Evidence for the early evolution of our skeletons can be found in a group of fossil fishes called heterostracans, which lived over 400 million years ago. These fishes include some of the oldest vertebrates with a mineralised skeleton that have ever been discovered. Exactly what tissue heterostracan skeletons were made from has long puzzled scientists.

Now a team of researchers from The University of Manchester, the University of Bristol and the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland have taken a detailed look inside heterostracan skeletons using Synchrotron Tomography: a special type of CT scanning using very high energy X-rays produced by a particle accelerator. Using this technique, the team have identified this mystery tissue.

Lead researcher Dr Joseph Keating, from 91ֱ��'s , explained: “Heterostracan skeletons are made of a really strange tissue called ‘aspidin’. It is crisscrossed by tiny tubes and does not closely resemble any of the tissues found in vertebrates today. For a 160 years, scientists have wondered if aspidin is a transitional stage in the evolution of mineralised tissues.”

The results of this study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, show that the tiny tubes are voids that originally housed fibre-bundles of collagen, a type of protein found in your skin and bones.

These findings enabled Dr Keating to rule out all but one hypothesis for the tissue’s identity: aspidin is the earliest evidence of bone in the fossil record.

Co-author, Professor Phil Donoghue from the University of Bristol concludes: “These findings change our view on the evolution of the skeleton. Aspidin was once thought to be the precursor of vertebrate mineralised tissues. We show that it is, in fact, a type of bone, and that all these tissues must have evolved millions of years earlier.”

​Reference: Keating JN, Marquart CL, Marone F, Donoghue PCJ. 2018. . Nature Ecology & Evolution In press. 

The 205 million-year-old jaw bone of a prehistoric reptile belongs to ‘one of the largest animals ever’ say a group of international palaeontologists.

The new discovery has also solved a 150 year old mystery of supposed ‘dinosaur bones’ from the UK.

The bone belongs to a giant ichthyosaur, a type of prehistoric aquatic reptile, and experts estimate the length of this specimen’s body would have been up to 26 metres. Approaching the size of a blue whale.

Fossil collector and co-author of the study, Paul de la Salle, found the bone on the beach at Lilstock, Somerset in May 2016. He later returned to the site and found even more pieces that together measured about one metre in length.

Paul said “Initially, the bone just looked like a piece of rock but, after recognising a groove and bone structure, I thought it might be part of a jaw from an ichthyosaur and immediately contacted ichthyosaur experts Dean Lomax (University of Manchester) and Prof. Judy Massare (SUNY College at Brockport, NY, USA) who expressed interest in studying the specimen. I also contacted Dr Ramues Gallois, a geologist who visited the site and determined the age of the specimen stratigraphically.

as an incomplete bone (called a surangular) from the lower jaw of a giant ichthyosaur. The bone would have made up only a portion of the entire skull. They compared it with several ichthyosaurs and visited the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Alberta, Canada, and examined the largest ichthyosaur known, the shastasaurid Shonisaurus sikanniensis, which is 21 m long. They found similarities between the new specimen and S. sikanniensis which suggest the Lilstock specimen belongs to a giant shastasaurid-like ichthyosaur.

“As the specimen is represented only by a large piece of jaw, it is difficult to provide a size estimate, but by using a simple scaling factor and comparing the same bone in S. sikanniensis, the Lilstock specimen is about 25% larger. Other comparisons suggest the Lilstock ichthyosaur was at least 20-25 m. Of course, such estimates are not entirely realistic because of differences between species. Nonetheless, simple scaling is commonly used to estimate size, especially when comparative material is scarce.” Added Lomax.

In 1850, a large bone was described from the Late Triassic (208 million-years-old) of Aust Cliff, Gloucestershire, UK. Four other similarly incomplete bones were also found and described. Two of them are now missing and presumed destroyed. They have been identified as the limb bones of several dinosaurs (stegosaurs and sauropods), indeterminate dinosaurs and other reptiles.

However, with the discovery of the Lilstock specimen, this new study refutes previous identifications and also the most recent assertion that the Aust bones represent an early experiment of dinosaur-like gigantism in terrestrial reptiles. They are, in fact, jaw fragments of giant, previously unrecognised ichthyosaurs.

Dean added: “One of the Aust bones might also be an ichthyosaur surangular. If it is, by comparison with the Lilstock specimen, it might represent a much larger animal. To verify these findings, we need a complete giant Triassic ichthyosaur from the UK – a lot easier said than done!”

To learn even more about this story read Dean Lomax's piece in .

Reference:  . PLOS One, Lomax, D. R., De la Salle, P., Massare, J. A. and Gallois, R. 2018.

Palaeontologists have discovered part of the skeleton of a 180 million-year-old pregnant ichthyosaur with the remains of between six and eight tiny embryos between its ribs.

The new specimen was studied by palaeontologists Mike Boyd and Dean Lomax from The University of Manchester. It was collected around 2010 from near Whitby, North Yorkshire and is from the Early Jurassic. The fossil was in the collection of fossil collector, Martin Rigby, who thought the specimen might be a block of embryos. Dean confirmed the suspicion and the specimen was acquired by the Yorkshire Museum, York.

Ichthyosaurs were aquatic reptiles that dominated the Jurassic seas. They gave birth to live young, rather than laying eggs, and did not need to return to land, even to breed. They were carnivores, feeding upon other reptiles, fish, and marine invertebrates such as the squid-like belemnites.

