Dinosaur Eating Habits

Size comparison between the carnosaurian theropod dinosaur Allosaurus and a human (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Model of allosaurus in Bałtow, Poland (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Allosaurus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by SINDYA N. BHANOO


Allosaurus, a smaller cousin of Tyrannosaurus rex, was a dexterous hunter that tugged at prey like a modern-day falcon, showing far more refined table manners than T. rex, researchers are reporting.

“While T. rex was like an angry gorilla with an ice pick, Allosaurus was like a surgeon with a scalpel,” said Eric Snively, a mechanical engineer at Ohio University and an author of a new study on the smaller dinosaur, published in the journal Palaeontologia Electronica, based on 150-million-year-old bones. Using a CT scanner and a method called multibody dynamics, developed originally for robotics, the researchers modeled Allosaurus’s neck and jaw muscles and simulated its muscle movement.

“The skull is loaded with scars where muscles attach, and we were able to reconstruct the dinosaur by making comparison to modern day birds,” said another author, Lawrence M.Witmer, a paleontologist at Ohio.

Though more than six meters long and twice as heavy as a polar bear, Allosaurus probably drove its teeth downward into its prey. Like such small falcons as the American kestrel, it held its head steady and then pulled flesh up; T.rex, by contrast, used more of a side-to-side thrashing action.


Taken from TODAY Saturday Edition, June 15, 2013

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Virginia man wins spelling title after 51 years

Image via Wikipedia

Try and try and try… until you succeed!

----------

06/22/2009 | 09:55 AM

CHEYENNE, Wyoming – It took Michael Petrina Jr. 51 years to finally win a national spelling bee.

The Arlington, Va., man bested 45 other spellers older than 50 to win the AARP's annual National Spelling Bee Saturday in Cheyenne. The 64-year-old's winning word was "woad," a plant whose leaves yield a blue dye.

AARP spokeswoman Joanne Bowlby says Petrina won his state's national spelling bee when he was 13, but then lost at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

In second place Saturday was 55-year-old Scott Firebaugh of Knoxville, Tenn., and in third place was 66-year-old Gil Couts of Bigfork, Mont.

Petrina won $500, a trophy and dictionary kit.

The AARP bee started in 1996. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

Virginia man wins spelling title after 51 years

Image via Wikipedia

Try and try and try… until you succeed!

----------

06/22/2009 | 09:55 AM

CHEYENNE, Wyoming – It took Michael Petrina Jr. 51 years to finally win a national spelling bee.

The Arlington, Va., man bested 45 other spellers older than 50 to win the AARP's annual National Spelling Bee Saturday in Cheyenne. The 64-year-old's winning word was "woad," a plant whose leaves yield a blue dye.

AARP spokeswoman Joanne Bowlby says Petrina won his state's national spelling bee when he was 13, but then lost at the Scripps National Spelling Bee.

In second place Saturday was 55-year-old Scott Firebaugh of Knoxville, Tenn., and in third place was 66-year-old Gil Couts of Bigfork, Mont.

Petrina won $500, a trophy and dictionary kit.

The AARP bee started in 1996. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

Mammoth skeleton unearthed in Serbia

06/04/2009 | 09:47 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia – A well-preserved skeleton of a mammoth that is believed to be about one million years old has been unearthed in eastern Serbia, archaeologists said Thursday.

The discovery was made during excavation two days ago at an open-pit coal mine near Kostolac power plant, said Miomir Korac, from Serbia's Archaeology Institute.

The skeleton was found 27 meters (89 feet) below ground, he said. The mammoth was more than 4 meters (13 feet) high, 5 meters (16 feet) long and weighed more than 10 tons.

"It is very well-preserved with only slight damage to the skull and the tusks," Korac told the AP. "There have been practically no major tectonic disruptions here for at least a million years."

Korac said the mammoth was a so-called southern mammoth, or mammuthus meridionalis, originating from northern Africa. Experts will continue research to find out more about the environment it lived in.

Another mammoth skeleton, from a much later period, was discovered at a factory in Serbia in 1996 and was named Kika. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

Mammoth skeleton unearthed in Serbia

06/04/2009 | 09:47 PM

BELGRADE, Serbia – A well-preserved skeleton of a mammoth that is believed to be about one million years old has been unearthed in eastern Serbia, archaeologists said Thursday.

The discovery was made during excavation two days ago at an open-pit coal mine near Kostolac power plant, said Miomir Korac, from Serbia's Archaeology Institute.

The skeleton was found 27 meters (89 feet) below ground, he said. The mammoth was more than 4 meters (13 feet) high, 5 meters (16 feet) long and weighed more than 10 tons.

"It is very well-preserved with only slight damage to the skull and the tusks," Korac told the AP. "There have been practically no major tectonic disruptions here for at least a million years."

Korac said the mammoth was a so-called southern mammoth, or mammuthus meridionalis, originating from northern Africa. Experts will continue research to find out more about the environment it lived in.

Another mammoth skeleton, from a much later period, was discovered at a factory in Serbia in 1996 and was named Kika. - AP

From GMANews.tv; see the source article here.

Does Whatever A Spider Can

Not to be done by kids!

A French skyscraper climber nicknamed 'Spiderman' was arrested yesterday after scaling a 41-storey building in downtown Sydney with his bare hands. About 200 people watched as Mr Alain Robert, known for scaling some of the world's tallest and most famous buildings without ropes or other equipment, climbed to the top of the Royal Bank of Scotland Tower. Police closed off a section of the street below, causing gridlock. The crowd cheered as Mr Robert reached the top. He then climbed back down, where officers arrested him. AP

From TODAY, World – Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009

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Does Whatever A Spider Can

Not to be done by kids!

A French skyscraper climber nicknamed 'Spiderman' was arrested yesterday after scaling a 41-storey building in downtown Sydney with his bare hands. About 200 people watched as Mr Alain Robert, known for scaling some of the world's tallest and most famous buildings without ropes or other equipment, climbed to the top of the Royal Bank of Scotland Tower. Police closed off a section of the street below, causing gridlock. The crowd cheered as Mr Robert reached the top. He then climbed back down, where officers arrested him. AP

From TODAY, World – Wednesday, 03-Jun-2009

Related articles by Zemanta

• The 'Spiderman' Scales Sydney Skyscraper (news.sky.com)
• "Spiderman" Arrested After Climb For Climate (VIDEO) (huffingtonpost.com)
• Alain Robert's Punishment for Climbing NYT Building? Helping Fight AIDS (queerty.com)