Some of the biggest news of 2023 is actually the discovery of new species from hundreds of millions of years ago, such as incredible discoveries dating back to the Jurassic and even earlier. Scientists have spent the last 12 months analyzing ancient specimens using new methods and have uncovered some incredible stories.
Fossil experts Steve Edges and Chris Moore took on the difficult task of chiseling a giant skull out of a cliff with great difficulty: the giant Diodontosaurus. The skull seemed to have been buried on a rolling beach for a long time, until Edges and Moore chiseled it out of the cliff.
Dilodontosaurus is one of the largest animals ever seen on Earth, estimated to be 12 meters (39 feet) long, and luckily for you, we've got you covered with an exclusive interview.
A study has revealed the predatory pattern of a dinosaur that has been found to contain the first-ever fossil of the stomach contents of a tyrannosaurus. Gergosaurus selectively ate only the legs of small hunting dragons a few days before its death, one of the most important fossil finds of 2023.
The year 2023 is a glorious time for fossil spiders, a kind of 3The 100-million-year-old new species became the first known "true spider" of the Paleozoic era in Germany. Despite its age, this fossil spider is an almost complete specimen. It survived the fossil record as one of only 12 Carboniferous species.
The second surprising fossil spider is from Australia, dating back 75 million years, proving that this place has been home to some impressive thigh spiders. As the second-largest spider fossil ever discovered, it is 5 times the size of a similar modern spider and the size of a modern tarantula, about 50 mm (2 inches) long.
We felt the same way when Clickhole wrote that "paleontologists have agreed to start saying that Stegosaurus had a beautiful voice because it was a good idea and didn't hurt anyone", so we can imagine our excitement when someone announces that Ankylosaurus may have sounds like birds. The fact that the non-avian dinosaur Pinacosaurus had such a large Adam's apple that it could make bird-like calls was a bit of a surprise to this ancient animal.
"Egg-within-egg" refers to the rare occurrence of another egg in the egg, as in birds. However, scientists have found examples of dinosaurs, among which is a sauropod dinosaur that belongs to central India. This finding leads us to hypothesize that sauropod sauropod dinosaurs may have laid eggs sequentially like birds.
In another big news about sauropods, the Chinese sauropod Mamenxisaurus set a record for the longest neck at a staggering 151 m (49.)5 feet), about 6 times larger than a giraffe. Just like other sauropod dinosaurs, its neck may be filled with something like an air sac, making it lighter but also more susceptible to respiratory infections.
Finally, we would like to pay tribute to the groundbreaking TV and movies of 2023 about the wonders of the ancient world. The second season of Prehistoric Planet was a huge success, IFLSowri's favorite "Shellfish Frog" made a triumphant return, and Netflix released Life on Our Planet, which includes a cosmic bug, a vehicle for a small millipede that lived about 300 million years ago.
We also paid homage to Jurassic Park's 30th anniversary with exclusive interviews with Dr Susie Medmont of the Natural History Museum in London and Ben Ram of Colossal Bioscience. Dr. Medmont conducted extensive research on dinosaur fossils, while Ram's work focused on reviving extinct species, asking "Can we resurrect dinosaurs?" "Ready. Click here to see our paleontology stories for 2023, or stay tuned for the ancient animal discoveries we await in 2024.