Discovered: Prehistoric Tulipomania!

Here's some cool scientific news from Canada, eh!  Would a bunch of these fossils make an awesome "bouquet" for a paleontologist whom you fancy?

Life Imitates Stupid Syfy Monster Movies

Giant prehistoric croc vs. Titanoboa.  It's not Sharktopus, but it's not bad.

Life Imitates "Jurassic Park"

Didn't anybody working on this project watch the classic 1993 flick "Jurassic Park"?  I'll even quote Dr. Malcolm: "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could they didn't stop to think if they should."  Heh.  On the other hand, seeing a T-Rex eat a slimy lawyer was kind of uproariously amusing.  Golly, I love this movie.  (Plus -- hey! -- Sam Neill and Jeff Goldblum!)

Crazy Headline of the Day: "Reindeer herder finds remains of baby mammoth in Russia's Arctic"

There is just waaaaaay too much going on in this one headline.

Geek News: New Flap About Archaeopteryx

Was it a bird-like dinosaur or a dinosaur-like bird?  There's a new debate as some paleontologists re-classify Archaeopteryx, long thought to be the first bird in the fossil record. (And for once I get to use the "Great Moments in Research" tag unironically, yay!)

See the new article in Nature.  Since I'm a nerd, here's some citation info: 

"An Archaeopteryx-like theropod from China and the origin of Avialae," by Xing Xu, Hailu You, Kai Du & Fenglu Han. Nature 475, 465–470 (28 July 2011). Received 16 November 2010, accepted 10 June 2011, published online 27 July 2011.

I give you the abstract after the fold: