Science Daily - Fossils

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Paleontology and fossil records. Read about fossil finds over the last 10 years starting with the most recent research. Full text, photos.
Updated: 1 hour 53 min ago

Extinct humans survived on the Tibetan plateau for 160,000 years

Wed, 07/03/2024 - 12:17
Bone remains found in a Tibetan cave 3,280 m above sea level indicate an ancient group of humans survived here for many millennia.
Categories: Fossils

Sixty-million-year-old grape seeds reveal how the death of the dinosaurs may have paved the way for grapes to spread

Mon, 07/01/2024 - 12:17
Scientists discovered the oldest fossil grapes in the Western Hemisphere, which help show how after the death of the dinosaurs, grapes spread across the world.
Categories: Fossils

Ammonites' fate sealed by meteor strike that wiped out dinosaurs

Thu, 06/27/2024 - 16:21
Ammonites were not in decline before their extinction, scientists have found.
Categories: Fossils

Prehistoric 'Pompeii' discovered: Most pristine trilobite fossils ever found shake up scientific understanding of the long extinct group

Thu, 06/27/2024 - 16:19
Researchers have described some of the best-preserved three-dimensional trilobite fossils ever discovered. The fossils, which are more than 500 million years old, were collected in the High Atlas of Morocco and are being referred to by scientists as 'Pompeii' trilobites due to their remarkable preservation in ash.
Categories: Fossils

Why the harsh Snowball Earth kick-started our earliest multicellular ancestors

Thu, 06/27/2024 - 16:18
Why did multicellularity arise? Solving that mystery may help pinpoint life on other planets and explain the vast diversity and complexity seen on Earth today, from sea sponges to redwoods to human society. A new article shows how specific physical conditions -- especially ocean viscosity and resource deprivation -- during the global glaciation period known as Snowball Earth could have driven eukaryotes to turn multicellular.
Categories: Fossils

Almonds, pottery, wood help date famed Kyrenia shipwreck

Wed, 06/26/2024 - 14:21
Researchers have identified the likeliest timeline of the famous Hellenistic-era Kyrenia shipwreck, discovered and recovered off the north coast of Cyprus in the 1960s.
Categories: Fossils

New study finds dinosaur fossils did not inspire the mythological griffin

Thu, 06/20/2024 - 18:40
For centuries, scientists thought they knew where the griffin legend came from. A new study takes a closer look at the data and folklore's influence on science.
Categories: Fossils

Newly discovered dinosaur boasts big, blade-like horns

Thu, 06/20/2024 - 14:22
A new dinosaur has been identified and named. The dinosaur's name, Lokiceratops rangiformis, translates roughly to 'Loki's horned face that looks like a caribou.'
Categories: Fossils

The world's oldest wine discovered

Tue, 06/18/2024 - 10:56
A white wine over 2,000 years old, of Andalusian origin, is the oldest wine ever discovered.
Categories: Fossils

Ancient polar sea reptile fossil is oldest ever found in Southern Hemisphere

Mon, 06/17/2024 - 16:34
An international team of scientists has identified the oldest fossil of a sea-going reptile from the Southern Hemisphere -- a nothosaur vertebra found on New Zealand's South Island. 246 million years ago, at the beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs, New Zealand was located on the southern polar coast of a vast super-ocean called Panthalassa. 'The nothosaur found in New Zealand is over 40 million years older than the previously oldest known sauropterygian fossils from the Southern Hemisphere.
Categories: Fossils

Sharks have depleted functional diversity compared to the last 66 million years

Fri, 06/14/2024 - 13:18
New research has found that sharks retained high levels of functional diversity for most of the last 66 million years, before steadily declining over the last 10 million years to its lowest value in the present day.
Categories: Fossils

Paleontology: New fossil fish genus discovered

Thu, 06/13/2024 - 13:09
Paleontologists have identified a new genus of fossil goby, revealing evolutionary secrets of a lineage that stretches back millions of years.
Categories: Fossils

Ancient ocean slowdown warns of future climate chaos

Thu, 06/13/2024 - 13:07
When it comes to the ocean's response to global warming, we're not in entirely uncharted waters. A new study shows that episodes of extreme heat in Earth's past caused the exchange of waters from the surface to the deep ocean to decline.
Categories: Fossils

No bones about it: 100-million-year-old bones reveal new species of pterosaur

Wed, 06/12/2024 - 10:33
New research has identified 100-million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in western Queensland as belonging to a newly identified species of pterosaur, which was a formidable flying reptile that lived among the dinosaurs.
Categories: Fossils

Scientists unlock secrets of how archaea, the third domain of life, makes energy

Tue, 06/11/2024 - 12:04
An international scientific team has redefined our understanding of archaea, a microbial ancestor to humans from two billion years ago, by showing how they use hydrogen gas. The findings explain how these tiny lifeforms make energy by consuming and producing hydrogen. This simple but dependable strategy has allowed them to thrive in some of Earth's most hostile environments for billions of years.
Categories: Fossils

Tiny new species of great ape lived in Germany 11 million years ago

Fri, 06/07/2024 - 14:15
Ancient apes in Germany co-existed by partitioning resources in their environment, according to a new study.
Categories: Fossils

Tiny roundworms carve out unique parasitic niche inside pseudoscorpion's protective covering

Wed, 06/05/2024 - 23:13
In a parasitic first, a Baltic amber specimen has revealed that millions of years ago tiny worms known as nematodes were living inside of and feeding on the outer protective layer of pseudoscorpions.
Categories: Fossils

Fishy mystery of marine reptile solved

Wed, 06/05/2024 - 15:25
The identity of a prehistoric marine reptile has finally been revealed after experts discovered that some of its remains actually belonged to fish.
Categories: Fossils

'Missing' early sea sponges discovered

Wed, 06/05/2024 - 15:24
Geobiologists reported a 550 million-year-old sea sponge that had been missing from the fossil record. The discovery sheds new light on a conundrum that has stumped zoologists and paleontologists for years.
Categories: Fossils

Gigantic Jurassic pterosaur fossil unearthed in Oxfordshire, UK

Tue, 06/04/2024 - 12:20
A team of palaeontologists has discovered a fossil of a gigantic flying reptile from the Jurassic period with an estimated wingspan of more than three metres -- making it one of the largest pterosaurs ever found from that era.
Categories: Fossils

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