News tagged with fossil
Solar thermal process produces cement with no carbon dioxide emissions
(Phys.org) -- While the largest contributor to anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions is the power industry, the second largest is the more often overlooked cement industry, which accounts for 5-6% of all ...
Hacking code of leaf vein architecture solves mysteries, allows predictions of past climate
(Phys.org) -- UCLA life scientists have discovered new laws that determine the construction of leaf vein systems as leaves grow and evolve. These easy-to-apply mathematical rules can now be used to better ...
May 23, 2012 |
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Squid ink from Jurassic period identical to modern squid ink, study shows
(Phys.org) -- An international team of researchers, including a University of Virginia professor, has found that two ink sacs from 160-million-year-old giant squid fossils discovered two years ago in England ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 21, 2012 |
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Nanosheet catalyst discovered to sustainably split hydrogen from water
(Phys.org) -- Hydrogen gas offers one of the most promising sustainable energy alternatives to limited fossil fuels. But traditional methods of producing pure hydrogen face significant challenges in unlocking ...
May 10, 2012 |
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Anthropologist finds explanation for hominin brain evolution in famous fossil
(Phys.org) -- One of the worlds most important fossils has a story to tell about the brain evolution of modern humans and their ancestors, according to Florida State University evolutionary anthropologist ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
May 07, 2012 |
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Warm and fuzzy T. rex? New evidence surprises
The discovery of a giant meat-eating dinosaur sporting a downy coat has some scientists reimagining the look of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Apr 04, 2012 |
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Nanotrees harvest the sun's energy to turn water into hydrogen fuel
(PhysOrg.com) -- University of California, San Diego electrical engineers are building a forest of tiny nanowire trees in order to cleanly capture solar energy without using fossil fuels and harvest it for ...
Mar 07, 2012 |
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Dinosaurs had fleas too -- giant ones, fossils show
In the Jurassic era, even the flea was a beast, compared to its minuscule modern descendants. These pesky bloodsuckers were nearly an inch long.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 29, 2012 |
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Study characterizes 300-million-year-old tropical forest preserved in volcano ash
(PhysOrg.com) -- Pompeii-like, a 300-million-year-old tropical forest was preserved in ash when a volcano erupted in what is today northern China. A new study by University of Pennsylvania paleobotanist Hermann ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Feb 20, 2012 |
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Astronomy team discovers nearby dwarf galaxy
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by UCLA research astronomer Michael Rich has used a unique telescope to discover a previously unknown companion to the nearby galaxy NGC 4449, which is some 12.5 million light years ...
Feb 08, 2012 |
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Fossil cricket: Jurassic love song reconstructed
Some 165 million years ago, the world was host to a diversity of sounds. Primitive bushcrickets and croaking amphibians were among the first animals to produce loud sounds by stridulation (rubbing certain ...
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Feb 06, 2012 |
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'Animal embryo' fossils are actually microbes (Update)
Tiny fossils that scientists have thought for decades were the embryos of the earliest animals ever found have turned out to be the remains of much simpler microbial organisms.
Other Sciences / Archaeology & Fossils
Dec 22, 2011 |
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Research team finds new explanation for Cambrian explosion
(PhysOrg.com) -- For hundreds of years, researchers from many branches of science have sought to explain the veritable explosion in diversity in animal organisms that started approximately 541 million years ...
Evidence found of dinosaur that ate birds
(PhysOrg.com) -- When people think of dinosaurs, their thoughts generally turn to the giant guys munching plants, or the ferocious beasts preying on smaller animals. In recent years however, evidence has come ...
Carbon cycling was much smaller during last ice age than in today's climate: study
Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most important greenhouse gases and the increase of its abundance in the atmosphere by fossil fuel burning is the main cause of future global warming. In past ...
Space & Earth / Earth Sciences
Nov 20, 2011 |
3.6 / 5 (11) |
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Fossil
Fossils (from Latin fossus, literally "having been dug up") are the preserved remains or traces of animals, plants, and other organisms from the remote past. The totality of fossils, both discovered and undiscovered, and their placement in fossiliferous (fossil-containing) rock formations and sedimentary layers (strata) is known as the fossil record. The study of fossils across geological time, how they were formed, and the evolutionary relationships between taxa (phylogeny) are some of the most important functions of the science of paleontology. Such a preserved specimen is called a "fossil" if it is older than some minimum age, most often the arbitrary date of 10,000 years ago. Hence, fossils range in age from the youngest at the start of the Holocene Epoch to the oldest from the Archaean Eon several billion years old. The observations that certain fossils were associated with certain rock strata led early geologists to recognize a geological timescale in the 19th century. The development of radiometric dating techniques in the early 20th century allowed geologists to determine the numerical or "absolute" age of the various strata and thereby the included fossils.
Like extant organisms, fossils vary in size from microscopic, such as single bacterial cells only one micrometer in diameter, to gigantic, such as dinosaurs and trees many meters long and weighing many tons. A fossil normally preserves only a portion of the deceased organism, usually that portion that was partially mineralized during life, such as the bones and teeth of vertebrates, or the chitinous exoskeletons of invertebrates. Preservation of soft tissues is rare in the fossil record. Fossils may also consist of the marks left behind by the organism while it was alive, such as the footprint or feces (coprolites) of a reptile. These types of fossil are called trace fossils (or ichnofossils), as opposed to body fossils. Finally, past life leaves some markers that cannot be seen but can be detected in the form of biochemical signals; these are known as chemofossils or biomarkers.
For more information about Fossil, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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