Ichthyosaur fossils are quite common in the UK and often found in British Jurassic rocks. However, only five ichthyosaur specimens from Britain have ever been found with embryos and none with this many. All five were collected from Jurassic exposures in the south-west of England and are between 200-190 million years old. This is the first to be found in Yorkshire.

The Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire have produced hundreds of ichthyosaur and other marine reptile skeletons, but have not, until now, yielded any reptilian embryos. The new specimen, as well as being the first embryo-bearing ichthyosaur recorded from Yorkshire, is also geologically the youngest of the British embryo-bearing specimens, being from the Toarcian Stage of the Jurassic, around 180 million-year-old.

The specimen is a small boulder that has been cut in half and polished, which exposes several large ribs (of the adult) and several strings of vertebrae and various indeterminate tiny bones. Boyd and Lomax say there are at least six embryos present, but probably eight.

Mike said: “We also considered the possibility that the tiny remains could be stomach contents, although it seemed highly unlikely that an ichthyosaur would swallow six to eight aborted embryos or newborn ichthyosaurs at one time. And this does not seem to have been the case, because the embryos display no erosion from stomach acids. Moreover, the embryos are not associated with any stomach contents commonly seem in Early Jurassic ichthyosaurs, such as the remains of squid-like belemnites”.

Eight different species of ichthyosaur have been documented with embryos. By far, the most commonly found ichthyosaur with embryos is Stenopterygius. Over a hundred specimens of Stenopterygius from Holzmaden and surrounding areas in Germany have been found with embryos, ranging from one to eleven in number.

“The German sites are approximately the same age as the new specimen from Whitby and it is possible that the new specimen is also Stenopterygius, but no identifiable features are preserved in the adult or embryos. Nonetheless, this is an important find.” added Dean.

Reference: Boyd, M. J. and Lomax, D. R. 2018. The youngest occurrence of ichthyosaur embryos in the UK: A new specimen from the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) of Yorkshire. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, 

A comprehensive new study looking at variations in Ichthyosaurus, a common British Jurassic ichthyosaur (sea-going reptile) also known as ‘Sea Dragons’, has provided important information into recognizing new fossil species.

Professor Judy Massare (SUNY College at Brockport, NY, USA) and (The University of Manchester) have studied hundreds of specimens of Ichthyosaurus. After their latest research project the pair urge caution in naming new fossil species on the basis of just a few fragmentary or isolated remains.

For their research Prof Massare and Lomax focused on one particular part of the Ichthyosaurus skeleton, the hindfin (or back paddle). The purpose was to evaluate the different forms among the six-known species of Ichthyosaurus. They examined 99 specimens which could provide useful information.

Early in their research, they found different types of hindfin that initially appeared to represent different species. However, the more specimens they examined the more ‘variation’ they uncovered, such as differences in the size and number of bones. They determined that a single hindfin alone could not be used to distinguish among species of Ichthyosaurus, but that a particular variation was more common in certain species.

Lomax, from the , explains: “As we have such a large, complete sample size, which is relatively unique among such fossil vertebrates, our study can help illustrate the limitations that palaeontologists face when dealing with few or even just one specimen”.

Their findings show that with only a few specimens, features can be found that differ substantially from one specimen to the next and thus appear as if there are several species. Whereas, in reality, with a much larger sample size the gaps in the ‘unique’ variations are filled in, showing that differences are simply the result of individual variation and a lack of the full picture.

Prof Massare said: “We described a few hindfins, which might have been called a new species if they were found in isolation. Instead, we had enough specimens to determine that it was just an extreme variation of a common form.”

Palaeontologists fall into one of two camps when it comes to naming species, ‘lumpers’ and ‘splitters’. The former ‘lump’ groups of similar specimens together, whereas the latter opt to split-up specimens and distinguish new species. However, in this new study, if the team opted to split-up the specimens based on the variation found, it would suggest a huge number of species.

“If we considered the variation as unique, it would mean we would be naming about 30 new species. This would be similar to what was done in the 19^th Century when any new fossil find, from a new location or horizon, was named as a new species if it differed slightly from previously known specimens.

“As lots of new fossil species are named every year, in some cases, such as with fragmentary or limited remains, the decision to name a new species should be considered very carefully.” Added Lomax.

The new study has been published today in the scientific journal, Geological Magazine: .

The tiny fossil of a prehistoric baby bird is helping scientists understand how early avians came into the world in the Age of Dinosaurs.

The fossil, which dates back to the Mesozoic Era (250-65 million years ago), is a chick from a group of prehistoric birds called, Enantiornithes. Made up of a nearly complete skeleton, the specimen is amongst the smallest known Mesozoic avian fossils ever discovered.

It measures less than five centimetres – smaller than the little finger on an average human hand – and would have weighed just 0.3 ounces when it was alive.

What makes this fossil so important and unique is the fact it died not long after its birth. This is a critical stage in a bird’s skeletal formation. That means this bird’s extremely short life has given researchers a rare chance to analyse the species’ bone structure and development.

91ֱ��ing and analysing ossification - the process of bone development – can explain a lot about a young bird’s life the researchers say. It can help them understand everything from whether it could fly or if it needed to stay with its parents after hatching or could survive on its own.

The lead author of the study, Dr Fabien Knoll, from The University of Manchester’s , , explains: ‘The evolutionary diversification of birds has resulted in a wide range of hatchling developmental strategies and important differences in their growth rates. By analysing bone development we can look at a whole host of evolutionary traits.’

With the fossil being so small the team used synchrotron radiation to picture the tiny specimen at a ‘submicron’ level, observing the bones’ microstructures in extreme detail.

said: ‘New technologies are offering palaeontologists unprecedented capacities to investigate provocative fossils. Here we made the most of state-of-the-art facilities worldwide including three different synchrotrons in France, the UK and the United States.’

