Science Daily - Paleontology

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Paleontology News and Research. Read about the latest discoveries in the fossil record including theories on why the dinosaurs went extinct and more.
Updated: 13 hours 47 min ago

Sea level changes shaped early life on Earth, fossil study reveals

Fri, 08/02/2024 - 12:29
Shifts in the Earth's continental plates that drove long-term changes in sea level set the stage for the evolution of the earliest animals on Earth, a study suggests.
Categories: Fossils

Half a billion-year-old spiny slug reveals the origins of mollusks

Thu, 08/01/2024 - 13:21
Exceptional fossils with preserved soft parts reveal that the earliest mollusks were flat, armored slugs without shells. The new species, Shishania aculeata, was covered with hollow, organic, cone-shaped spines. The fossils preserve exceptionally rare detailed features which reveal that these spines were produced using a sophisticated secretion system that is shared with annelids (earthworms and relatives).
Categories: Fossils

Scientists untangle interactions between the Earth's early life forms and the environment over 500 million years

Mon, 07/29/2024 - 16:33
The atmosphere, the ocean and life on Earth interacted over the past 500-plus million years in ways that improved conditions for early organisms to thrive. Now, an interdisciplinary team of scientists has produced a perspective article of this co-evolutionary history.
Categories: Fossils

The ancestor of all modern birds probably had iridescent feathers

Fri, 07/26/2024 - 10:33
Birds tend to be more colorful in the tropics, and scientists wanted to find out how they got there: if colorful feathers evolved in the tropics, or if tropical birds have brightly-colored ancestors that came to the region from somwhere else. Scientists built a database of 9,409 birds to explore the spread of color across the globe. They found that iridescent, colorful feathers originated 415 times across the bird tree of life, and in most cases, arose outside of the tropics -- and that the ancestor of all modern birds likely had iridescent feathers, too.
Categories: Fossils

Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to rip apart their prey

Wed, 07/24/2024 - 11:30
Scientists have discovered that the serrated edges of Komodo dragons' teeth are tipped with iron. The study gives new insight into how Komodo dragons keep their teeth razor-sharp and may provide clues to how dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex killed and ate their prey.
Categories: Fossils

Scientists assess how large dinosaurs could really get

Wed, 07/24/2024 - 11:30
A study looks at the maximum possible sizes of dinosaurs, using the carnivore, Tyrannosaurus rex, as an example. Using computer modelling, experts produced estimates that T. Rex might have been 70% heavier than what the fossil evidence suggests.
Categories: Fossils

Taco-shaped arthropod fossils gives new insights into the history of the first mandibulates

Tue, 07/23/2024 - 19:47
Palaeontologists are helping resolve the evolution and ecology of Odaraia, a taco-shaped marine animal that lived during the Cambrian period. Fossils reveal Odaraia had mandibles. Palaeontologists are finally able to place it as belonging to the mandibulates, ending its long enigmatic classification among the arthropods since it was first discovered in the Burgess Shale over 100 years ago and revealing more about early evolution and diversification.
Categories: Fossils

Nanoscopic imaging aids in understanding protein, tissue preservation in ancient bones

Tue, 07/23/2024 - 11:35
A pilot study shows that nanoscopic 3-D imaging of ancient bone not only provides further insight into the changes soft tissues undergo during fossilization, it also has potential as a fast, practical way to determine which specimens are likely candidates for ancient DNA and protein sequence preservation.
Categories: Fossils

Ore-some: New date for Earth's largest iron deposits offers clues for future exploration

Mon, 07/22/2024 - 16:58
Research reveals that Earth's largest iron ore deposits -- in the Hamersley Province of Western Australia -- are about one billion years younger than previously believed, a discovery which could greatly boost the search for more of the resource.
Categories: Fossils

New snake discovery rewrites history, points to North America's role in snake evolution

