Science Daily - Dinosaurs

An archaeological study of human settlement during the Final Palaeolithic revealed that populations in Europe did not decrease homogenously during the last cold phase of the Ice Age. Significant variation in regional population sizes indicate differentiated reactions nested in an overall shift of settlement areas towards the east.

Jurassic dinosaurs milled about ancient Scottish lagoons, leaving up to 131 footprints at a newly discovered stomping ground on the Isle of Skye in Scotland, according to a new study.

More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research has revealed.

A new species of fossil is 444 million years-old with soft insides perfectly preserved. Research 'ultramarathon' saw palaeontologist puzzled by bizarre fossil for 25 years.

Feathers, essential for thermoregulation, flight, and communication in birds, originate from simple appendages known as proto-feathers, which were present in certain dinosaurs.By studying embryonic development of the chicken, researchers from the University of Geneva (UNIGE) have uncovered a key role of a molecular signalling pathway (the Shh pathway) in their formation. This research provides new insights into the morphogenetic mechanisms that led to feather diversification throughout evolution.

An analysis of a 30,000-year-old fossil vulture from Central Italy has revealed for the first time that volcanic rock can preserve microscopic details in feathers -- the first ever record of such a preservation. An international team discovered a new mode of preservation of soft tissues that can occur when animals are buried in ash-rich volcanic sediments. The new research reveals that the feathers are preserved in a mineral phase called zeolite, a mode of preservation of soft tissues never reported before.

Misha lived her whole life in zoos, but this elephant's teeth are now helping scientists reconstruct wildlife migrations. Geologists show how strontium isotopes found in teeth or tusks reveal where large plant-eating animals may have roamed.

A researcher has confirmed a boulder at a regional school contains one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints per square meter ever documented in Australia.

A recent study has reclassified the species commonly known as the Javan rhinoceros, proposing a more precise scientific name: Eurhinoceros sondaicus. The research highlights key differences in body structure and ecology that set this species apart from the Indian rhinoceros (Rhinoceros unicornis). Recognizing it as a separate genus not only improves scientific understanding but also has important implications for conservation efforts.

For more than 140 years, Mixodectes pungens, a species of small mammal that inhabited western North America in the early Paleocene, was a mystery. What little was known about them had been mostly gleaned from analyzing fossilized teeth and jawbone fragments. But a new study of the most complete skeleton of the species known to exist has answered many questions about the enigmatic critter -- first described in 1883 by famed paleontologist Edward Drinker Cope -- providing a better understanding of its anatomy, behavior, diet, and position in the Tree of Life.

Scientists have uncovered how plants responded to catastrophic climate changes 250 million years ago. Their findings reveal the long, drawn-out process of ecosystem recovery following one of the most extreme periods of warming in Earth's history: the 'End-Permian Event'.

The oldest collection of mass-produced prehistoric bone tools reveal that human ancestors were likely capable of more advanced abstract reasoning one million years earlier than thought, finds a new study.

Researchers examined dozens of bird species in museum collections looking for differences in the feathers and bodies between birds that can fly and birds that can't. They found that when birds evolve from a flying ancestor to a new flightless form, the birds' bodies, including the ratio of their wings and tails, change before the feathers do. Insights from this research could help scientists trying to determine whether a fossil bird, or a feathered dinosaur that isn't part of the bird family, was able to fly.

It's not what you do, it's how readily you do it. Rapid evolutionary change might have more to do with how easily a key innovation can be gained or lost rather than with the innovation itself, according to new work.

A rare discovery of a nearly complete skull in the Egyptian desert has led scientists to the 'dream' revelation of a new 30-million-year-old species of the ancient apex predatory carnivore, Hyaenodonta.

Global warming is producing a rapid loss of plant species -- according to estimates, roughly 600 plant species have died out since 1750 -- twice the number of animal species lost. But which species are hit hardest? And how does altered biodiversity actually affect interactions between plants? Experts have tackled these questions and, in two recent studies, presented the answers they found buried in the past: using fragments of plant genetic material (DNA) deposited in lake sediments, they were able to gain new insights into how the composition of flora changed 15,000 to 11,000 years ago during the warming at the end of the last ice age, which is considered to be the last major mass extinction event before today. This comparison can offer an inkling of what might await us in the future.

Fossil collectors in Florida have discovered an ancient sinkhole, now at the bottom of a river, which holds the remains of animals rarely seen in the state, including a type of giant armadillo, giant ground sloths and an odd-looking tapir.

Sixty-six million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous Period, an asteroid impact near the Yucat n Peninsula of Mexico triggered the extinction of all known non-bird dinosaurs. But for the early ancestors of today's waterfowl, surviving that mass extinction event was like ... water off a duck's back. Location matters, as Antarctica may have served as a refuge, protected by its distance from the turmoil taking place elsewhere on the planet. Fossil evidence suggests a temperate climate with lush vegetation, possibly serving as an incubator for the earliest members of the group that now includes ducks and geese.

Sharks and rays have populated the world's oceans for around 450 million years, but more than a third of the species living today are severely threatened by overfishing and the loss of their habitat. Palaeobiologists have now investigated whether and how global warming influences the diversity of sharks based on climate fluctuations between 200 and 66 million years ago. According to the study, higher temperatures and more shallow water areas have a positive effect, while higher CO2 levels have a clearly negative effect.

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.