Oldest dinosaur embryos found

[emad]

Washington — Scientists have uncovered the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found, dating to the beginning of the Jurassic age 190 million years ago.

The find, which has taken years to decipher, is helping them understand the development of a long-necked, plant-eating giant called Massospondylus carinatus.

The discovery is producing three important results, Robert Reisz of the University of Toronto's Mississauga campus said in a telephone interview.

The first, he said, is the “gee whiz, Guinness world record that we have found the oldest dinosaur embryo. That's cool and they are beautiful.”

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050728.wdino0728/BNStory/specialScienceandHealth/

[Benhurst]

1. "Stoneflake" babies NT

[Oreo]

2. They must have been man-made

We all know that the dinosaurs walked with men and that these fossils couldn't be older than a few thousand years.

[Missy M]

4. You are correct because Noah also took them on the ark

[moggie]

8. Yeah, they're in the bible

And Jesus and the disciples walked down the path towards Nazareth. But oh! The trail was blocked by a giant Brontosaurus with a splinter in his paw. And the disciples did run a-screaming "what a big fucking lizard, Lord!"
"I'm sure gonna mention this in my book", said Luke.

Bill Hicks is sorely missed.

[SidDithers]

3. Dr. Reisz is a very cool guy...

I had the good fortune of meeting him, and working tangentially with him, a few times.

http://www.research.utoronto.ca/edge/spring2003/intheworks/reisz.html

Here's his site with more stuff:

http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3reisz/index.shtml

Sid



PS - Perfect thread for comments from DinoBoy, where is he?

[beam me up scottie]

5. Pix:

An embryonic skeleton of the prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus is preserved inside the egg. University of Toronto at Mississauga photo by Robert Reisz

Reconstruction shows how the dinosaur probably looked. University of Toronto at Mississauga illustration by Kevin Dupuis

A flesh reconstruction of the herbivorous prosauropod dinosaur Massospondylus carinatus as an adult. University of Toronto at Mississauga illustration by Gabriel Lio

[hallc]

6. awww.

Its kinda cute!

[beam me up scottie]

7. I know!

Reminds me of a baby dragon painting I saw in an old Chinese book.
Not so cute when they grow up, though.

[Ediacara]

9. Very cool stuff

Although I have to disagree with some of their conclusions. The first is this: Reisz claims that no animals go from quadrupedal to bipedal in their ontogeny. I find this a little funny since Reisz himself happens to be a bipedal animal that was once quadrupedal earlier in his ontogeny :-) The other thing I am a little iffy on is that adult prosauropods were bipedal at all. They probably could rear up on two legs, but they're generally thought of as quadrupeds...

Cool stuff about the lack of teeth though!