New Evidence about Asteroid that Killed the Dinosaurs

A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new University of Colorado Boulder study.

Led by Douglas Robertson of the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, or CIRES, the team used models that show the collision would have vaporized huge amounts of rock that were then blown high above Earth’s atmosphere. The re-entering ejected material would have heated the upper atmosphere enough to glow red for several hours at roughly 2,700 degrees Fahrenheit (1,500 degrees Celsius) killing every living thing not sheltered underground or underwater.

De-extinction: Is "Jurassic Park" a real possibility?

(CBS News) Twenty years ago, "Jurassic Park" seemed like pure science fiction. Scientists in the movie retrieved ancient DNA from bones, and the movie fantasized dinosaurs could be brought back to Earth.

Not only is "Jurassic Park" back in theaters next month in 3D, but it turns out some of the science fiction might be about to become reality.

Oamenii de ştiinţă vor să readucă la viaţă 22 de specii dispărute

Specialiștii diferitelor ramuri ale Științei au discutat recent, sub umbrela unei conferințe susținute de National Geographic, posibilitatea, premisele, mijloacele și implicațiile etice ale  „resurecției” unor specii de animale dispărute, în cadrul unui proces denumit de ei, în traducere aproximativă, „dezextincție”.

Dinosaur-killing space rock 'was a comet'

The space rock that hit Earth 65m years ago and is widely implicated in the end of the dinosaurs was probably a speeding comet, US scientists say.

Researchers in New Hampshire suggest the 180km-wide Chicxulub crater in Mexico was carved out by a smaller object than previously thought.

Many scientists consider a large and relatively slow moving asteroid to have been the likely culprit.

Were Dinosaurs Destined to Be Big

In the evolutionary long run, small critters tend to evolve into bigger beasts-at least according to the idea attributed to paleontologist Edward Cope, now known as Cope's Rule. Using the latest advanced statistical modeling methods, a new test of this rule as it applies dinosaurs shows that Cope was right-sometimes.

"For a long time, dinosaurs were thought to be the example of Cope's Rule," says Gene Hunt, curator in the Department of Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) in Washington, D.C. Other groups, particularly mammals, also provide plenty of classic examples of the rule, Hunt says.

New impact crater in the Canadian arctic revealed

Last week, NASA’s Curiosity Rover made its historic landing on Mars. And while scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena California get ready to examine the environs of Gale crater, a new impact feature was revealed by researchers right here on Earth.

Two years ago, surveyors for the Natural Resources Canada Geo-Mapping for Energy and Minerals program noted an unusual geological feature on Victoria Island in the high Canadian Arctic. This 25 km-wide circular feature displayed signs of tilted strata, shatter cones, and fractured radial lines atypical of the region, but typical of a meteorite impact.

Engineering Technology Reveals Eating Habits of Giant Dinosaurs

High-tech technology, traditionally usually used to design racing cars and aeroplanes, has helped researchers to understand how plant-eating dinosaurs fed 150 million years ago.

A team of international researchers, led by the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum, used CT scans and biomechanical modelling to show that Diplodocus -- one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered -- had a skull adapted to strip leaves from tree branches.

Robot Dinosaurs Printed in 3-D Using Fossil Templates

A hobbyist found the first nearly complete dinosaur skeleton in New Jersey in 1858, during the era of gentlemen scientists, gas lamps and extremely ruffled skirts. A century and a half later, paleontologists are still working in one dig in the southern portion of the state. Kenneth Lacovara, a paleontologist at Drexel University in Philadelphia, inherited the site from generations of paleontologists before him.

Some of Lacovara's plans for what he finds here, however, are entirely new. Over the past few years, he has started a few projects using the latest technology for paleontology. His latest plans include making robotic dinosaurs using a 3D printer.