The 3 of June I had the pleasure to go to the city of
Mercedes, Province of Buenos Aires to visit an old friend
and " Great Master of the Vertebrate Paleontology",
Jose Bonaparte, Director of the Museum of Natural History
Carlos Ameghino. During a few hours of
permanence in "him Museum" (founded by himself
and other neighbors on 1947) we remember our adventures
in Patagonia in the digging of dinosaurs, betwen many
anecdotes and projects; but the remarkable thing about
"Bona" is the same enthusiasm to continue working
as 60 years ago. (This year we'll enjoy his 82 years old).
Carlos Papolio and
José Bonaparte showing his meritory award
From this place we want to congratulate
to the "Maestro" by the obtaining of the "Romer-Simpson
Medal" in Cleveland (USA) in October of
the past year. This decoration is granted from 1987 by
the profits obtained in him trajectory, being the unique
Argentine scientist in receiving it.
This is the highest award issued by the Society of Vertebrate
Paleontology for "sustained and outstanding scholarly
excellence and service to the discipline of vertebrate
paleontology"
"Romer-Simpson
Medal" and the National
Geographic Society Award
*
XXIV Argentine Paleontological
Journeys
Argentinian, and other paleontologist
from South America, take part in this singular event.
The place was San Rafael, Mendoza. The new works were
of great interest by the scientist By other hand, paleoartists
showed new importants works maked during last year. Quondam
had the honour to receive an award for the "head
of Stygimoloch" as the best sculpture. New
and younger artist take parte each year, inside the Paleoart
spot, with wonderfull works of high artistic quality.
Remarkable conferences about paleoart
with Sebastian Perez Parry (Trelew), Javier Ochoa (El
Chocón), Carlos Papolio (Buenos Aires) and special
introducing to digital 3D and movies with Mauricio Mansilla
and Jorge Gonzalez.
Paleoartist during the
Journeys at San Rafael, Mendoza.
Carlos Papolio showing
slides during his conference about the History of the
Paleoart
Heterodontosaurs were
previously known only from the Late Jurassic of North
America and Europe. Now, the new discovery Tianyulong
confuciusi (70 cms in length), extend the
temporal and geographic range to Asia, and the Early Cretaceous
(-130 My). The new and remarkable feature of this little
dinosaur is that the fossil some impressions similar to
proto-feathers above the back and the tail. A few years
ago, similar structures were discovered in other ornithischian
dinosaur, Psittacosaurus.
Today China is displaying
new and fantastic dinosaurs with these singular characteristics,
unknown until a few years ago: Feathered and fuzzy dinosaurs
like Beipiaosaurus, Therizinosaurus, Sinosauropteryx,
Caudipteryx, enantiornithes birds, the first placental
mammal Eomaia, are some of these new discoveries
that take a new point of view about this extinct wonderful
animals.
Reference: Zheng,
Xiao-Ting; You, Hai-Lu; Xu, Xing; Dong, Zhi-Ming (19 March
2009). "An Early Cretaceous heterodontosaurid dinosaur
with filamentous integumentary structures". Nature
(journal) 458 (7236): 333-336. doi:10.1038/nature07856
Basal Sauropodomorph from Argentina
A newly announced early
sauropodomorph dinosaur, Panphagia
protos, is one of these early relations
and it fills in an important gap in sauropod evolution.
This little dinosaur
(1,5 mt) is now, the initial point to the great branch
of sauropodomorph dinosaurs, looks more similar to Eoraptor
than the gigantic cousins like Diplodocus, Argentinosaurus
or Amargasaurus. The common ancestor for
all dinosaurs would be even older, and so the new discovery
suggests that dinosaur evolution reached back deeper into
the Triassic than the evidence previously supported. For
now, Panphagia is
a very important transitional fossil that helps us understand
how the gigantic sauropods evolved. The fossil of Panphagia
has an antiquity of 228 million years and was found in
Ischigualasto, San Juan province, Argentina.
Features of the dentition of the new
basal sauropodomorph Panphagia protos (PVSJ 874)
Reference:
Martinez, R. N., and Alcober, O. A., 2009. A Basal Sauropodomorph
(Dinosauria: Saurischia) from the Ischigualasto Formation
(Triassic, Carnian) and the Early Evolution of Sauropodomorpha.
PLoS ONE. 4(2): e4397. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004397
*
New theropd dinosaurs founded
in Argentina
Three new importan theropod dinosaurs were announced
in last months. All of them of different phylogenetic
orders, that is very important because it shows an amazing
diversity within the range of carnivorous dinos, that
is in very few countries of the world. They are the following:
Aerosteon
riocoloradensis
(aeros = air + osteon = bone)
Originating of the allosauroidean type of
the Formation Colorado River in Malargüe, province
of Mendoza in sediments of 84 million years. It has almost
9 meters in length and the main characteristic that the
paleontologists indicate is the pneumatic cavities that
would be within some bones, doing reference to that it
owned air coats similar to those of the birds, as it is
possible to be seen in the attached photos. Paul Sereno
theorizes that this respiratory system could have developed
to attend with the regulation temperature of the body
and was modified more ahead to breathe.
