Snakes are a very diverse group of present-day reptiles, with nearly 3,600 known species. They are readily recognized by their long bodies and lack of limbs. The origin of snakes from lizard-like precursors with paired limbs ...
Archaeology
Oct 28, 2016
0
98
The transition to land from our fishy ancestors is one of the most iconic, and best documented, transitions in the fossil record. We know that fleshy-limbed fish living in shallows used their limbs to move in the shallows ...
Archaeology
Oct 28, 2016
0
6
Soft tissues such as hearts and muscles are very rarely preserved in the fossil record. For that reason, nearly all study of dinosaur soft tissue has to be reconstructed from fossil bones. However, researchers in the United ...
Archaeology
Oct 28, 2016
1
860
Have you ever spotted something unexpected while walking down the street? Last December, paleontologists literally stumbled upon a new discovery of a fossil sea cow in a very unexpected place - in a limestone paving stone ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 28, 2016
0
606
In the dinosaur-rich fossil beds of Morocco, dated to about 100 million years ago, scientists have discovered a strange new crocodile. A fossil was found of an upper and lower jaw preserved together, with oddly shaped teeth. ...
Archaeology
Oct 11, 2016
0
0
The dodo represents one of the best-known examples of extinction caused by humans, yet we know surprisingly little about this flightless pigeon from a scientific perspective. Now, for the first time since its extinction, ...
Archaeology
Mar 25, 2016
0
116
Prior to the rise of modern day mammalian carnivores (lions and tigers and bears, as well as weasels, raccoons, wolves and other members of the order Carnivora), North America was dominated by a now extinct group of mammalian ...
Archaeology
Dec 9, 2015
0
21
An emergent field of research in dinosaur paleobiology investigates the relative importance of linear, non-branching evolution (anagenesis) compared with branching evolution (cladogenesis). Increasingly, paleontologists are ...
Archaeology
Oct 29, 2015
0
28
At the 2015 Society of Vertebrate Paleontology meetings, researcher Michael Cherney of the University of Michigan, presented findings about weaning age (i.e. when a calf stops nursing) in fossil mammoths. By studying modern ...
Archaeology
Oct 28, 2015
0
28
Evidence from fossils suggests that multiple global warming events, which occurred over 50 million years ago, impacted the evolution of mammals living in ancient Wyoming. Using over seven thousand fossilized teeth, paleontologist ...
Archaeology
Oct 22, 2015
0
15
