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Paleontology & Fossils news
Fossil of huge terror bird offers new information about wildlife in South America 12 million years ago
Researchers including a Johns Hopkins University evolutionary biologist report they have analyzed a fossil of an extinct giant meat-eating bird—which they say could be the largest known member of its kind—providing new ...
Paleontology & Fossils
11 hours ago
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Ancient mud reveals Australia's burning history over the past 130,000 years—and a way forward in current fire crisis
Increased land management by Aboriginal people in southeastern Australia around 6,000 years ago cut forest shrub cover in half, according to our new study published in Science of fossil pollen trapped in ancient mud.
Ecology
Nov 3, 2024
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The mortality rate of bats at modern-day swimming pools is comparable to that at Messel 47 million years ago
More than 500 bat fossils have been discovered at the Messel Pit UNESCO World Heritage Site over 42 years. A new study, published today in the journal Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments, investigates whether the high ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 31, 2024
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Research reveals delayed evolutionary origin of Asteriidae sea stars
A study published in PeerJ has reshaped our understanding of the evolutionary history of sea stars, particularly the family Asteriidae. The study, titled "Phylogenetic and taxonomic revisions of Jurassic sea stars support ...
Evolution
Oct 31, 2024
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A remarkable fossil assemblage gets a new interpretation
A team of paleontologists recently discovered that an ancient seascape known for its diverse assemblage of exceptionally preserved fossils represents an unexpected oceanic setting, placing the fossils in an environmental ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 30, 2024
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Preserved dung suggests large herbivores have lived in Yellowstone National Park for more than 2,000 years
Large herbivores like bison or elk have continuously lived in the Yellowstone National Park region for about 2,300 years, according to a new analysis of chemicals preserved in lake sediments. John Wendt of Oklahoma State ...
Ecology
Oct 30, 2024
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This ancient tadpole fossil is the oldest ever discovered
Scientists have discovered the oldest-known fossil of a giant tadpole that wriggled around over 160 million years ago.
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 30, 2024
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Ancient DNA brings to life the history of the iconic aurochs
Geneticists from Trinity College Dublin, together with an international team of researchers, have deciphered the prehistory of aurochs—the animals that were the focus of some of the most iconic early human art—by analyzing ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Oct 30, 2024
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Sinuses prevented prehistoric crocodile relatives from deep diving, paleobiologists suggest
An international team of paleobiologists have found that the sinuses of ocean-dwelling relatives of modern-day crocodiles prevented them from evolving into deep divers like whales and dolphins.
Evolution
Oct 29, 2024
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Gold bugs: New fossil arthropod preserved in fool's gold
A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Luke Parry, Department of Earth Sciences, University of Oxford, have unveiled a spectacular new 450-million-year-old fossil arthropod (the group that contains spiders, centipedes, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 29, 2024
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New ancient species of cockroach discovered in the UK
A pair of paleontologists at The Open University, working with a colleague from the National Museum of Scotland, have identified a new species of ancient cockroach excavated from a site in Gloucestershire, U.K. In their paper ...
Ancient cicada wings evolved to deal with evolutionary changes in birds, study suggests
A team of paleobiologists and zoologists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Linyi University and Wageningen University has found evidence that the evolution of insect-eating birds likely drove relatively swift changes to ...
Study reveals the twists and turns of mammal evolution from a sprawling to upright posture
Mammals, including humans, stand out with their distinctively upright posture, a key trait that fueled their spectacular evolutionary success. Yet, the earliest known ancestors of modern mammals more resembled reptiles, with ...
Evolution
Oct 25, 2024
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Biologists discover a new fossil species of prehistoric fish
What do the ginkgo (a tree), the nautilus (a mollusk) and the coelacanth (a fish) all have in common?
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 24, 2024
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Researchers piece together 66-million-year-old dinosaur fossils found in South Dakota
The groundbreaking discovery of a 66-million-year-old dinosaur continues to reveal itself years after a piece of it was first spotted, Missouri researchers said.
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 24, 2024
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Mammalian fossils reveal how southern Europe's ecosystem changed during the Pleistocene
Fossils from more than 600,000 years ago reveal how Southern Europe's animal community shifted between warm and cold climate fluctuations, according to a study published October 23, 2024 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE ...
Ecology
Oct 23, 2024
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'Paleo-robots' provide an experimental approach for understanding how fish started to walk on land
The transition from water to land is one of the most significant events in the history of life on Earth. Now, a team of roboticists, paleontologists and biologists is using robots to study how the ancestors of modern land ...
Evolution
Oct 23, 2024
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Paleontologists discover Colorado 'swamp dweller' mammal that lived alongside dinosaurs
A team of paleontologists working near Rangely, Colorado, has uncovered a new (or, more accurately, very old) state resident—a fossil mammal about the size of a muskrat that may have scurried through swamps during the Age ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 23, 2024
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Hong Kong discovers dinosaur fossils for the first time
Officials in Hong Kong said Wednesday they have discovered dinosaur fossils in the city for the first time on a remote, uninhabited island that's part of a geopark.
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 23, 2024
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Fossilized stomach contents provide insights into the diet of Early Jurassic pterosaurs
Pterosaurs ruled the skies during the age of the dinosaurs. Over millions of years, they evolved into an enormous variety of forms, including giant species with wingspans of up to 12 meters. But little is known about how ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 23, 2024
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More news
Tracks left by a bird-sized dinosaur suggest it used wings to run faster
Smallest dinosaur egg ever found confirmed in China
Fossil unearthed in Brazil is 237-million-year-old sister-group to Dinosauria
New venomous reptile species from the Late Triassic unearthed in Arizona
Scientists recreate the head of this ancient 9-foot-long bug
Male or Female? AI enables sex determination of sheep based on their talus bone
New book brings prehistoric mammals to life
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Revealing the superconducting limit of twisted bilayer graphene
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AlphaFold research integrates experimental data to predict very large proteins
Student builds chemical purity tester using LEGO bricks
