Clever girl ... no, really.

It turns out that some birds are just as smart as—and possibly smarter than—primates with larger brains. A new study shows that compared to mammals, bird brain tissue packs in much more smarts per ounce. Many much. More smarts. This mammal is struggling with his grammar :) In any case, check out the article below! 

So what does this mean for dinosaurs? It’s currently unclear whether birds inherited this brain structure from their saurian ancestors, or whether they developed it to reduce weight in flight. If we find that they did inherit the trait from their maniraptoran forebears, however, then it will be time to rethink entirely what dinosaurs were capable of.

News article: http://medicalxpress.com/news/2016-06-term-bird-brain.html The original Paper: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2016/06/07/1517131113.full.pdf

Not a real dinosaur? Fans say Goodbye to “T. rex”

Say it ain’t so! Scientists announced this week that Tyrannosaurus rex is no longer a real dinosaur. In a turn of events that has rocked the paleontological world, the tyrant lizard king has been dethroned. How could this happen, you ask? 

Documents that recently surfaced at the CGNU Museum of Natural History show that Dr. Leroy Jenkins, founder of the institution, discovered and described a partial skeleton belonging to the dinosaur in 1903, a full two years before it was described by Henry Fairfield Osborne. This means that Tyrannosaurus is no longer a valid genus; Jenkins’ name takes priority. Dr. Searqim Rogers, the museum’s current curator, commented,  "We haven’t really lost Tyrannosaurus, just the name. He’s still around, you understand, like ‘an artist formerly known as ‘Prince.'’ I know there will be a lot of upset dinosaur fans, but this is actually a very exciting moment in the history of tyrannosaur research. Regardless of the name, Dr. Jenkins’ specimen is truly remarkable. It’s a rare instance where we have preserved not only bones but also behavior.“ Dr. Rogers refers to the specimen’s pose, which scientists believe was preserved only moments after death. Clenched in its jaws is the hindlimb of its last meal, an as yet unidentified hadrosaur (duck-billed dinosaur). This unique preservational situation led Dr. Jenkins in 1903 to christen the animal with the name by which it will be now forever known: Trapodosaurus jenkinsi, or "the leg pulling lizard.”

Article posted April 1, 2016