Author Archives: ahaynes1

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About ahaynes1

It all began in the dirt. I spent my summers hooked on the thrill of unearthing new fossils from the riverbanks of Toronto’s wildest spaces. When the snows came, and I got a little older, I wrote and wrote, until I ended up as head of content marketing for a global tech firm. Along the way I co-wrote two non-fiction books, published by John Wiley &Sons in the US, Canada and more than a half-dozen other countries. Now based in Belleville, I’m working on spreading the word about local fossil hunting for beginners and with continuing the story of Foster’s quest to uncover fantastic fossils around the world—and find a way to make friendship and family work.

Lazarus Moon Rover Resurrected

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Lazarus Moon Rover Resurrected

Jade Rabbit’s back! China’s plucky moon rover, Jade Rabbit, who landed on the lunar surface in December, then captured the hearts of the world when it announced its own malfunction and imminent demise, has risen from the dead.
The Rover, speaking on the Chinese social media site Weibo , told the world of it’s coming death and signed-off with a final, “Goodnight Earth. Goodnight Humanity.” And tens of thousands took to the internet to send their condolences.
Now, three weeks later, the rover is back! He’s up and running and only a little worse for wear. And the world is thrilled again.
Check out the details here:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/china-shows-resurrected-lunar-rover-jade-rabbit-some-love/article16913625/

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Digby stalks the frozen Great Lakes!

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Digby stalks the frozen Great Lakes!

For the first time in more than twenty years the five Great Lakes are almost 90% frozen. In one of the weirdest weather winters in memory Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior have iced over, creating opportunities for people( and Digby our Dane/Mastiff cross) to walk to islands or visit sea caves not previously possible.
Even here in Toronto we’re enjoying the ability to walk from our condo-packed waterfront across the busy harbor to the serenity of the Toronto Islands. And from the Islands, across the narrow Eastern Gap, to the off-leash dog area of Cherry Beach or the vast bird sanctuary of the Leslie Street Spit.
Check out these pics:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/passantino/the-great-lakes-are-nearly-frozen-over-for-the-first-time-in

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

What Color is Your Dinosaur?

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What Color is Your Dinosaur?

Recent research at Lund University in Sweden has revealed the true colors of several marine dinosaurs. Since soft tissue usually isn’t fossilized we don’t often catch a glimpse of the colors that ancient reptiles displayed. But new techniques involving chemical traces in the rocks surrounding fossils, high-energy particles and electron microscopes have brought the prehistoric rainbow to life. Researchers studied the remains of a giant turtle, a mosasaur and an ichthyosaur and found ovoid pigments that suggest the lizards were black—perfect camouflage for the lightless depths of the ancient oceans.
Check out the full story here:

http://news.sciencemag.org/paleontology/2014/01/true-color-ancient-sea-creatures

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Wild Weather Unearths Bombs, Rats and Dinosaurs!

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Wild Weather Unearths Bombs, Sea Mice and Dinosaurs!

In this wildest and weirdest of winters, storms have battered much of the UK creating massive floods. And the rising waters have brought some odd-ball things to light. Workers at a Welsh golf course found a three-foot long Cod lying on the third green. Bombs dropped into the sea by the Germans during WWII were washed ashore on the giant tides. And in the most incredible reveal of all a complete ichthyosaur skeleton was revealed by storms along the Dorset Coast.
Check out the rest of the strange sightings in this article:
http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/453201/Second-World-War-bombs-dinosaur-bones-and-mice-some-of-the-things-washed-up-by-the-storms

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Whats Up On the Moon?

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Whats Up On the Moon?