The researchers found the baby bird’s sternum (breastplate bone) was still largely made of cartilage and had not yet developed into hard, solid bone when it died, meaning it wouldn’t have been able to fly.

The patterns of ossification observed in this and the other few very young enantiornithine birds known to date also suggest that the developmental strategies of this particular group of ancient avians may have been more diverse than previously thought.

However, the team say that its lack of bone development doesn’t necessarily mean the hatchling was over reliant on its parents for care and feeding, a trait known as being ‘altricial’. Modern day species like love birds are highly dependent on their parents when born. Others, like chickens, are highly independent, which is known as ‘precocial’. Although, this is not a black-and-white issue, but rather a spectrum, hence the difficulty in clarifying the developmental strategies of long gone bird species.

Luis Chiappe, from the LA Museum of Natural History and study’s co-author added: ‘This new discovery, together with others from around the world, allows us to peek into the world of ancient birds that lived during the age of dinosaurs. It is amazing to realise how many of the features we see among living birds had already been developed more than 100 million years ago.’

The common traits of spiders are well known to everyone – they have eight legs, multiple eyes and can spin webs – but a recent fossil discovery and new research now shows that spiders once had long 'whip-like' tails.

An international team of researchers has been investigating an 'extraordinary' 100 million year old fossil of a new species called Chimerarachne yingi found in Myanmar. The fossil is extremely well preserved in Burmese amber, and dates back to the Cretaceous period, when the likes of Tyrannosaurus rex, Velociraptor and Triceratops walked the earth.

The team says the specimen is potentially a transitional fossil: one that belongs to a group of extinct arachnids which were very closely related to true spiders. But what makes the fossil so unique, and different to spiders of today, is the fact it has a tail. The discovery sheds important light on where modern spiders may have evolved from. The research is being published in Nature Ecology and Evolution.

Spiders are one of nature’s success stories with more than 47,000 living species. Over hundreds of millions of years they have evolved several key innovations found only in this group. These include spinnerets for producing silk for webs (as well as for other purposes like egg-wrapping), a modified male mouthparts, unique to each species, which are used to transfer sperm to the female during mating, and venom for immobilizing prey.

The researchers, led by Bo Wang from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and including Dr Russell Garwood from The University of Manchester, says Chimerarachne yingi closely resembles a member of the most primitive group of modern living spiders – the mesotheles. These spiders have a segmented abdomen unlike other groups found today, such as the mygalomorphs, which include well known spider species like tarantulas and funnel-webs. Mesothelae spiders are only found in China, Japan, and Southeast Asia today.

Chimerarachne yingi has several important spider features such as the spinnerets and a modified male pedipalp, but, outside of the obvious tail, also has some differences. For example the male pedipalp organ of Chimerarachne appears quite simple: more like that of a mygalomorph spider than a mesothele spider.

Dr Garwood, from 91ֱ��’s School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, added: “Based on what we see in mesotheles, we also would have expected the common ancestor of spiders alive today to have had four pairs of spinnerets, all positioned in the middle of the underside of the abdomen. Chimerarachne only has two pairs of well-developed spinnerets, towards the back of the animal, and another pair that is apparently in the process of formation.”

The team analyzed the fossil using a range of different techniques. One of Dr Garwood’s roles in the study was to help work out where this fossil sits in the evolutionary tree of the arachnids. He added: “Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the new fossils is the fact that more than 200 million years after spiders originated, close relatives - quite unlike arachnids alive today - were still living alongside true spiders.”

One thing the team doesn’t know is what the tail would have been used for or if the spider was venomous.

Co-author, Dr Jason Dunlop from Museum Für Naturkunde in Berlin, added: “We don’t know whether Chimerarachne was venomous. We do know that the arachnid ancestor probably had a tail, and living groups like whip scorpions also have a whip-like tail. Chimerarachne appears to have retained this primitive feature.”

“Taken together, Chimerarachne has a unique body plan among the arachnids and raises important questions about what an early spider looked like, and how the spinnerets and pedipalp organ may have evolved.”

Despite its appearance the team says Chimerarachne is not a direct ancestor of modern day spiders. Spider fossils go back even further to the Carboniferous, more than 300 million years ago. Instead Chimerarachne belongs to an extinct lineage of spider-like arachnids which shared a common ancestor with the spiders, some of whom survived into the mid-Cretaceous of Southeast Asia.

An international team of scientists has discovered the first evidence that a huge carnivorous dinosaur roamed southern Africa 200 million year ago.

The team, which includes researchers from The University of Manchester, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil, have found several three-toed footprints measuring 57cm long and 50cm wide.

This means the dinosaur would have an estimated body length of around nine metres (30 feet) and be a little less than three metres tall at the hip. That’s four times the size of a lion, which is currently the largest carnivore in southern Africa.

The footprints belong to a new species, named Kayentapus ambrokholohali*, which is part of the group of dinosaurs called “megatheropod”. The term “Megatheropods” describes the giant two-legged carnivorous dinosaurs, such as the iconic Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) which fossil evidence shows was around 12 metres long.

This study, which is published in today (Wednesday 25th October), also reveals that these footprints make up the largest theropod tracks in Africa.

The tracks were found on an ancient land surface, known as a palaeosurface, in the Maseru District of Lesotho, a small country in southern Africa. The surface is covered in 200 million years old ‘current-ripple marks’ and ‘desiccation cracks’ which are signs of a prehistoric watering hole or river bank.