Who need better information about this work,
see:
Sereno PC, Martinez
RN, Wilson JA, Varricchio DJ, Alcober OA, et al. (Sept
de 2008). «Evidence for Avian Intrathoracic Air
Sacs in a New Predatory Dinosaur from Argentina.».
PLoS ONE 3 (9): e3303. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0003303.
*
Austroraptor
cabazai(Southern
raptor).
This dinosaur almost 6 meters founded in
Rio Negro, Argentina, in 75 million years sediments.
It
belongs to a new form of raptors from the Southern hemisphere,
the unenlagines, that already have thir relatives: Unenlagia
and Buitreraptor recently studied, being this major of
its group and that has its northern counterpart in velociraptors,
dinonchus and droaeosaurs originating of North America
and China.
Best information:
Novas, F.E., Pol,
D., Canale, J.I., Porfiri, J.D. and Calvo, J.O. (2008)
A bizarre Cretaceous theropod dinosaur from Patagonia
and the evolution of Gondwanan dromaeosaurids. Proc. R.
Soc. B doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1554
When the III Congress was finished, we go to Lago Barreales,
on it we met Centro Paleontológico Proyecto Dino,
directed by Dr. Jorge Calvo, join to Doménica Santos,
Juan Porfiri, and Lara Porfiri, the youngest paleontologist
of the world (3 years old).
Lara and Carlos Papolio
View of the CEPALB from the lake
The site is near to 90 km from Neuquen city, toward Northwest,
next to Añelo ville. The main charateristic is
that the center shows huge dinosaur fossils (Futalongnkosaurus,
Limaysaurus, Macrogriphosaurus, etc) as they were
digging inside the site. This is the great difference
with almost the rest of museums and other sites, where
the visitors don't see the original fossils, on the other
hand, skeletons of poliester replicas, being the originals
far away of the public.
Guide visits in CEPALB
For beter information, and if you would like paleontologist
for one day or more, you must contact with Proyecto
Dino, clicking the logo at wright in links.
*
III
Latin American Congress
of
Vertebrate
Paleontology
Fernando
Novas, Carlos Papolio, Smilodon and Valentina
It was realised in the Duam Center, near of Neuquen city,
Argentina, III Latin American Congress of Vertebrate Paleontology
that reunited more than 300 assistants between scientists,
students and paleoartists. Quondam
was present with new sculptural proposals " live like"
as Smilodon, Thylacosmilus, Lycaenops, a Sahelanthropus
skull (considered the first one hominid, of about 6,5
million years of antiquity) and one head of Stygimoloch,
pachycephalosaurid from North America. In our space, the
books, guides of our publishing house were commercialized,
as well as other articles of merchandising.
A very important newness was that the Palorart
exhibition was opened to the public where as much young
as adult they could enjoy the sample during the last days
of the Congress.
From our site we make arrive
our congratulations at the organizers (Juan, Doménica
and Jorge) by the effort and dedication,
causing that the days passed in the event have been as pleasant
as laborious.
Between the most outstanding paleontologists
than they met in the Duam Center, were Fernando Novas, Paul
Sereno, Zulma Gasparini, Matthew Lamanna, Jose Luis Sanz,
Oscar Alcober, Alexander Kellner, Diego Pol, Jorge Calvo
(Director of Projecto Dino, and President of the Congress)
and many others of the same importance that would be impossible
to enumerate.
With
Paul Sereno and our agressive Smilodon
The
Paleoart also was represented by great trajectory figures
inside of the visual arts of Paleontology, like Maurilio
S. de Oliveira (Brasil), Hugo Pailos, Jorge Blanco, Armando
Flores, Santiago
Druetta, Sebastián Perez Parry, new members as our
country as Mexico, Venezuela, Italy and Spain, next to with
the author of this site, Carlos Papolio. This profession
is having a noticeable ascent as ar as the quality of the
displayed works, like also to the recognition of its participants.
Next Congress will be in San Juan City,
newly in Argentina, like is common 3 years each. First was
in Santiago de Chile (2002), and the second in Rio de Janeiro
(2005).
A lot of people, when
the Expo was opened for everybody
*
DISCOVER | July 2006 Did Neanderthals and modern
humans speak to each other?
University of Iowa paleoanthropologist Robert Franciscus
answers: The first question is whether Neanderthals were physically
capable of speaking. That ability is tied to a few key anatomical
structures, including densely packed nerves in the lips and
the tongue and a voice box positioned low in the throat. Based
on sketchy fossil evidence, some anthropologists argue that
Neanderthals could make limited vocalizations but that they
lacked the full range of modern humans; in particular, they
were probably limited in the vowel sounds they could produce.
Perhaps a more meaningful question is whether Neanderthals
were mentally capable of abstract expression. Symbolic behavior,
such as art and body ornamentation, is thought to be closely
linked to the sharing of complex ideas and spoken language.
Neanderthal remains are occasionally associated with such
symbolic artifacts, but those pale in comparison with the
artifacts produced by early modern humans, suggesting a significant
gap in linguistic abilities. Still, there is some evidence
that Neanderthals and modern humans coexisted, shared cultural
information, and even interbred—whether they spoke to
each other or not.
_______________________________________________________
Lara and Carlos Papolio
