Were dinosaurs unfeeling scaly brutes or caring, well behaved and intelligent? This debate has continued since dinosaurs were first discovered 200 years ago, and has spilled over into the movies and popular consciousness.
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 22, 2021
0
19
A small international team of researchers has used laser-stimulated fluorescence to learn more about how pterosaurs flew. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their ...
The Jehol Biota, an ancient ecosystem in Liaoning province in northeastern China, includes a dense and diverse array of Cretaceous flora and fauna and is a hot spot of feathered dinosaur fossils. A new study reconstructs ...
Earth Sciences
Oct 4, 2021
0
429
If you had to describe a male peacock's tail feathers, you might pick words like "dazzling" or "beautiful." You probably wouldn't go with "stealthy," "aerodynamic," or "subtle." Peacock tails are just one example of how evolution ...
Plants & Animals
Sep 16, 2021
0
126
Ancient chickens lived significantly longer than their modern equivalents because they were seen as sacred—not food—archaeologists have found.
Archaeology
Jun 7, 2021
1
3
Flying birds molt their feathers when they are old and worn because they inhibit flight performance, and the molt strategy is typically a sequential molt. Molting is thought to be unorganized in the first feathered dinosaurs ...
Archaeology
Dec 9, 2020
0
237
A trio of researchers, two with the University of Cape Town, the other the University of the Witwatersrand has found evidence that suggests wetland-dwelling lithornithids from the Cretaceous, likely used remote touch to find ...
A Cretaceous-age, crow-sized bird from Madagascar would have sliced its way through the air wielding a large, blade-like beak and offers important new insights on the evolution of face and beak shape in the Mesozoic forerunners ...
Archaeology
Nov 25, 2020
3
1197
Despite having bat-like wings, two small dinosaurs, Yi and Ambopteryx, struggled to fly, only managing to glide clumsily between the trees where they lived, researchers report October 22 in the journal iScience. Unable to ...
Archaeology
Oct 22, 2020
0
984
A new species of small pterosaur—similar in size to a turkey—has been discovered, which is unlike any other pterosaur seen before due to its long slender toothless beak.
Archaeology
Oct 15, 2020
0
282