Fri, 07/19/2024 - 17:02
A new species of fossil snake unearthed in Wyoming is rewriting our understanding of snake evolution. The discovery, based on four remarkably well-preserved specimens found curled together in a burrow, reveals a new species named Hibernophis breithaupti. This snake lived in North America 34 million years ago and sheds light on the origin and diversification of boas and pythons.
Categories: Fossils

Evidence for butchery of giant armadillo-like mammals in Argentina 21,000 years ago

Wed, 07/17/2024 - 15:24
Cut marks on fossils could be evidence of humans exploiting large mammals in Argentina more than 20,000 years ago, according to a new study.
Categories: Fossils

Research tracks 66 million years of mammalian diversity

Wed, 07/17/2024 - 11:11
New research has examined the fossil record going back 66 million years and tracked changes to mammalian ecosystems and species diversity on the North American continent.
Categories: Fossils

Insight into one of life's earliest ancestors revealed in new study

Fri, 07/12/2024 - 11:41
Researchers have shed light on Earth's earliest ecosystem, showing that within a few hundred million years of planetary formation, life on Earth was already flourishing.
Categories: Fossils

First ever 3D reconstruction of 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth chromosomes thanks to serendipitously freeze-dried skin

Thu, 07/11/2024 - 10:13
An international research team has assembled the genome and 3D chromosomal structures of a 52,000-year-old woolly mammoth -- the first time such a feat has been achieved for any ancient DNA sample. The fossilized chromosomes, which are around a million times longer than most ancient DNA fragments, provide insight into how the mammoth's genome was organized within its living cells and which genes were active within the skin tissue from which the DNA was extracted. This unprecedented level of structural detail was retained because the mammoth underwent freeze-drying shortly after it died, which meant that its DNA was preserved in a glass-like state.
Categories: Fossils

A new species of extinct crocodile relative rewrites life on the Triassic coastline

Wed, 07/10/2024 - 18:54
The surprising discovery of a new species of extinct crocodile relative from the Triassic Favret Formation of Nevada, USA, rewrites the story of life along the coasts during the first act of the Age of Dinosaurs. The new species Benggwigwishingasuchus eremicarminis reveals that while giant ichthyosaurs ruled the oceans, the ancient crocodile kin known as pseudosuchian archosaurs ruled the shores across the Middle Triassic globe between 247.2 and 237 million years ago.
Categories: Fossils

Research reveals the most complete dinosaur discovered in the UK in a century

Wed, 07/10/2024 - 12:09
The most complete dinosaur discovered in the UK in the last 100 years, with a pubic hip bone the size of a 'dinner plate', has been described in a new article.
Categories: Fossils

Ancient large kangaroo moved mainly on four legs, according to new research

Tue, 07/09/2024 - 11:17
A type of extinct kangaroo that lived during the Pleistocene around two and a half million to ten thousand years ago, known as the 'giant wallaby', was a poor hopper, a study has found.
Categories: Fossils

Life underground suited newly discovered dinosaur fine

Tue, 07/09/2024 - 11:16
A newly discovered ancestor of Thescelosaurus shows evidence that these animals spent at least part of their time in underground burrows. The new species contributes to a fuller understanding of life during the mid-Cretaceous -- both above and below ground.
Categories: Fossils

The dawn of the Antarctic ice sheets

Thu, 07/04/2024 - 19:15
In recent years global warming has left its mark on the Antarctic ice sheets. The 'eternal' ice in Antarctica is melting faster than previously assumed, particularly in West Antarctica more than East Antarctica. The root for this could lie in its formation, as an international research team has now discovered: sediment samples from drill cores combined with complex climate and ice-sheet modelling show that permanent glaciation of Antarctica began around 34 million years ago -- but did not encompass the entire continent as previously assumed, but rather was confined to the eastern region of the continent (East Antarctica).
Categories: Fossils

Giant salamander-like creature was a top predator in the ice age before the dinosaurs

Wed, 07/03/2024 - 12:17
Meet Gaiasia jennyae, the swamp creature with a toilet seat-shaped head. It lived 40 million years before the first dinosaurs, and it was the top predator in its ecosystem.
Categories: Fossils

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