PALAEONTOLOGY NEWS

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===Following the tracks=== 11/16/2011 Scientists from the University of Saskatchewan and Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have followed fossilized footprints to a multi-legged predator that ruled the seas of the Cambrian period about half a billion years ago and reconstructed its unusual way of predatory movement. For the full article, visit[1] (: Adapted from ScienceDaily. Retrieved November 16, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2011/11/111108201411.htm)

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===Walking among Dwarfs=== 03/03/10 A team of scientists led by Koen Stein and Professor Dr. Martin Sander from the University of Bonn, decided to cut up the fossil bones of the dwarfed dinosaur Magyarosaurus from Transylvania and study their microstructure. The study aimed at determining if Magyarosaurus was indeed an example of the so called "Island Dwarfism" as proclaimed by its discoverer Franz Baron Nopcsa in 1895 or simply a youngster of a different species. "It's astonishing that the microanatomy of these bones has been preserved for us to study after 70 million years," says Stein, who carried out the research as part of his PhD studies. "Bone is a living tissue, and throughout an animal's life it is constantly dissipating and building up again." Humans, for example, have completely resorbed and rebuilt their skeleton by the time they are fully grown. This also occurred in sauropod dinosaurs. "We were able to distinguish these rebuilding features in Magyarosaurus, which prove that the little dinosaur was fully grown," Stein explains. For the full article, see[2] (Credit: Adapted from materials provided by University of Bonn. A Shrunken Giant: Island Dino Magyarosaurus Was a Dwarf, After All, ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 07, 2010)

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Brachiosaurus brancai has been placed in its own genus, Giraffatitan, by several authors, but most paleontologists reject this.