Dr Fabien Knoll, Senior Research Fellow at The University of Manchester, said: ‘The latest discovery is very exciting and sheds new light on the kind of carnivore that roamed what is now southern Africa.

‘That’s because it is the first evidence of an extremely large meat-eating animal roaming a landscape otherwise dominated by a variety of herbivorous, omnivorous and much smaller carnivorous dinosaurs. It really would have been top of the food chain.’

What makes the discovery even more important is that these footprints date back to the Early Jurassic epoch, when it was thought the size of most theropod dinosaurs was considerably smaller. On average they were previously thought to be around three to five metres in body length, with some records showing they may have reached seven metres at the very most. It is only much later in the Jurassic and during the Cretaceous, which starts 145 million years ago, that truly large forms of theropods, such as T. rex, appear in body and trace fossil records.

Dr Lara Sciscio, postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Cape Town, said: ‘This discovery marks the first occurrence of very large carnivorous dinosaurs in the Early Jurassic of Gondwana – the prehistoric continent which would later break up and become Africa and other landmasses. This makes it a significant find. Globally, these large tracks are very rare. There is only one other known site similar in age and sized tracks, which is in Poland.’

The ancient surface where these footprints were found is also covered with the tracks of much smaller theropod dinosaurs.

Dr Knoll, from the , added: ‘In South Africa, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Namibia, there is good record of theropod footprints from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic epochs. In fact, there are numerous palaeosurfaces where footprints and even tail and body impressions of these, and other animals, can be found. But now we have evidence this region of Africa was also home to a mega-carnivore.’

REFERENCE: 'The first megatheropod tracks from the Lower Jurassic upper Elliot Formation, Karoo Basin, Lesotho' L. Sciscio , E. M. Bordy, M. Abrahams, F. Knoll, B. W. McPhee Published: October 25, 2017

An ichthyosaur first discovered in the 1970s but then dismissed and consigned to museum storerooms across the country has been re-examined and found to be a new species.

In 1979, after inspecting several ichthyosaurs from the UK, palaeontologist Dr Robert Appleby announced a new type of ichthyosaur called Protoichthyosaurus. He also named two species, P. prostaxalis and P. prosostealis. Other scientists, however, dismissed the discovery of Protoichthyosaurus and suggested that it was identical with Ichthyosaurus, a very common UK ichthyosaur.

Now a detailed study led by palaeontologists Dean Lomax (The University of Manchester) and Professor Judy Massare (State University of New York), has re-examined and compared Protoichthyosaurus and Ichthyosaurus. It found major differences in the number of bones in the front fin, or forefin, of both species. This fundamental difference probably reflects the way both species used them to manoeuvre whilst swimming. Differences were also found in the skulls. But it was another discovery about the fins that also got the team’s attention.

Lomax explains: “This unusual forefin structure was originally identified by Robert Appleby in 1979, but some of the historic specimens he examined had been ‘faked’, and this fakery had been missed until now. In some instances, an isolated fin of an Ichthyosaurus had been added to a Protoichthyosaurus skeleton to make it appear more complete, which led to the genuine differences being missed. This has been a major problem because it stopped science from progressing. We also found some pathological fins, including Ichthyosaurus fins with pathologies that mimic the Protoichthyosaurus forefin structure”.

Lomax and Massare also teamed up with former undergraduate student Rashmi Mistry (University of Reading), who had been studying an unusual ichthyosaur in the collections of the Cole Museum of Zoology, University of Reading, for her undergraduate dissertation.

“Whilst doing my dissertation in 2016, I studied several ichthyosaurs in the collections, including a very small skeleton. It had an unusual forefin that matched Protoichthyosaurus, which I understood to be a widely unrecognised genus. However, when I contacted Dean, he was very excited. He told me that this little skeleton is the only known small juvenile Protoichthyosaurus”, added Rashmi.

Over 20 specimens of Protoichthyosaurus were identified as part of this study. This is significant as each specimen (with a forefin) has the same structure. The specimens are from the Jurassic Period, between 200 – 190 million years old, and come from Somerset, Dorset, Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Nottinghamshire, England, and Glamorgan, Wales.

Whilst searching through collections, Dean also came across a skeleton at The University of Nottingham. This specimen is different to all other known examples of Protoichthyosaurus in the skull and humerus and it has been identified as a new species, which the team have called Protoichthyosaurus applebyi, in honour of Robert Appleby. It is currently on display as part of the ‘Dinosaurs of China’ exhibition at Lakeside Arts, University of Nottingham.

The new study has been published today in the scientific journal, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Please reference the article as: Lomax, D. R., Massare, J. A. and Mistry, R. 2017. The taxonomic utility of forefin morphology in Lower Jurassic ichthyosaurs: Protoichthyosaurus and Ichthyosaurus. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. DOI: 10.1080/02724634.2017.1361433

Scientists from the UK have identified the smallest and youngest specimen of Ichthyosaurus communis on record and found an additional surprise preserved in its stomach.

The ichthyosaur fossil has a total length of just around 70 cm and had the remains of a prehistoric squid in its stomach. Ichthyosaurus communis was the first species of ichthyosaur, a group of sea-going reptiles, to be properly recognised by science, in 1821.

The palaeontologist and ichthyosaur expert,, said: "It is amazing to think we know what a creature that is nearly 200 million years old ate for its last meal. We found many tiny hook-like structures preserved between the ribs. These are from the arms of prehistoric squid. So, we know this animal's last meal before it died was squid.

