Science Daily - Paleontology

Newly discovered birds from Late Cretaceous North America were hawk-sized and had powerful raptor-like feet, according to a new study.

Scientists have discovered one of the earliest examples of a winged seed, granting insight into the origin and early evolution of wind dispersal strategies in plants.

Small iron-rich formations found within Western Australia's Pinnacles, which are part of the world's largest wind-blown limestone belt spanning more than 1000km, have provided new insights into Earth's ancient climate and changing landscape.

By studying rare fossils of jaws and other skull parts of a long-extinct Caribbean monkey, a team of researchers says it has uncovered new evidence documenting the anatomy and ecology of an extinct primate once found on Hispaniola -- the Caribbean island on which Haiti and the Dominican Republic are located.

Geologists discover a mysterious subduction zone deep beneath the Pacific Ocean, reshaping our understanding of Earth's interior.

The discovery of new cynodont fossils from southern Brazil by a team of palaeontologists has led to a significant breakthrough in understanding the evolution of mammals.

Researchers have discovered inorganic nanostructures surrounding deep-ocean hydrothermal vents that are strikingly similar to molecules that make life as we know it possible. These nanostructures are self-organized and act as selective ion channels, which create energy that can be harnessed in the form of electricity. The findings impact not only our understanding of how life began, but can also be applied to industrial blue-energy harvesting.

Until now, it was believed that plants of the grape family arrived at the European continent less than 23 million years ago. A study on fossil plants draws a new scenario on the dispersal of the ancestors of grape plants and reveals that these species were already on the territory of Europe some 41 million years ago. The paper describes a new fossil species of the same family, Nekemias mucronata, which allows us to better understand the evolutionary history of this plant group, which inhabited Europe between 40 and 23 million years ago.

Scientists successfully extracted and analyzed DNA from ancient cheese samples found alongside the Tarim Basin mummies in China, dating back approximately 3,600 years. The research suggests a new origin for kefir cheese and sheds light on the evolution of probiotic bacteria.

Analyzing fossils can be difficult -- especially when they're so small that they can only be seen with a microscope. Researchers have now come up with a solution.

A new study offers the most detailed glimpse yet into how Earth's surface temperature has changed over the past 485 million years. The data show that Earth has been and can be warmer than today -- but humans and animals cannot adapt fast enough to keep up with human-caused climate change.

Some of the most dramatic climatic events in our planet's history are 'Snowball Earth' events that happened hundreds of millions of years ago, when almost the entire planet was encased in ice up to 0.6 miles thick. New research provides a more complete picture for how the last Snowball Earth event ended, and suggests why it preceded a dramatic expansion of life on Earth, including the emergence of the first animals.

A mysterious tusked animal depicted in South African rock art might portray an ancient species preserved as fossils in the same region, according to a new study.

New archaeological research has discovered for the first time clear links between fossils of the iconic Australian dingo, and dogs from East Asia and New Guinea.

Mega ocean warming El Nino events were key in driving the largest extinction of life on planet Earth some 252 million years ago, according to new research. The study has shed new light on why the effects of rapid climate change in the Permian-Triassic warming were so devastating for all forms of life in the sea and on land.

A new study finds that a trilobite species with exceptionally well-preserved fossils from upstate New York has an additional set of legs underneath its head. The research suggests that having a fifth pair of head appendages might be more widespread among trilobites than once thought and helps researchers better understand how trilobite heads are segmented.

Climate change and asteroids are linked with animal origin and extinction -- and plate tectonics also seems to play a key evolutionary role, 'groundbreaking' new fossil research reveals. The discovery of an exceptionally well preserved ancient primitive Devonian coelacanth fish in remote Western Australia has been linked to a period of heightened tectonic activity, or movement in the Earth's crust, according to the new study.

Neanderthal remains recently discovered in a cave in France support well-known theory of why the Neanderthals became extinct, researchers behind a new study say.

Since their invention in the 1920s, jungle gyms and monkey bars have become both fixtures of playgrounds and symbols of childhood injury that anxious caretakers want removed. Anthropologists mark 100 years of the iconic playground equipment by arguing that risky play exercises a biological need passed on from apes and early humans for children to independently test and expand their physical and cognitive abilities in a context in which injury is possible but avoidable.

Aotearoa New Zealand's flightless parrot, the k k p , evolved two different color types to potentially help them avoid detection by a now-extinct apex predator, researchers report.