Archive for the ‘Extinct Species’

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    Smaller Dinosaurs Existed

    Posted in Extinct Species | October 14, 2010
    When we think of dinosaurs, the first pictures to enter our mind would be that of gigantic beasts that either ate leaves off really tall trees or the carnivores that ate smaller animals. It is almost improbable for us to imagine smaller dinosaurs; especially dinosaurs the size of a chicken. Sounds bizarre, doesn’t it? But it is true. Meet Albertonykus borealis: This is said to be a chicken sized dinosaur who seemed to have a profound taste for termites; and must have been like the ‘anteater’ of the era it lived in. It would have been the smallest of dinosaurs that have ever been discovered in the whole of North America. This new species has been given the name Albertonykus borealis and is said to be a member of the group of dinosaurs called  [...]
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    Dinosaurs May Have Been Taller

    Posted in Extinct Species | October 5, 2010
    Gist of the Matter: It may have seemed obvious that the leg bone of the dinosaur was connected to the hip bone; but what was it that came in between these bones wasn’t such an obvious point. As per research conducted by the University of Ohio and the University of Missouri, the dinosaurs may have had thick layers of cartilage that played the role of the ‘joining component’ in the joints. This would mean that these dinosaurs may have been significantly taller than we’ve estimated them to be all these years. This study will soon be published in the journal called PLoS ONE (Public Library of Science). The Study Says: According to the study conducted on the limbs of the modern-day relatives of the dinosaur family, the dinosaurs may have  [...]
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    Extinct Species Get Rediscovered

    Posted in Extinct Species | October 1, 2010
    The two centuries that have gone by are said to have witnessed accelerated rates of extinction of certain animal species. There has been endangerment that has taken place alongside the industrial progress and there has been rapid growth of the human population. Naturally speaking, the concept of ‘background extinction’ has been in play for a very long time now. However, it is estimated that the extinction rates in current times are said to be about 1000 times the background extinction rates that were known earlier. Most of this animal extinction can be relegated to two causes – human demand for animal resources; or human demand for natural resources which may contain the habitat of certain animals. The Latest Buzz: Australian biologists  [...]
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    DWARF ELEPHANTS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

    Posted in Extinct Species | June 24, 2010
    Dwarf elephants are an extinct species of mammals. They are oft confused with the pygmy elephants that were a common sight in the fauna of South East Asia. The dwarf elephants of the Mediterranean lived in the Pleistocene period, which is approximately 10,000 years before our present day scenario. What gives them their small size? Insular dwarfism may be the primary cause for the size of these elephants. Insular dwarfism is a form of dwarfism, wherein the population’s gene pool gets limited to a very small environment. This is likely to happen on islands. MEDITERRANEAN ISLANDS Fossilized remains of this dwarfed form have been found on the Mediterranean islands; namely Cyprus, Malta, Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, the Cyclades Islands and the Dodecanese  [...]