"This is interesting because a study by other researchers on a different type of ichthyosaur, called Stenopterygius, which is from a geologically younger age, found that the small - and therefore young - examples of that species fed exclusively on fish. This shows a difference in prey-preference in newborn ichthyosaurs."

Many early ichthyosaur examples were found by Victorian palaeontologist, Mary Anning, along the coast at Lyme Regis, Dorset. It is one of the most common Early Jurassic fossil reptiles in the UK.

The new specimen is from the collections of the Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham. Palaeontologist Nigel Larkin, a research associate of The University of Cambridge, cleaned and studied the specimen in 2016, and recognised that it was important. The cleaning provided Dean with the opportunity to examine the fossil in detail.

Dean, who recently described the largest Ichthyosaurus on record, identified this specimen as a newborn Ichthyosaurus communis, based on the arrangement of bones in the skull. He added: "There are several small Ichthyosaurus specimens known, but most are incomplete or poorly preserved. This specimen is practically complete and is exceptional. It is the first newborn Ichthyosaurus communis to be found, which is surprising considering that the species was first described almost 200 years ago."

Unfortunately, no record of the specimen's location and age exists. However, with permission, Nigel removed some of the rock from around the skeleton. He passed this on to Ian Boomer (University of Birmingham) and Philip Copestake (Merlin Energy, Resources Ltd) so that they could analyse the rock for microscopic fossils. Based on the types of microfossil preserved, they were able to identify that this ichthyosaur was around 199-196 million years old, from the Early Jurassic.

Nigel added, "Many historic ichthyosaur specimens in museums lack any geographic or geological details and are therefore undated. This process of looking for microfossils in their host rock might be the key to unlocking the mystery of many specimens. Thus, this will provide researchers with lots of new information that otherwise is lost. Of course, this requires some extensive research, but it is worth the effort."

As part of the study, the skeleton was Micro CT-scanned and a three-dimensional digital model was created by Steve Dey of ThinkSee3D Ltd. Using medical imaging software, Steve converted the 3 sets of CT cross-sectional images (from scans of the tail, middle section and head) into a single digital 3D model of the whole animal then digitally measured key metrics as required by the science.

The perfect newborn ichthyosaur is on display in the recently refurbished Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham.

Reference: Lomax, D. R., Larkin, N. R., Boomer, S., Dey, S. and Copestake, P. 2017. The first known neonate Ichthyosaurus communis skeleton: a rediscovered specimen from the Lower Jurassic, UK. Historical Biology, .

Scientists have discovered traces of life more than half-a-billion years old that could change the way we think about how all animals evolved on earth.

The international��team, including palaeontologists from The University of Manchester, found��a new set of trace fossils left by some of the first ever organisms capable of active movement. Trace fossils are the tracks and burrows left by living organisms, not physical remains such as bones or body parts.

The fossils were discovered in sediment in the Corumbá region of western Brazil, near the border with Bolivia. The burrows measure from under 50 to 600 micrometres or microns (μm) in diameter, meaning the creatures that made them were similar in size to a human hair which can range from 40 to 300 microns in width. One micrometre is just one thousandth of a millimetre.

, from 91ֱ��'s , said: ‘This is an especially exciting find due to the age of the rocks – these fossils are found in rock layers which actually pre-date the oldest fossils of complex animals – at least that is what all current fossil records would suggest.’

The fossils found date back to a geological and evolutionary period known as the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition. This was when the Ediacaran Period, which spanned 94 million years from the end of the Cryogenian Period, 635 million years ago, moved into the Cambrian Period around 541 million years ago. To put that into context, dinosaurs lived between 230 and 65 million years ago in the Mesozoic Era.

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The Ediacaran–Cambrian transition is seen as extremely important period in evolutionary science and theory. Dr Garwood explains: ‘The evolutionary events during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition are unparalleled in Earth history. That’s because current fossil records suggests that many animal groups alive today appeared in a really short time interval.’

However, the team suggest these burrows were created by ‘nematoid-like organisms’, similar to a modern-day roundworm, that used an undulating locomotion to move through the sediment, leaving these trace fossils behind. This is important because current DNA studies, known as ‘molecular clocks’, used to estimate how long ago a group animals originated, suggests the first animals appeared before these burrows. But this research, which has been published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, shows these trace fossils pre-date similar animals currently found in the fossil record.

Luke Parry, lead author from the University of Bristol, added: ‘Our new fossils show that complex animals with muscle control were around approximately 550 million years ago, and they may have been overlooked previously because they are so tiny.

'The fossils that we describe were made by quite complex animals that we call bilaterians. These are all animals that are more closely related to humans, rather than to simple creatures like jellyfish. Most fossils of bilaterian animals are younger, first appearing in the Cambrian period.’

To find such tiny fossils the team used X-ray microtomography, a special technique that uses X-rays to create a virtual, 3D model of something without destroying the original object.

Luke added: ‘Our discovery highlights an unexplored window for tracking animal evolution in deep time.’

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The full paper 'Ichnological evidence for meiofaunal bilaterians from the terminal Ediacaran and earliest Cambrian of Brazil' has been��published in�� -��DOI��10.1038/s41559-017-0301-9

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Scientists from the UK and Germany have discovered the largest Ichthyosaurus on record and found it was pregnant at the time of death.

The new specimen is estimated to be between 3 and 3.5 m long and is an adult female. Ichthyosaurs were a highly successful group of sea-going reptiles that became extinct about 90 million years ago. Often misidentified as swimming dinosaurs, these reptiles appeared before the first dinosaurs had evolved. The largest species of ichthyosaur grew to over 20 m in length.

