Adaptive radiations in the Mesozoic
Bony fishes are the most diverse of all extant vertebrate groups. A comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the group now provides new insights into its 250-million-year evolutionary history. The Ging…
Showing posts with the label Fossils
Short-faced bears, largest carnivores in the Ice Age, became omnivores to survive
Based on the analysis of fossil teeth conducted by researcher Alejandro Romero, from the University of Alicante's Departament of Biotechnology, a study shows that short-faced bears (Arctodus simu…
The curse of zombie fossils
New research has revealed how the history of life can be distorted by the ways animals decompose and lose body parts as they decay - and the ways in which decayed bodies ultimately become fossilised.…
'We're sleepwalking into a mass extinction' say scientists
Species that live in symbiosis with others, which often occur in the most delicately balanced and threatened marine ecosystems such as coral reefs, are the slowest to recover their diversity if damag…
Dinosaur frills and horns did not evolve for species recognition
The elaborate frills and horns of a group of dinosaurs including Triceratops and Styracosaurus did not evolve to help species recognise each other, according to researchers at Queen Mary University o…
Giant bear of the late Pleistocene found in Buenos Aires
It was discovered on the banks of the Salado River, northwest of the province of Buenos Aires, a paleontological site has revealed a lot of fossils in recent weeks. The skull and jaw of this giant be…
Burrowing into the inner world of snake evolution
Looking inside the head of a snake is so much easier when the snake is a fossil. Flinders University and South Australian Museum postdoctoral researcher Alessandro Palci and other evolutionary palaeo…
New research solves the 60-year-old paleontological mystery of a 'phantom' dicynodont
A new study has re-discovered fossil collections from a 19th century hermit that validate 'phantom' fossil footprints collected in the 1950s showing dicynodonts coexisting with dinosaurs. Ske…
Are palaeontologists naming too many species?
A comprehensive new study looking at variations in Ichthyosaurus, a common British Jurassic ichthyosaur (sea-going reptile) also known as 'Sea Dragons', has provided important information int…
520-million-year-old fossil brains found in ancient predator
Scientists have peered into the brain of a prehistoric creature that lived around 520 million years ago. Fifteen fossils of the ancient predator were recently discovered in Greenland, which had fortu…
The early bird got to fly: Archaeopteryx was an active flyer
The question of whether the Late Jurassic dino-bird Archaeopteryx was an elaborately feathered ground dweller, a glider, or an active flyer has fascinated palaeontologists for decades. Valuable new i…
Pterosaurs went out with a bang, not a whimper
Fossils of six new species of pterosaurs - giant flying reptiles that flew over the heads of the dinosaurs - have been discovered by a research team led by the Milner Centre for Evolution at the Univ…
Digging up the Precambrian: Fossil burrows show early origins of animal behaviour
Researchers led by Nagoya University discover penetrative trace fossils from the late Ediacaran of western Mongolia, revealing earlier onset of the “agronomic revolution”. This bedding surface was on…
Plant fossils have a lot to teach us about Earth's history
There's a particular feeling of excitement that comes from receiving a gift. It's a feeling of the unknown, of anticipation – and then you unwrap the package and find something spectacular. R…
Homo naledi had wear-resistant molars
Homo naledi's relatively taller and more wear resistant molars enabled it to have a much more abrasive diet than other South African hominins. This is the result of a recent study published in th…
Ancient reptile Captorhinus could detach its tail to escape predator's grasp
Imagine that you're a voracious carnivore who sinks its teeth into the tail of a small reptile and anticipates a delicious lunch, when, in a flash, the reptile is gone and you are left holding a …
Photosynthesis originated a billion years earlier than we thought, study shows
Ancient microbes may have been producing oxygen through photosynthesis a billion years earlier than we thought, which means oxygen was available for living organisms very close to the origin of life …