An almost complete fossil of a 4-million-year-old #whale has been found in the mountains, creating quite a stir in the #Paleontology community. But how did the #whalefossil get to be there in the first place? - http://clapway.com/2015/09/23/fossil-mountains-whale-preserved123/

Construction workers were digging on a mountain in Santa Cruz County, California, when they came across an almost completely intact fossil of a whale. Although it’s not unusual to find fossils in a mountainous area, this discovery is extremely odd given its location.

Whales in the mountains?

How did the whale get there? It probably didn’t swim to the mountains and it definitely didn’t fly there. According to a paleontologist who was monitoring the construction site, the fossil’s age might offer an explanation. The remains are estimated to be about 4-million-years-old, which suggests that the whale never moved; the earth simply did.

The tectonic activity in the area pushed the fossils of the well-preserved whale all the way up the mountains. This process most likely happened gradually over time, as earthquakes and plate fluctuations occurred over a fault line, which has remained inactive for some time now.

Digging the whale out

According to the Santa Cruz Sentinel, Scott Armstrong, the on-site paleontologist, along with two other archaeologists, started excavating the ancient sea creature on September 17th, 2015. In order to ensure the safety of the rare fossil, the experts are encasing the bones in plaster as they are being dug up. Following this procedure, the team will then travel to Paleo Solutions, an archaeological consulting service which Armstrong is a scientist with, located in Monrovia, California. There the scientists plan on fully excavating the fossils from the rock in order to study them in further detail.

Mysticete Whale

The fossils is believed to come from a mysticete whale, an ancestor of the baleen whale measuring about 25 feet in length. Scientists are particularly excited about this discovery due to its well preserved nature. Along with the entire vertebrate, the archaeological team was able to unearth parts of the skull, most of the jaw, arm bones, and shoulder blades. For the most part, only bits and pieces of the whale have been found in the past. With this new information, however, scientists will have a better understanding of how whales evolved, which, in turn, could also explain why whales are the way they are today.

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Fossil Of Preserved Whale Found In Mountains

A New Raptor Fossil Discovered in China - http://clapway.com/2015/07/16/a-new-raptor-fossil-discovered-in-china567/

You know how the new Jurassic World film was pretty much all about the raptors in the movie? What’s not to like? They’re pretty charismatic on screen, and Blue had some awesome coloration.

Chinese raptor fossil found in Liaoning Province

Well, if you like dinosaurs, be prepared to become stoked about a real one; this new find in China of a raptor has been named the Zhenyuanlong suni. This type of raptor lived around 125 million years ago during the Early Cretaceous era.

The fossil was unearthed in the Liaoning Province, by a man named Sun Zhenyuan, who helped to get the fossil to the researchers for study. This is why fossil was named after him.

What do we know about the new raptor fossil thus far?

The research conducted on the fossil was made available today in Scientific Reports. The report was filed last year in November before it was accepted in April, then published today. There are two authors on this study; Junchang Lü and Stephen L. Brusatte.

Like many of the dinosaur fossils found in this region, this raptor is the relative of the Velociraptor we all have come to know from the Jurassic Park franchise. But it is also a feathered one as well, evident by the fossilized feathers, and research suggest it is closely related to birds given the anatomy structure of the fossil. The fossil is almost a full body skeleton.

raptor had wings?

The raptor fossil shows that it has probably around the height of a human and short appendages that looked like wings but probably couldn’t fly. There has been some joking or commentary that it basically looks like a human sized chicken or turkey, which is slightly scary if you have ever had to deal with aggressive poultry before.

One of the authors thought it was interesting to see the raptor fossil have winglike appendages without the actual intent of flying. The question then became why this dinosaur has wings, why has it evolved to have these in the first place. Other questions such as what its behavioral characteristics were begin to come to mind as well.

Only further research can be done to find out more about the fossil. That, and finding more similar fossils for further study.

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A New Raptor Fossil Discovered in China

Meet Alan, the oldest Sauropod ever found. - http://clapway.com/2015/06/03/uk-scientists-identify-oldest-sauropod-ever-found-in-england-123/

Scientists in the U.K. have made a thrilling conclusion about a fossil found near Yorkshire in Northern England. The bone they have found belonged to a Sauropod that lived about 176-million-years ago. That makes this the oldest Sauropod ever found in that part of the world, and means he belonged to the exceptionally rare category of dinosaurs found in the world existing during the Middle Jurassic Period.

Sauropods are characteristically giant creatures by nature, some reaching as much 90 feet in length, and all are thought to be herbivores. while all that they have discovered so far of the dinosaur is a single vertebrae, they may find enough later on to put together a partial skeleton of the creature.

“Alan” the Sauropod Arrives in the U.K.

A high concentration of fossils have been found in an area of England referred to as Yorkshire’s Jurassic Park, and the discovery of this fossil proves to be indicative of the timeline in which there was a high concentration of dinosaurs in that part of England. However many dinosaur bones exist in the area, the discovery of this one is possibly one of the rarest made.

The paper published on the discovery states how rare it is to find a Middle Jurassic fossil in this part of the world, “The fossil remains of Middle Jurassic sauropods are extremely rare. The major finds of Middle Jurassic Sauropods are in China (Shunosaurus, Omeisaurus, and Mamenchisaurus), Argentina (Patagosaurus ), North Africa (Spinophorosaurus and Jobaria)and Britain (Cetiosaurus).” This creates a lot of interest in “Alan the Sauropod”, and leaves researchers questioning if there may be more like him in the area.

Is there more of “Alan” that hasn’t been found yet?

Chances are that in the rock formations where the Sauropod was discovered, there may be more pieces of the skeleton lying in wait to be discovered. This is of course because a Sauropod is no small creature. According to the research done so far It is still unknown what subgroup the Sauropod belongs to, “The vertebra cannot be further distinguished from those of a wide range of basal sauropods, cetiosaurids and basal macronarians. However, this plesiomorphic vertebra still signifies the earliest stratigraphic occurrence for a British sauropod dinosaur. ” Of course it would be years before any sort of skeleton could be assembled, but finding the oldest Sauropod in England is enough to keep experts hungry for more.

U.K.: Scientists Identify Oldest Sauropod Ever Found in England