The new specimen was originally discovered on the Somerset coast, during the mid-1990s, and is from the Early Jurassic, roughly 200 million years old. However, the specimen remained unstudied until it wound up in the collections of the Lower Saxony State Museum in Hannover, Germany.

Palaeontologist Sven Sachs of the Bielefeld Natural History Museum (Germany) first saw the specimen in August 2016, whilst on a routine visit. He informed University of Manchester palaeontologist and ichthyosaur expert, Dean Lomax, and together, the pair examined the new specimen in early 2017. They identified it as an example of an Ichthyosaurus somersetensis, a new species that Dean and another colleague, Prof. Judy Massare, had previously identified.

Dean said “It amazes me that specimens such as this [the biggest] can still be ‘rediscovered’ in museum collections. You don’t necessarily have to go out in the field to make a new discovery. This specimen provides new insights into the size range of the species, but also records only the third example of an Ichthyosaurus known with an embryo. That’s special”

The embryo is incomplete and preserves only a portion of the back bone, a forefin, ribs and a few other bones. The preserved string of vertebrae is less than 7 cm long. The bones of the embryo are not fully ossified, meaning that the embryo was still developing.

Another intriguing discovery the duo made was that the tail of this new specimen did not belong with the rest of the skeleton. A tail from another ichthyosaur had been added to the skeleton to make it appear more complete and visually appealing for display.

Sven added “It is often important to examine fossils with a very critical eye. Sometimes, as in this instance, specimens aren’t exactly what they appear to be. However, it was not ‘put together’ to represent a fake, but simply for a better display specimen. But, if ‘fake’ portions remain undetected then scientists can fall foul to this, which results in false information presented in the published record.

“Specimens like this provide palaeontologists with important information about when these animals lived. Many examples of Ichthyosaurus are from historical collections and most do not have good geographical or geological records, but this specimen has it all. It may help to date other ichthyosaur fossils that currently have no information.”

Ichthyosaurus is one of the most common fossil reptiles in the UK, with thousands of specimens known, ranging from isolated bones to complete skeletons. Some of the very first examples were collected from along the Dorset coast by Victorian palaeontologist, Mary Anning, who first brought them to the attention of the scientific world.

The new study has been published today in the scientific journal, Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.

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It is a classic in modern cinematic history. The image of a rampant Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) chasing Jeff Goldblum as he sits injured in the back of a 4x4 vehicle in Stephen Spielberg’s original film adaptation of Jurassic Park.

But could a T. rex actually move that fast, or even run at all?

New research from the University of Manchester says the sheer size and weight of T. rex means it couldn’t move at high speed, as its leg-bones would have buckled under its own weight load.

The research, , looks extensively into the gait and biomechanics of the world’s most famous Dinosaur and, using the latest high performance computing technology from , has created a new simulation model to test its findings.

Led by Professor William Sellers from the , the researchers have combined two separate biomechanical techniques, known as multibody dynamic analysis (MBDA) and skeletal stress analysis (SSA), into one simulation model, creating a new more accurate one.

says the results demonstrate any running gaits for T. rex would probably lead to ‘unacceptably high skeletal loads’. Meaning, in layman’s terms, any running would simply break the dinosaur’s legs. This contradicts the running speeds predicted by previous biomechanical models which can suggest anything up to 45mph.

He explains: ‘the running ability of T. rex and other similarly giant dinosaurs has been intensely debated amongst palaeontologist for decades. However, different studies using differing methodologies have produced a very wide range of top speed estimates and we say there is a need to develop techniques that can improve these predictions.

‘Here we present a new approach that combines two separate biomechanical techniques to demonstrate that true running gaits would probably lead to unacceptably high skeletal loads in T. rex.’

The results also mean that the T. rex couldn’t pursue its prey in a high-speed chase as previously thought. He added: ‘Being limited to walking speeds contradicts arguments of high-speed pursuit predation for the largest bipedal dinosaurs like T. rex and demonstrates the power of Multiphysics approaches for locomotor reconstructions of extinct animals.’

Although the research focuses on the T. rex, the findings also means running at high speeds were probably highly unlikely for other large two-legged dinosaurs such as, Giganotosaurus, Mapusaurus, and Acrocanthosaurus.

Dr Sellers adds: ‘Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the largest bipedal animals to have ever evolved and walked the earth. So it represents a useful model for understanding the biomechanics of other similar animals. Therefore, these finding may well translate to other long-limbed giants so but this idea should be tested alongside experimental validation work on other bipedal species.’

This isn’t the first time MBDA and SSA have been used to measure the walking and running ability of dinosaurs. However, it is the first time they have been used together to literally create a more accurate picture.

Dr Sellers explains: ‘Our previous simulations of theropod bipedal running did not directly consider the skeletal loading but these new simulations do calculate all the forces in the limb bones and these can be used directly to estimate the bone loading on impact.’

The fact that T. rex was restricted to walking also supports arguments of a less athletic lifestyle. This means the results could change the way we view the effects of how the size and shape of T. rex and other large bipedal dinosaurs alters as they grow. Previous studies have suggested the torso became longer and heavier whereas the limbs became proportionately shorter and lighter as T. rex grew. These changes would mean that the running abilities of T. rex would also change as the animal grew with adults likely to be less agile than younger individuals.

But Dr Sellers says these new findings show this probably wasn’t the case and we should apply this new model even wider: ‘It would be very valuable not only to investigate the gait of other species, but also apply our multiphysics approach to different growth stages within that species.’

