Well it is has FINALLY happened. After a lot of hard work on the part of many people in Bristol, DinoBase was officially launched today. DinoBase is a new interactive resource for dinosaur fans of all ages.As Mike Benton notes, ‘We all know that people have a natural curiosity for dinosaurs, so we hope that the information on DinoBase will satisfy people's enthusiasm.'
You can search the database for your favourite dinosaur, find out its species, when and where it lived, what it ate, how big it was and how to pronounce its tongue-twisting Latin name. Also try browsing the colourful picture galleries to see what dinosaurs looked like in their prehistoric world.
Did you know, for example, that the Albertaceratops nesmoi, which means ‘Alberta horn-faced’, was only discovered this year in Canada? It is a centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur with a pair of long horns on the brow and a blade-like nasal horn. It lived about 75 million years ago, was 6 metres long and weighed 2 tons.
DinoBase also has an online forum, where you can ask questions about dinosaurs, which experts at Bristol University will answer. The database will continue to grow in the future as new discoveries are made and more features are added. There will be a news section that will report the most recent happenings in dinosaur research, and a ‘New Dinosaur’ alert system that will let visitors know about new discoveries.
I would like to thank a lot of people for their hard work, but most especially for the people on our team who have made the final push in last week, including Paul Ferry, Manabu Sakamoto and Tom Fletcher.
Check out DinoBase at http://dinobase.gly.bris.ac.uk/
4 comments:
Not to be a nit-picker, but I find it interesting that the theropod (and likely the sauropod) is dragging its tail.
This is going to be a great resource for teaching if I teach Historical Geology again. You might find some pictures and information to add on South American dinosaurs from the "Giants of the Mesozoic" exhibit at the Fernbank museum here in Atlanta.
http://www.fernbank.edu/museum/giants.html
I noticed that your "Gigantosaurus" entry has no picture. There is a model of one here based upon a specimen from Argentina. I am not certain what the species is and whether it is one of those you have listed.
Laelaps - good point, I have to admit the logo was a quick job sometime ago, I did not realize it would be such a 'brand'. I will have to update sometime soon!
Don - Glad you are enjoying the resource and thank you for the suggestion. I will drop a line to the Fernbank Museum to see if we can use some of their images.
In regards to the photo gallery, we are still filling it up so if you would like to contribute a picture of the Gigantosaurus model we would be happy to add it! You can mail your submission to dinobase@eikonworks.com. Thanks!
Great news, I'll link and visit too. Love Dinosaurs! They should still rule the Earth! Well, ok, may be not rule, but share at least. I'd be happy to give up, uh, let's see. North America? ;-)
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