The warm-ups and tests are done and China’s Yutu moon rover is set to strike out on an epic voyage across the lunar landscape. Expected to last three months, the rover’s journey is supposed to survey the geology of the moon to locate natural resources that Chinese astronauts could use in the future—maybe as soon as ten years from now!
Astronauts! On the moon, again?
Fantastic.
Bring on the future
For the full scoop check out this article:

Yutu Moon Rover Sets Sail for Breathtaking New Adventures

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Former Microsoft CTO Says Paleontologists are Wrong

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Former Microsoft CTO Says Paleontologists are Wrong

The gloves are off!
Dr. Nathan Myhrvold, mathematician, physicist, amateur fossil hunter and former chief technology officer at Microsoft says research on dinosaur growth and lifespans done more than ten years ago was flawed. He reviewed and applied new statistical methods to the original data used by Dr. Gregory Erickson professor of anatomy and paleobiology at Florida State University. And Myhrvold says, Erickson’s work contains major mistakes. To Myhrvold the data shows that dinosaurs grew much slower than Erickson suggested, and they lived a lot longer.
Check out the article here: http://www.theverge.com/2013/12/18/5226082/nathan-mythvold-says-dinosaur-researchers-made-serious-errors

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

We’re Back! Chinese Probe Lands on Moon

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We’re Back! Chinese Probe Lands on Moon

For the first time since 1976 we’ve landed an unmanned probe on the surface of the moon. The Chinese craft landed today, accompanied by a remotely piloted buggy for exploring the region around the Bay of Rainbows.
This makes China only the third country (along with the US and Russia) to land something on the moon—and the only country currently doing the business. the latest moonshot is part of China’s massive push into space, which includes orbiters, space stations and moon exploration.
After the closing of the Apollo program and the death of the shuttles—I say, well done, China. We belong out there.

Check out the article here: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/12/14/chinese-spacecraft-lands-on-moon

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Dinosaur Extinction Asteroid Carried Life to Mars

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Dinosaur Extinction Asteroid Carried Life to Mars

The asteroid that likely wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was big enough that its impact sent fragments flying into space—some as far as Mars and even Jupiter’s moon, Europa. And scientists believe that those fragments were large enough to carry life—at least of the microscopic variety.

Enough big chunks were thrown from the Earth that astrobiologist Prof Jay Melosh, of Purdue University even says, “I sometimes joke that we might find ammonite shells on the Moon from that event.”

Check out the rest of the story here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-25201572

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Tank-like Dinosaur Makes Us Rethink World Map

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Tank-like Dinosaur Makes Us Rethink World Map

A two-ton dinosaur covered in heavy armor is making paleontologists rethink how the ancient world looked. Europelta carbonensis lived more than 110 million years ago and examples have now been found in both Utah and in a cave in Spain. Trouble is, we used to think that the two continents split apart much earlier than that—like 80 million years earlier.
So either Europelta walked between the two continents much later than thought or it is much older than previously thought. Scientists think it’s the first.
Check out this article for more info:

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57209899-78/europe-utah-coal-kirkland.html.csp

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.

Dueling Dinosaur Fossils Not Sold to Private Collectors

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Dueling Dinosaur Fossils Not Sold to Private Collectors

(Image: Black Hills Institute of Geological Research Inc and Katie Busch/CK Preparations)

Two Late Cretaceous dinosaurs—a tryannosaurid and a triceratops relative—that died while locked in mortal combat were fossilized together in the same piece of Badlands rock. And recently they were put up for auction to private collectors by Bonham’s Auction House. Dubbed perhaps the most complete skeletons ever found in North America, the two fossils were expected to sell for between 7 and 9 million dollars—but the bids topped out at $5.5 million.

That turns out to be great news because rather than going into private hands and perhaps never being seen again, the fossils will now be offered for sale to “scientific homes.”

Learn more here:
http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/animals/stories/no-sale-for-montanas-dinosaur-duo-and-why-thats-a-good-thing

The Time Eater: A Foster Raymond Fossil Hunter Novel is available now in paperback and eBook at Amazon.ca and as an eBook at Indigo, Kobo and Barnes & Noble

Find out more about Andy Haynes on LinkedIn and Instagram.