Reference:   William I. Sellers, Stuart B. Pond, Charlotte A. Brassey, Philip L. Manning, and Karl T. Bates

Ichthyosaurs, which are similar-shaped to dolphins and sharks, but are reptiles, swam the seas for millions of years during the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They were the first, large extinct reptiles brought to the attention of the scientific world.

Dean Lomax, a palaeontologist and Honorary Scientist at The University of Manchester, working with Professor Judy Massare of Brockport College, New York, have studied 1000s of ichthyosaur fossils and have delved through hundreds of years of records to solve an ancient mystery.

Many ichthyosaur fossils were found in England during the early 19th century, but it was not until 1821 that the first ichthyosaur species was described - called Ichthyosaurus communis. This species has become one of the most well-known and iconic of all the British fossil reptiles. A sea of Ichthyosaurus fossils can be seen on display at the Natural History Museum, London.

In 1822, three other species were described, based on differences in the shape and structure of their teeth. Two of the species were later re-identified as other types of ichthyosaur, whereas one of these species, called Ichthyosaurus intermedius, was still considered closely related to I. communis.

In the years that followed, many eminent scientists, including Sir Richard Owen (the man who coined the word dinosaur), studied ichthyosaur fossils collected from Dorset, Somerset, Yorkshire and other locations in England. Their studies and observations of Ichthyosaurus communis and I. intermedius resulted in confusion with the species, with many skeletons identified on unreliable grounds.

In the mid-1970s, palaeontologist, Dr Chris McGowan was the first to suggest that Ichthyosaurus communis and I. intermedius may represent the same species. He could not find reliable evidence to separate the two species. Subsequent studies argued for and against the separation of the species.

In this new study, the duo have reviewed all of the research for and against the separation of the two species. This is the most extensive scientific study ever published comparing the two. The duo confirm the species are the same and that features of Ichthyosaurus intermedius can be found in other ichthyosaur species, including I. communis.

In recent years, the duo have described three new species and have provided a reassessment of historical species. Their work has provided a far superior understanding of the species than has ever been produced.

The research has been published in Journal of Systematic Palaeontology: .

An unassuming brown pebble, found more than a decade ago by a fossil hunter in Sussex, has been confirmed by researchers from The University of Manchester and the University of Cambridge as the first example of fossilised brain tissue from a dinosaur.

The fossil is most likely from a species closely related to Iguanodon - a large herbivorous dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous Period about 133 million years ago – and displays distinct similarities to the brains of modern-day crocodiles and birds. The results are reported in a Special Publication of the Geological Society of London, published in tribute to Professor Martin Brasier of the University of Oxford, who died in 2014.

Finding fossilised soft tissue, especially brain tissue, is very rare, which makes understanding the evolutionary history of such tissue difficult. According to the researchers, the reason this particular piece of brain tissue has been so well-preserved is that the dinosaur’s brain was essentially ‘pickled’ in a highly acidic and low-oxygen body of water – similar to a bog or swamp – shortly after its death. This allowed the soft tissues to become mineralised before they decayed away completely, so that they could be preserved.

The researchers used scanning electron microscope (SEM) techniques in order to identify the tough membranes, or meninges, that surrounded the brain itself, as well as strands of collagen and blood vessels. Structures that could represent tissues from the brain cortex also appear to be present. The structure of the fossilised brain, and in particular that of the meninges, shows similarities with the brains of modern-day descendants of dinosaurs, namely birds and crocodiles.

In typical reptiles, the brain has the shape of a sausage, surrounded by a dense region of blood vessels and thin-walled vascular chambers (sinuses) that serve as a blood drainage system. The brain itself only takes up about half of the space within the cranial cavity.

In contrast, the tissue in the fossilised brain appears to have been pressed directly against the skull, raising the possibility that some dinosaurs had large brains - however, the researchers caution against drawing conclusions about dinosaur intelligence, as it is most likely that the brain of this dinosaur collapsed and became pressed against the bony roof of the cavity as it decayed.

"Professor Brasier was a very supportive colleague, and it's been a privilege to work towards publishing a paper on this very special object, in a book in his memory."

A Welsh dinosaur discovered on a beach near Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan last year, and identified by an academic from The University of Manchester, is back on display at National Museum Cardiff and now has a name - Dracoraptor hanigani.

The name Dracoraptor means ‘dragon thief’, Draco meaning dragon, the symbol of Wales. The species name honours Nick and Rob Hanigan who discovered the amazing fossil and have now generously donated it to Amgueddfa Cymru-National Museum of Wales.

It is described in the paper “The oldest Jurassic dinosaur: a basal neotheropod from the Hettangian of Great Britain” by David Martill, Steven Vidovic, Cindy Howells and John Nudds of The University of Manchester in the online Journal PLoS ONE.

The fossil can be seen in the main hall of National Museum Cardiff from early December. Also on display for the first time will be the dinosaur’s foot, which was discovered by Sam Davies from Bridgend, a palaeontology student at the University of Portsmouth, who has donated it to the Museum and so the dinosaur now has one of its feet back. Sam discovered two blocks, which have been prepared to reveal the amazingly well preserved foot bones, still in their original alignment.

The original find was made by Nick and Rob Hanigan whilst fossil hunting along the Lavernock beach in the Vale of Glamorgan after storms in spring 2014. After a cliff fall on the beach, they spotted several loose blocks containing part of the skeleton of a small dinosaur and collected the specimen, including its skull, claws and serrated teeth.

