[Geology2] Scientists study hands of fearsome, meat-eating dinosaur

Scientists study hands of fearsome, meat-eating dinosaur
PhysOrg.com [USA], January 11, 2012

66 million years ago, the fearsome, meat-eating dinosaur Majungasaurus
crenatissimus prowled the semi-arid lowlands of Madagascar. Its powerful
jaws bristled with bladelike teeth, and its strong legs terminated in
formidable claws. Not even its own kin were safe, for given the chance,
Majungasaurus was known to engage in cannibalism. Now, a new study
published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology shows that there was
one part of its dreadful form that was not to be feared: its arms. Lead
author Sara Burch, of Stony Brook University, said, "The proportions of
this limb are unlike anything we see in other theropods. The forearm
bones are short, only a quarter of the length of the humerus (upper arm
bone), but extremely robust. The wrist bones aren't even ossified, and
the stubby fingers probably lacked claws. The proportions are so
strange, it ends up looking like a hand stuck on the end of a humerus."

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-scientists-fearsome-meat-eating-dinosaur.html

Other paleo news:

First-known ginglymodian fish found from the middle triassic of Eastern
Yunnan Province, China
PhysOrg.com [USA], January 9, 2012

The Ginglymodi are a group of ray-finned fishes that make up one of
three major subdivisions of the infraclass Neopterygii. Extant
ginglymodians are represented by gars, which inhabit freshwater
environments of North and Central America and Cuba. Drs. XU Guanghui and
WU Feixiang, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
(IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported the discovery of
well-preserved fossils of a new ginglymodian, Kyphosichthys grandei gen.
et sp. nov., from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) marine deposits
(Guanling Formation) in Luoping, eastern Yunnan Province, China. The
discovery documents the first known fossil record of highly deep-bodied
ginglymodians, adding new information on the early morphological
diversity of this group.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-first-known-ginglymodian-fish-middle-triassic.html

Mammalian fossil first-ever found in the Cenozoic deposits of the
Lunpola Basin, Northern Tibet
PhysOrg.com [USA], January 9, 2012

Dr. DENG Tao, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology
(IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his research team, found a
rhinocerotid fossil in the upper part of the Dingqing Formation at the
Lunbori locality in Baingoin County during an extensive and detailed
investigation of the stratigraphy and a survey for vertebrate fossils in
2009 and 2010, which is the first mammalian fossil found in Cenozoic
deposits of the Lunpola Basin, Northern Tibet, as reported in the
journal of Chinese Science Bulletin (No.2-3:261-269) in January 2012.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2012-01-mammalian-fossil-first-ever-cenozoic-deposits.html

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