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Paleontology & Fossils news
Evidence suggests saber-toothed cats held onto their baby teeth to stabilize their sabers
California's state fossil—are familiar to anyone who has ever visited Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits, a sticky trap from which more than 2,000 saber-toothed cat skulls have been excavated over more than a century.
Evolution
Apr 30, 2024
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Researchers spent two years in deep underground caves to bring this extraordinary fossil to light
Pitch-black darkness. Crushing squeezes, muddy passages, icy waterfalls. Bats and spiders. Abseiling over ledges into the unknown. How far would you go for a fossil?
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 29, 2024
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T. rex not as smart as previously claimed, scientists find
An international team of scientists including two neurobiologists from the University of Alberta is weighing in on the latest controversy over the brain power of Tyrannosaurus rex.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 29, 2024
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The first glow-in-the-dark animals may have been ancient corals deep in the ocean
Many animals can glow in the dark. Fireflies famously blink on summer evenings. But most animals that light up are found in the depths of the ocean.
Plants & Animals
Apr 27, 2024
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Gigantic Jurassic raptor footprints unearthed in China
Scientists have discovered the tracks of a 5 meter-long raptor dinosaur, challenging what was previously known about the species' size range.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 26, 2024
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Ancient giant tortoise fossils found in Colombian Andes
Paleontologists have discovered giant tortoise fossils in Colombia dating back some 57 million years, the university leading the excavation said, with the findings key to understanding South America's prehistoric eras.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 25, 2024
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These giant, prehistoric salmon had tusk-like teeth
Oncorhynchus rastrosus, a giant species of salmon that lived in the North American Pacific Northwest a few million years ago, sported a pair of front teeth that projected out from the sides of its mouth like tusks, according ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 24, 2024
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Exceptionally well-preserved shark fossils from the time of the dinosaurs identified in Mexico
An international team of archaeologists, paleontologists, evolutionists and geoscientists has analyzed ancient shark fossils from the time of the dinosaurs that were recently unearthed in Mexico. In their paper published ...
Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago, pushing back previous oldest dated example
Bioluminescence first evolved in animals at least 540 million years ago in a group of marine invertebrates called octocorals, according to the results of a new study from scientists with the Smithsonian's National Museum ...
Evolution
Apr 23, 2024
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Fossil frogs share their skincare secrets: Analysis of 45-million-year-old soft tissues
Paleontologists at University College Cork (UCC), Ireland, have solved a hundred-year-old mystery of how some fossil frogs preserve their fleshy parts—it's all down to their skin.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 23, 2024
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This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton
A ancient giant snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton, researchers reported Thursday.
Plants & Animals
Apr 20, 2024
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Africa is full of bats, but their fossils are scarce—why these rare records matter
Africa is home to more than 20% of the world's bat population. There are more than 200 species to be found on the continent. South Africa is particularly diverse, with 72 bat species.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 18, 2024
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Discovery of new ancient giant snake in India
A new ancient species of snake dubbed Vasuki Indicus, which lived around 47 million years ago in the state of Gujarat in India, may have been one of the largest snakes to have ever lived, suggests new research published in ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 18, 2024
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Scientists construct organo-phosphatic shells of brachiopods
Biomineralized columns, stacked in layers like a sandwich gave Cambrian brachiopod shells their strength and flexibility 520 million years ago.
Evolution
Apr 18, 2024
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Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile
The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK. Experts have identified the bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 17, 2024
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How interspecies competition led to a 'bizarre' pattern in our own evolutionary tree
Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins—and produced a "bizarre" evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage—according to a new University of Cambridge study that revises the start ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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Seed ferns experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago, paleontologists find
According to a research team led by paleontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several ...
Evolution
Apr 16, 2024
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Digging up new species of Australia and New Guinea's giant fossil kangaroos
Paleontologists from Flinders University have described three unusual new species of giant fossil kangaroo from Australia and New Guinea, finding them more diverse in shape, range and hopping method than previously thought.
Plants & Animals
Apr 14, 2024
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Fossilized dinosaur eggshells can preserve amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, over millions of years
As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., I heard a gleeful exclamation from across the room. Kirsty Penkman, head ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 10, 2024
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3D mouth of an ancient jawless fish suggests they were filter-feeders, not scavengers or hunters
Early jawless fish were likely to have used bony projections surrounding their mouths to modify their mouth shape while they collected food.
Evolution
Apr 10, 2024
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Research shows that five three-horned dinosaurs lived, and died, together
Researchers discover 125,000-year-old coastal ecosystem underneath spaceport in Kourou
In paleontology, correct names are keys to accurate study
Duckbill dinosaur discovery in Morocco: Expert unpacks the mystery of how they got there
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Twisting and binding matter waves with photons in a cavity
New sugar-based catalyst could offer a potential solution for using captured carbon
Deeper understanding of malaria parasite sexual development unlocks opportunities to block disease spread
Ancient giant dolphin discovered in the Amazon
Biologists use machine learning to classify fossils of extinct pollen
Tanks of the triassic: New crocodile ancestor identified
Elephant calves have been found buried. What does that mean?
Researchers present the world's oldest long-necked marine reptile
Newly discovered fossil of giant turtle is named after Stephen King novel character
Researchers discover a new species of carnivorous dinosaur in La Rioja, Spain