The fossilised bones were found spread across five slabs of rock and although some were preserved together in the correct position, others had been scattered and separated by the actions of scavenging fish and sea-urchins. The specimen was preserved with the fossilised remains of these sea-urchins.

Nick and Rob took time carefully preparing the specimen and then contacted Cindy Howells, palaeontology curator for Amgueddfa Cymru who, with the help of dinosaur experts from the University of Portsmouth and The University of Manchester, analysed the teeth and bones. The team established that this particular dinosaur was a meat-eating dinosaur from the theropod group. It also suggested that it was a juvenile animal as some of its bones are not yet fully formed.

This new Welsh dinosaur was a very distant cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex and lived at the very beginning of the Jurassic Period (201 million years ago) most probably making it the oldest Jurassic dinosaur in the world. It was a small, slim, agile animal, probably only about 70cm tall and about 200cm long, with a long tail to help it balance. It lived at the time when south Wales was a coastal region like today, but with a much warmer climate, and dinosaurs were just starting to diversify. It is related to Coelophysis which lived approximately 203 to 196 million years ago in what is now the southwestern part of the United States of America.

This new specimen is the first skeleton of a theropod to be found in Wales. Isolated teeth and bones of other dinosaurs have previously been found in south Wales near Penarth, Bridgend, and Cowbridge. Nearby at Barry is one of the earliest dinosaur footprint sites in Europe dating back to the Middle Triassic around 215 million years ago.

Dr John Nudds, from The University of Manchester, said, “It’s pretty rare to discover a completely new dinosaur species – in fact this is only the fourth one to be discovered in the UK since 1980, so it’s very special. The fact that it comes from so early in the Jurassic Period, when theropod dinosaurs were evolving rapidly, makes it even more valuable to science, and will hopefully tell us a lot about dinosaur evolution at this time.”

Experts from The University of Manchester have identified Britain’s oldest sauropod dinosaur from a fossil bone discovered on the Yorkshire coast.

The vertebra (backbone) originates from a group of dinosaurs that includes the largest land animals to have ever walked on Earth. This new sauropod dinosaur, from the Middle Jurassic Period at about 176 million years old, was found near Whitby, Yorkshire, after it fell out of a cliff face. This find represents the earliest skeletal record of this type of dinosaur from the United Kingdom and adds to existing evidence from Yorkshire dinosaur tracks that this part of the country was once Britain’s very own ‘Jurassic World’.

Sauropods (often referred to as ‘brontosaurs’) include some of the largest plant-eating dinosaurs to have roamed the Earth and were a successful group for nearly 150 million years. They possessed distinctive long necks and tails, small heads, a large body and walked on all fours. Some species such as the Argentinosaurus grew up to 115 feet (35 metres) long and possibly weighed as much as 80 tonnes.

The fragmentary nature of the new find from Yorkshire means it is not possible to generate a new species of dinosaur. However, this fossil clearly belongs to this distinctive group of titanic sized animals, the sauropods.  This dinosaur fossil is an extremely rare find, given the Middle Jurassic rocks of the world are only exposed in a few areas, such as China and Argentina where similar-aged dinosaur fossils originate.

Professor Phil Manning and his team from The University of Manchester used X-Ray Tomography to study the fossil bone, which is now held in the collections at the Yorkshire Museum in York (UK). They present their description of this new sauropod dinosaur in a paper published today in the Journal PLOS ONE.

Professor Manning said: “Many scientists have worked on the amazing dinosaur tracks from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire. It was a splendid surprise to come face-to-face with a fossil vertebra from the Jurassic rocks of Yorkshire that was clearly from a sauropod dinosaur

“This fossil offers the earliest ‘body fossil’ evidence for this important group of dinosaurs in the United Kingdom, but it is impossible to define a new species based upon this single bone.”Whilst this is clearly frustrating for the team, there is possibly more of this Jurassic titan still to be discovered in the future and only then might it get a new species name. Until more bones are discovered the team have simply nicknamed Britain’s oldest sauropod dinosaur, ‘Alan’, after the finder of this prehistoric beastie (Alan Gurr).

Dr Victoria Egerton (co-author on the paper) added: “The Jurassic Park that was once Yorkshire clearly has much more to offer science in our understanding of the distribution and evolution of dinosaurs.”

Dr Mike Romano, another co-author on the paper said: “Dinosaur remains of Middle Jurassic age are generally rare, even on a global scale.  So, to find a single distinctive vertebra of that age on the beach at Whitby, and one that represents a new taxon of sauropod dinosaurs, is indeed a (white) feather in the cap for Yorkshire.”

Professor Manning and Dr Egerton will be talking this week at the Times Cheltenham Science Festival.

Jane Furze, Director of the Festival, said: “At Cheltenham Science Festival we strive to showcase ground-breaking research and introduce audiences to some of the world’s greatest thinkers. The 91ֱ�� team clearly is one such pioneering group who has transformed much of what we thought we knew about dinosaurs. This latest discovery will further advance this field and we’re honoured to have the new Sauropod ‘unearthed’ at the Cheltenham Science Festival, which has become a hub for cutting-edge news.”

The University will be well represented at Cheltenham this week. In addition to Phil Manning's dinosaurs, Jodrell Bank's Tim O'Brien will be discussing the latest news on the search for , Brian Cox will be in conversation with Alice Roberts and Adam Rutherford about some of , immunologist Dan Davis will be talking about the , whilst Aravind Vijayaraghavan, James Baker and Laura Winter will also be on hand to discuss .

Notes for editors

The paper ‘A new sauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic of the United Kingdom’ will be published in the Journal PLOS ONE on Monday, June 1

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