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Paleontology & Fossils news
Most pristine trilobite fossils ever found shake up scientific understanding of the long extinct group
Researchers have described some of the best-preserved three-dimensional trilobite fossils ever discovered. The fossils, which are more than 500 million years old, were collected in the High Atlas of Morocco and are being ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 27, 2024
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Three new extinct walnut species discovered in high Arctic mummified forest
In a new study, scientists describe three new, but long-extinct, walnut species on an island above the Arctic Circle. The fossils were discovered further north than any known walnut species, living or extinct, and represent ...
Plants & Animals
Jun 27, 2024
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Last surviving woolly mammoths were inbred but not doomed to extinction, genomic analysis suggests
The last population of woolly mammoths was isolated on Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia 10,000 years ago, when sea levels rose and cut the mountainous island off from the mainland.
Molecular & Computational biology
Jun 27, 2024
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Ecologists reconstruct history of biodiversity in Indo-Australian archipelago and its rise as a hotspot
The Coral Triangle, also known as the Indo-Australian Archipelago, is renowned for having the greatest marine biodiversity on our planet. Despite its importance, the detailed evolutionary history of this biodiversity hotspot ...
Ecology
Jun 27, 2024
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Ammonites' fate sealed by meteor strike that wiped out dinosaurs
Ammonites were not in decline before their extinction, scientists have found.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 27, 2024
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Earliest evidence of cave lions in southern Europe discovered
Cave lions lived in what is now Italy around 660,000 to 610,000 years ago. This is confirmed by a metatarsal bone from the Notarchirico site near Venosa in the Basilicata region, which was discovered during a re-examination ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 24, 2024
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New study finds dinosaur fossils did not inspire the mythological griffin
A popular and widely-promoted claim that dinosaur fossils inspired the legend of the griffin, the mythological creature with a raptorial bird head and wings on a lion body, has been challenged in a new study published in ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 21, 2024
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New, small, ancient crocodile-like reptile described in Brazil
The discovery of a new, ancient, predatory reptile dubbed Parvosuchus aurelioi—part of a group of crocodile-like reptiles called pseudosuchians—in Brazil is described in a paper in Scientific Reports. The specimen, which ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 20, 2024
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The ornate horns of ancient marvel Lokiceratops point to evolutionary insights
What do you get when you cross Norse mythology with a 78-million-year-old ancestor to the Triceratops? Answer: Lokiceratops rangiformis, a plant-eating dinosaur with a very fancy set of horns.
Evolution
Jun 20, 2024
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250-million-year-old fossil seen anew with modern technology
Details of an ancient cousin of modern-day mammals are being revealed for the first time. Hi-tech scanning of an ancient fossil, which was captured in sandstone around 252–254 million years ago, is giving experts valuable ...
Biotechnology
Jun 18, 2024
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New analysis determines ancient polar sea reptile fossil is oldest ever found in Southern Hemisphere
An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere—a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand's South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning ...
Evolution
Jun 17, 2024
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Researchers discover that ants from millions of years ago used the same sensory organs as modern ants
A multidisciplinary team of scientists from several institutions in Japan, working with colleagues at the American Museum of Natural History, has found evidence that some types of ants that lived during the Cretaceous Period ...
Sharks have depleted functional diversity compared to the last 66 million years, study finds
New research by Swansea University and the University of Zurich has found that sharks retained high levels of functional diversity for most of the last 66 million years, before steadily declining over the last 10 million ...
Ecology
Jun 14, 2024
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30 million-year-old cousin of chinchillas shows signs of enhanced hearing and living in groups
Paleontologists from the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), the University of Edinburgh (UK), the Universidade Federal de Santa Maria (Brazil), and the University of Toronto in (Canada) have shown that ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 14, 2024
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You can help name LA's newest dinosaur fossil?
The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum is seeking the public's help in naming a 70-foot-long sauropod skeleton unearthed by the museum's paleontologists.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 14, 2024
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Paleontologists identify a new fossil fish genus
Gobies or Gobioidei are one of the most species-rich groups of marine and freshwater fish in Europe. Spending most of their lives on the bottom of shallow waterbodies, they make substantial contributions to the functioning ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 13, 2024
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Discovery of microfossil in China from the 518-million-year-old Qingjiang biota sheds light on adaptive evolution
Microbial sulfate reduction dating back to the Paleoarchean plays a crucial role in driving global carbon and sulfur cycles in ancient and modern Earth. Over 150 species of sulfate reducers from bacterial and archaeal phyla ...
Evolution
Jun 12, 2024
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New research suggests prior studies of ancient sea creature Pikaia had it upside down
A team of marine biologists, Earth scientists and evolutionary specialists affiliated with several institutions in the U.K., has found that prior researchers studying a fossil of an ancient sea creature called Pikaia were ...
Researchers find rare organ preservation in Brazilian fossil fishes
Fossils in Brazil indicate a more complex evolutionary history for ray-finned fish brains than previously anticipated, according to new research.
Evolution
Jun 12, 2024
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100-million-year-old bones reveal new species of pterosaur
New Curtin University-led research has identified 100-million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in western Queensland, Australia as belonging to a newly identified species of pterosaur, which was a formidable flying reptile ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 12, 2024
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