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Amber’s (Pre) Historic Reveal
(R.C. McKellar, Royal Saskatchewan Museum)
Remember Dr. Alan Grant’s theory of connectivity between velociraptors (raptor meaning “bird of prey”) and birds in the 1993 cinematic masterpiece Jurassic Park?
Well, this at least seems to be pointed towards that direction.
“…this is the first time that scientists are able to clearly associate well-preserved feathers with a dinosaur, and in turn gain a better understanding of the evolution and structure of dinosaur feathers.”
–Kristin Romey, National Geographic
In perfect harmony, the sample discussed in the above quotation was preserved in discovered, yes, a piece amber about the size of an apricot that’s been dried! True story: Fans of the movie just gasped.
While this is exciting news in the paleontology world, it’s worth noting that this discovery in northern Myanmar doesn’t appear to be a gateway to a real-life Jurassic Park. A bummer, for sure. However, learning new facts and realities about such a fascinating, prehistoric period in history is incredible. It’s the latest proof and vindication of life’s eternal pursuit of knowledge and its countless mysteries waiting to be revealed with the right amount of curiosity and tenacity.
Thankfully, Jurassic Park sparked a societal interest across generations in events and creatures from more than 65 million years ago.
Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg found a way.
This Wasn’t a Small Step and It Wasn’t Made By Mankind
Hold on to your butts…
Some of the largest footprints known to science were made 70 million to 90 million years ago, when a type of dinosaur believed to be a titanosaur galumphed across the muck in central Asia.
—, The Washington Post
And that enormous foot left quite the impression.
“The footprint is one of the biggest known footprints in the world,” said Shinobu Ishigaki, a researcher at the Okayama University of Science in Japan and a member of the joint Mongolian-Japanese expedition to the Gobi, in an email to The Washington Post. The researchers announced their discovery of the footprint, roughly the size of a popular IKEA kitchen table, on Friday in Japan.
(Courtesy Shinobu Ishigaki/Okayama University of Science. Professor Shinobu Ishigaki lies next to a dinosaur print in the Gobi Desert)
As I’m writing this blog post on a kitchen table from IKEA, the picture above really hits close to home.
Joyous discoveries like the one made by Professor Shinobu Ishigaki is a great reminder of the wonder of this world, particularly with what roamed the Earth long before us. Thankfully, Michael Crichton and Steven Spielberg brought dinosaurs to life beyond the dusty pages of a book sitting on the shelf in 1993. Our minds have been blown ever since. Yes, being hunted by two velociraptors in a kitchen would be absolutely terrifying. Still, there’s a significant part of you that wants to be in Jurassic Park when watching the movie. The adrenaline to understand the known (and ironically unknown) characteristics of dinosaurs is what fuels our universal love and curiosity for the prehistoric creatures. That feeling is clearly expressed in Professor Ishigaki’s face in the picture above from a footprint left tens of millions of years ago.
What would it be like to witness a footprint the size of an IKEA kitchen table being made at the point of impact?
Jurassic World: You’re up.
Clever Owen.
Jimmy's Daily Planet 