Tri granddaddy and other recently found fossils

Fossils of new dinosaur species and other prehistoric animals recently found in Europe and North America have sparkled widespread interest:

Triceratops’ “Granddaddy” Discovered in Canada
Its forehead sprouted horns as large as human arms, and its skull was frilled with spikes the size of sharks’ teeth.

Even to the scientists who discovered this new species of dinosaur, the fearsome-looking creature was a bizarre sight.

But its weird appearance is what helped experts peg the dino as a missing link, a never-before-seen member from the family tree of Triceratops. {Read this article on National Geographic}

Dinosaur den diggers discovered
The fossil remains of small dinosaurs that burrowed into the ground have been found by scientists in Montana, US.

The 95-million-year-old bones are from an adult and two juveniles and were unearthed in a chamber at the end of a 2.1m-long sediment-filled tunnel.

The researchers say the discovery is the first definitive evidence that some dinosaurs dug dens and cared for their young in such structures. {Read this article on BBC News}

Whale fossil is found in vineyard
The biggest whale fossil ever discovered in Italy has been found in one of the country’s finest vineyards.
The five-million-year-old skeleton, 33ft (10m) in length, was dug up in the northern grape-growing area of Tuscany. (…)

The skeleton appears to be complete and, for the last month, palaeontologists from the University of Florence have been carefully digging around the terraces to extract it in one piece. {Read this article on BBC News}

Last December, another important fossil was found in Europe:

Europe’s ‘biggest dinosaur’ found (21 December 2006)
Fossils found in Spain belong to what was probably Europe’s biggest ever dinosaur, according to scientists. Turiasaurus would have been 30 to 37 metres long, and would have weighed between 40 and 48 tonnes.

Writing in the journal Science, researchers say the beast is probably the only member so far discovered of a European group of Jurassic reptiles. {Read this article on BBC News}