geekosystem

Folks, can we talk about these TED-Ed videos? Because they are becoming some of my favorite things. In this magnificently animated piece, science writer Carl Zimmer waxes poetic on the aesthetic and engineering feats that make feathers so incredible before delivering a point by point walkthrough of what we know about how feathers evolved -- and what we don't. This lesson in how modern birds developed from ancient dinosaurs more or less the perfect thing to distract you from work today, and come on -- it's not like you're here because you desperately want to get things done.

Researchers at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) particle accelerator are hoping to answer the once and for all the burning question of just what color dinosaurs were, and in the process, make millions of kids who use the wrong kind of crayons to shade in the triceratops in their dinosaurs coloring book look like idiots.

While the sonogram that our own Glen Tickle keeps on his desk proves that he is an adorable and loving father, it's not awesome because it's a sonogram of his daughter, not a dinosaur. We've heard this kid is pretty great, and have no reason to believe otherwise, but she's no dinosaur. Paleontologists with the University of Toronto have discovered a way more awesome embryo to look at on a dig site in China -- dozens of dinosaur fossils in various stages of embryonic development. At 125 million years old, the fossils are the oldest dinosaur embryos ever found and have the potential to teach researchers a great deal about how baby dinosaurs developed. This is, of course, a very important key to us making real-life Jurassic Park at some point in the future, and thus something we need to know all about as soon as possible.

It goes without saying that we here at Geekosystem 1) enjoy Jurassic Park and 2) love us some animatronics. With these two facts in mind, it should then come as no surprise that the series of videos released by the Stan Winston School of Character Arts about the creation of the animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex puppet for Jurassic Park is also right up our alley. There are three videos, which you can watch after the jump, that detail a lot of the thoughts and processes that went in to creating the behemoth.

Paleontologists  struggle with a lot of mysteries in their field of study, not the least of which is exactly what allowed some dinosaurs to get so insanely huge. In particular, the enormous necks of sauropods like brachiosaurus, diplodocus, or sauroposeidon (tallest of all dinosaurs, 56 feet in height) have long baffled researchers.Well, there's a new theory about this, as some scientists suggest that unique respiratory traits and reptilian reproduction strategies allowed for such tremendous sizes and necks that have been unparalleled by any creature since.

We've heard murmurs about Neil Gaiman's upcoming children's book for a while, but now the author himself is chatting it up. In what sounds as delightfully nonsensical as the ravings of Lewis Carroll but with 100% more dinosaurs, Gaiman has just officially announced an his next children's book, Fortunately, the Milk. By all means, check out the video of the always adorably awkward Gaiman describing the book below.

Outside of The Land Before Time movies, dinosaurs aren't exactly creatures noted for their tight familial bonds. One researcher, though, is suggesting that dinosaurs may have been more caring parents than we suspected, even going so far as to feed their babies a milk-like substance rich in antibodies and growth hormones. While lactation is unheard of in reptiles, Professor Paul Else points out that birds like flamingos, penguins, and even the humble pigeon produce "milk-like" substances, so it's not wild thinking to suggest that some dinosaurs may have had the same capacity to make something we'd very much like to try on our breakfast cereal... though probably only once.

For year's, Australia's Lark Quarry has been cited as a rare example of a dinosaur stampede frozen in time, the tracks this massive "running of the giant lizards" left behind captured forever in stone. A new analysis of the tracks, though suggests...not so much. According to researchers from the University of Queensland, the tracks have been misread for years, and represent not a sudden stampede, but a popular river crossing used by many dinosaurs over many years. Because dinosaurs do not wait for conditions to improve, and they most certainly do not pay to cross at a bridge. Dinosaurs ford the goddamn river.

There's a reason why, despite even the best of efforts, us human males egregiously fail at trying to attract the attention of our female counterparts -- and evolution's to blame. Lacking the colorful and hypnotic menagerie of feathers that our avian friends are fortunate to be sporting, humanity's male population has only succeeded in sealing its own fate in unrequited love, while birds continue to rub this sad fact in our faces on a regular basis. As if our situation couldn't get any worse than it is now, recent fossil evidence has shown that feathered dinosaurs known as Oviraptors -- hailing from Mongolia -- had nearly the same kind of tail end plumage akin to their modern cousins, even going as far as having the ability to shake them about and get a potential mate to notice the exotic dance number. Great, now even dinosaurs are starting to get a superiority complex.

Everybody, meet Xenoceratops foremostensis, a brand new species of ceratopsid, or horned dinosaur, discovered in the plentiful fossil beds of Canada. Weighing in at 2 tons and about 20 feet long, Xenoceratops -- meaning "alien-horned face" -- lived about 80 million years ago, making it one of the oldest big-bodied horned dinosaurs known to paleontologists.

A new report out of the University of Chicago provides the first insight on a new species of Dinosaur that sounds like the coolest, most terrifying creature to ever roam the face of this planet. The Pegomastax africanus was about the size of your average house cat, was covered in pointy spines, and had a pair of Dracula-esque giant canine teeth. I like to call to call it "Vampire-Dwarfosaurus".

Paleontologists at the University of Alberta have found evidence that a feathered, but flightless raptor-like dinosaur preyed on ancient birds. Three fossils of Confuciusornis sanctus, a primitive bird-like creature, were found in the fossilized abdomens of a pair of Sinocalliopteryx gigas -- a relative of T-Rex that was about the size of a large wolf. It's the first time a predatory dinosaur has been found dining on avian fare, and a reminder that while battles between titans like allosaurus and stegosaurus may dominate our imaginations, the majority of dinosaur-on-dinosaur violence probably looked familiar to anyone who has watched a modern predator stalk prey in a nature documentary. Except it would be with dinosaurs, and thus a billion times cooler.

Methane is a leading greenhouse gas, and the producers of methane -- including cows and other ruminants -- are often singled out as a possible contributor to global climate change. However, it seems that they may not have been the first to do so. A new study published in Current Biology has pegged the entire output of giant sauropod dinosaurs at around 520 million tons of gas every year.

If you're a collector of coins, all things Canadian, or dinosaur paraphernalia, has the Canadian mint got something for you. Presenting: A Canadian quarter showcasing a dinosaur that, when the lights turn down, glows in the dark as its own skeleton. As a bonus, considering it is printed by the Canadian mint, it should be accepted as legal tender.

While humans have been studying the bones of dinosaurs for over a hundred years, there are still some fundamental questions that we simply cannot answer. Without being able to directly observed these enormous creatures, we can only guess at how these creatures moved about their environment. Even our best hypothesis are limited by the few remains available, and the fragility of bones millions of years old. However, some scientists are trying to change that with a new effort to create 3D-printed robotic dinosaur skeletons.