Science Daily - Paleontology

A 'one of a kind' fossil discovery could transform our understanding of how the unique brains and intelligence of modern birds evolved, one of the most enduring mysteries of vertebrate evolution.

Could social bonds be the key to human big brains? A study of the fossil teeth of early Homo from Georgia dating back 1.77 million years reveals a prolonged childhood despite a small brain and an adulthood comparable to that of the great apes. This discovery suggests that an extended childhood, combined with cultural transmission in three-generation social groups, may have triggered the evolution of a large brain like that of modern humans, rather than the reverse.

A series of rocks hiding around Colorado's Rocky Mountains may hold clues to a frigid period in Earth's past when glaciers several miles thick covered the entire planet.

Geoscientists employed current-day stratigraphic, depositional and paleontological models, along with modern technological muscle to provide updated insights of the Cambrian period of the Grand Canyon.

Scientists believe individuals of the most recently discovered 'hominin' group (the Denisovans) that interbred with modern day humans passed on some of their genes via multiple, distinct interbreeding events that helped shape early human history. Scientists outline evidence suggesting that several Denisovan populations, who likely had an extensive geographical range from Siberia to Southeast Asia and from Oceania to South America, were adapted to distinct environments. They further outline a number of genes of Denisovan origin that gave modern day humans advantages in their different environments.

Extraordinarily well preserved fossils of feathered dinosaurs and other creatures got that way after being frozen in time by by volcanic eruptions, researchers have long suggested. Not so fast, says a new study.

Evolutionary biologists report they have analyzed a fossil of an extinct giant meat-eating bird -- which they say could be the largest known member of its kind -- providing new information about animal life in northern South America millions of years ago.

Research helps reconstruct an ancient climate and challenges the timing of the Andes Mountains uplift.

Large herbivores like bison or elk have continuously lived in the Yellowstone National Park region for about 2,300 years, according to a new analysis of chemicals preserved in lake sediments.

Paleobiologists have found that the sinuses of ocean dwelling relatives of modern-day crocodiles prevented them from evolving into deep divers like whales and dolphins.

Paleontologists have identified fossils of an ancient species of bug that spent the past 450 million years covered in fool's gold in central New York. The new species, Lomankus edgecombei, is a distant relative of modern-day horseshoe crabs, scorpions, and spiders. It had no eyes, and its small front appendages were best suited for rooting around in dark ocean sediment, back when what is now New York state was covered by water.

Researchers reveal new insights into the complex evolutionary history behind the distinctive upright posture of modern placental and marsupial mammals, showing the transition was surprisingly complex and nonlinear, and occurred much later than previously believed.

Fossils from more than 600,000 years ago reveal how Southern Europe's animal community shifted between warm and cold climate fluctuations, according to a new study.

The transition from water to land is one of the most significant events in the history of life on Earth. Now, a team of roboticists, palaeontologists and biologists is using robots to study how the ancestors of modern land animals transitioned from swimming to walking, about 390 million years ago.

The new mammal lived in Colorado 70 to 75 million years ago -- a time when a vast inland sea covered large portions of the state, and animals like sharks, turtles and giant crocodiles abounded.

A research team has used nitrogen isotope analysis to demonstrate that 385 million years old corals from the Eifel and Sauerland regions had symbionts. This finding represents the earliest evidence of photosymbiosis in corals. Photosymbiosis might explain why ancient coral reefs grew to massive sizes despite being in nutrient-poor environments.

A study investigating the complex evolution of two iconic Western Australian landmarks, has traced their transformation over thousands of years and offers a glimpse into their future. Researchers collected sedimentary samples from multiple locations along Perth's coastline, waterways and even the sea floor to track changes which occurred as the ocean levels rose dozens of meters over thousands of years.

Scientists paint a compelling picture of what happened the day the S2 meteorite crashed into Earth 3.26 billion years ago.

Scientists have discovered the earliest evidence of animal butchery by humans in India.

Studying microscopic layers of dirt dug from the Tam Pa Ling cave site in northeastern Laos has provided a team of archaeologists further insights into some of the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in mainland Southeast Asia. The site, which has been studied for the past 14 years, has produced some of the earliest fossil evidence of our direct ancestors in Southeast Asia but now a new study has reconstructed the ground conditions in the cave between 52,000 and 10,000 years ago.