Paleontology: A Cock’s Comb on a Duck-Billed Dinosaur

A Mummified Duck-Billed Dinosaur with a Soft-Tissue Cock’s Comb

Among living vertebrates, soft tissues are responsible for labile appendages (combs, wattles, proboscides) that are critical for activities ranging from locomotion to sexual display [1]. However, soft tissues rarely fossilize, and such soft-tissue appendages are unknown for many extinct taxa, including dinosaurs. Here we report a remarkable "mummified" specimen of the hadrosaurid dinosaur Edmon...

The earliest-known duck-billed dinosaur from deposits of late Early Cretaceous age in northwest China and hadrosaur evolution

A new dinosaur of Early Cretaceous age was recently discovered in the Gobi Desert of northwest China. It is more closely related to Late Cretaceous hadrosaurids than to Early Cretaceous iguanodontids. It occupies the most basal position in the phylogeny of all duck-billed dinosaurs, or the Hadrosauroidea. This early hadrosauroid sheds new light on the origin of the herbivorous feeding specializ...

Behavior of the Australian Musk Duck and Blue-Billed Duck

Rawr! a study in sonic skulls: embodied natural history

Lambeosaurine hadrosaurs are duck-billed dinosaurs known for their large head crests, which researchers hypothesize were resonators for vocal calls. This paper describes the motivation and process of iteratively designing a musical instrument and interactive sound installation based on imagining the sounds of this extinct dinosaur. We used scientific research as a starting point to create a mea...

Theropod dinosaur diversity and palaeobiology in the Wealden Group (Early Cretaceous) of England: evidence from a previously undescribed tibia

A robust, partial right tibia of a theropod dinosaur (Natural History Museum London collections, BMNH R9385) is described for the first time. The specimen was collected at Hastings, Sussex (England) in the last century, and is among the oldest known of English Wealden Group theropods. It represents a tetanuran theropod that may have been about 3 m in total length, and is distinct from all curre...