New dinosaur liked a fight

Talos Sampsoni - the new species discovered in Utah

Any kid who watched Jurassic Park through their fingers is aware of how terrifying the raptors were, and their claw-like 'toes' didn't help their menacing demeanour. Yet, up until now their function was a mystery. After the discovery of a new species in Utah, Scientists may have found their purpose, it seems they weren't all for show, or scaring children.

 

The claw is distinctive of dromeosaurs, the group which includes Velociraptor. The new species was discovered 3 years ago in the 1.9-million-acre Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, one of the last undamaged dinosaur graveyards in the US. The dinosaur was named Talos sampsoni after the winged god from Greek mythology which succumed to a wounded ankle. Weighing under 40kg (about the size of a 4yr old child), it hardly inflicts the terrorising image of the 7ft tall moviestar Raptors. But Lindsay Zanno, lead author of the study, believes they were still fearsome creatures and described little Talos as "a scrapper".

There have been many things learnt from imperfect fossils over the years, about the lifestyle and habits of the animal, (there is a pretty cool Pleiseosaur at the Natural History Museum which is either pregnant, or ate lots of miniature versions of itself), and this new fossil is no different. It's second toe, with the big claw, is deformed where Talos either took a fall and fractured it, or got in in a fight and had it bitten. Originally, the team put this deformation down to the differences in species, but the excitement grew as they realised it had a different story to tell.

Detailed CT scanning, like that used in hospitals, was used to see the full extent of the injury. It was deemed to have been made during a fight with another dinosaur for food, a theory which holds up against the fossils found in the 1980's of two raptors caught in combat. The team discovered that the dinosaur had lived for months with the injury, meaning it must have been capable of catching prey/defending itself/ shaking hands with just the right foot and both talons weren't necessary to survival.

Trackways found at other sites suggest the toe was raised when Talos walked and so the damage, which didn't reach the rest of the foot, wouldn't have affected it's movement. "Our data support the idea that the talon of raptor dinosaurs was not used for purposes as mundane as walking," Zanno commented. "It was an instrument meant for inflicting damage."

A Gem of a Discovery

Image of Pulsar and Planet in orbit (Image credit – Swinburne Astronomy Productions)

Like an oyster in the ocean, opening to reveal a pearl, new research has discovered stars can be stripped apart to reveal diamonds.

Nicknamed "The Dish", the Australian CSIRO Parkes telescope stumbled on the discovery whilst searching for pulsars, as part of the "High Time Resolution Universe" survey. Pulsar J1719-1438 had a peculiar signal and upon closer inspection they discovered it was being orbited by a dense planet, five times the size of Earth and made entirely of diamond.

Pulsars are stars with a diameter of around 12 miles, about half the size of the Isle of Wight. Astronomers at CSIRO use these pulsars to study some of the fundamental laws of the universe. About 2-3 of them are discovered every month, so it's hardly breaking news when they find one. However, only certain pulsars such as, J1719-1438, are classed as rarer milisecond pulsars. This means they spin much faster than others and are likely to have unique properties. In this case of this star, it's uniqueness was found in it’s companion, dubbed The Diamond Planet.

Even more unusual, CSIRO's Dr Michael Keith explained, is that "Although the composition of this "diamond planet" is not really similar to any planets in our solar system, it orbits the pulsar more like a planet than a star. Typically pulsars and their companions both move in similar sized orbits, however in this case the large difference in weights means the pulsar does a rather small wobble whilst the companion swings around in a wide, circular, orbit."

All stars, when they become white dwarves, find the carbon they are made from is put under such great pressures that it crystallises into diamond. Even our Sun, when it finally burns out, will find a diamond at its centre. This is how the universe's largest, trillion carat diamond 'Lucy' formed. However, the Diamond Planet, appears to have befallen a sadder fate and was stripped down by the pulsar to reveal the diamond core within. Now only the diamond core remains, orbiting the pulsar and providing it with the energy to spin faster.

When asked if it can really be called a planet, since it used to be a star Keith answered, "certainly the object began its life as something that is unquestionably a star, however it now is clearly "of planetary mass". It's not too hard to imagine a situation where a gassy planet similar to Jupiter accreted enough mass to start nuclear burning and become a star, so why not go the other way round and have a star lose enough mass to become a planet."

It seems that this discovery really is a diamond in the rough for astronomy.

Hear a quote from Dr Michael Keith here:

How it feels to discover a planet