Science Daily - Fossils

The remains of the earliest dinosaurs may lie undiscovered in the Amazon and other equatorial regions of South America and Africa, suggests a new study.

The fossilized neck bone of a flying reptile unearthed in Canada shows tell-tale signs of being bitten by a crocodile-like creature 76 million years ago, according to a new study.

Around 45 million years ago, a 4.6 feet-tall (1.40 meters) flightless bird called Diatryma roamed the Geiseltal region in southern Saxony-Anhalt. An international team of researchers report on the bird's fully preserved skull. The fossil was unearthed in the 1950s in a former lignite mining area in the Geiseltal in Germany. It was initially misclassified and thus led a shadowy existence until its rediscovery. The only other place that a similar skull fossil has been found is the USA.

Scientists have identified fossils of snow leopards. The discovery has allowed them to trace the evolutionary history of the species during the Quaternary period and to propose how it dispersed from the Tibetan plateau to the Iberian Peninsula, far from the high and icy Himalayan mountains.

The three-dimensional shape of a protein can be used to resolve deep, ancient evolutionary relationships in the tree of life, according to a new study. It is the first time researchers use data from protein shapes and combine it with data from genomic sequences to improve the reliability of evolutionary trees, a critical resource used by the scientific community for understanding the history of life, monitor the spread of pathogens or create new treatments for disease. Crucially, the approach works even with the predicted structures of proteins that have never been experimentally determined. The findings open the door to using the massive amount of structural data being generated by tools like AlphaFold 2 and help open new windows into the ancient history of life on Earth.

An international team of scientists has uncovered a fascinating piece of the evolutionary puzzle: how the ventral nerve cord, a key component of the central nervous system, evolved in ecdysozoan animals, a group that includes insects, nematodes, and priapulid worms. Their findings provide valuable insights into the origins of these structures in the basal Cambrian period.

A new study finds that one of the hottest periods in Earth's history may have driven lampreys apart -- genetically speaking. The work could have implications for how aquatic species respond to our current changing climate.

Researchers have unearthed two fossils, named Punk and Emo, revealing that ancient molluscs were more complex and adaptable than previously known.

Evolution has resulted in the development of both herbivores and carnivores -- but how? What type of food did extinct vertebrates eat? And how can we gain insight into the diets of these creatures? In living animals, we can simply observe what they feed on today. In the case of extinct species, however, researchers rely on morphological or chemical information supplied by fossils. A team has now compiled a reference framework of isotope compositions indicating the type of diet for extant reptiles that represents a useful reference dataset to reconstruct the diet of fossil reptiles.

A new study has outlined the first genomic evidence of early migration from New Guinea into the Wallacea, an archipelago containing Timor-Leste and hundreds of inhabited eastern Indonesian islands.

A newly described dinosaur whose fossils were recently uncovered is challenging the existing narrative, with evidence that the reptiles were present in the northern hemisphere millions of years earlier than previously known.

Lead exposure is responsible for a range of human health impacts, with even relatively low levels impacting the cognitive development of children. Scientists have previously used atmospheric pollution records preserved in Arctic ice cores to identify periods of lead pollution throughout the Roman Empire, and now new research expands on this finding to identify how this pollution may have affected the European population.

A new study finds nearly 50 hidden relatives of Pterodactylus, the first pterosaur. Joined by its newly discovered relatives, Pterodactylus's 'family' now encompasses tiny flaplings, a host of teenagers, some mums and dads and even a few large old seniors. Fluorescing bones stimulated by powerful LED UV torches, revealed invisible details of the head, hands and feet of Pterodactylus.

Scientists have successfully identified a previously unknown species to Southern California from fossilized seeds, revealing a drought-fueled dance between two species of juniper with lessons for the region's climate future.

Fossilized skeletons and shells clearly show how evolution and extinction unfolded over the past half a billion years, but a new analysis extends the chart of life to nearly 2 billion years ago. The chart shows the relative ups and downs in species counts, telling scientists about the origin, diversification, and extinction of ancient life. With this new study, the chart of life now includes life forms from the Proterozoic Eon, 2,500 million to 539 million years ago. Proterozoic life was generally smaller and squishier -- like sea sponges that didn't develop mineral skeletons -- and left fewer traces to fossilize in the first place.

While volcanism caused a temporary cold period, the effects had already worn off thousands of years before the meteorite, the ultimate cause of the dinosaur extinction event, impacted.

Scientists have discovered the oldest known animal with saber teeth: a predator that lived 270 million years ago. This animal, from before the age of the dinosaurs, was a dog-like creature that was related to the ancestors of mammals.

Nearly all living organisms use the same genetic code, a complicated mechanism by which genetic information is translated into proteins, the building blocks of life. A new study suggests conventional wisdom about how the code evolved is likely flawed.

Neanderthal genes make up 1-2% of the genomes of non-Africans. Scientists analyzed the lengths of regions of Neanderthal DNA in 58 ancient Eurasian genomes of early modern humans and determined that the introgressed genes result from interbreeding between Homo sapiens and Neanderthals about 47,000 years ago, over a single, extended period of about 7,000 years. The findings help pin down dates for out-of-Africa migration and the dispersal of Homo sapiens.

Few genomes have been sequenced from early modern humans, who first arrived in Europe when the region was already inhabited by Neanderthals. An international team has now sequenced the oldest modern human genomes to date. The genomes were recovered from seven individuals who lived between 42,000 and 49,000 years ago in Ranis, Germany and Zlaty kun, Czechia. These genomes belonged to individuals who were part of a small, closely related human group that first split off from the population that left Africa around 50,000 years ago and later settled the rest of the world. Although they separated early, the Neanderthal DNA in their genomes traces back to an admixture event common to all people outside Africa, that the researchers date to around 45,000-49,000 years ago, much later than previously thought.