Paleo in the News

Female scorpions get stung during sex – and they seem to welcome it

New Scientist - Wed, 02/14/2024 - 08:00
During courtship rituals, female scorpions appear to willingly let males sting them, which may be a way for them to evaluate prospective mates
Categories: Fossils

Great apes like teasing each other - which may be the origin of humour

New Scientist - Tue, 02/13/2024 - 18:01
Chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans and gorillas frequently toy with their peers by poking, tickling or stealing from them, perhaps showing behaviours that were prerequisites for human joking
Categories: Fossils

Small dogs are more likely to have an extra row of teeth like sharks

New Scientist - Tue, 02/13/2024 - 08:00
Some pet dogs retain their baby teeth, creating two rows that resemble the mouth of a shark. A new analysis shows that the condition is more prevalent in smaller breeds and obese dogs
Categories: Fossils

Brazilian flea toad may be the world’s smallest vertebrate

New Scientist - Tue, 02/13/2024 - 05:00
Male Brachycephalus pulex frogs are so small that two of them can sit side by side on a pinky nail
Categories: Fossils

Archaeologists discover oldest known bead in the Americas

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 02/12/2024 - 16:13
The bead found at the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming's Converse County is about 12,940 years old and made of bone from a hare.
Categories: Fossils

Researchers studying ocean transform faults, describe a previously unknown part of the geological carbon cycle

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 02/12/2024 - 14:35
This study reports widespread mineral carbonation of mantle rocks in an oceanic transform fueled by magmatic degassing of CO2. The findings describe a previously unknown part of the geological carbon cycle in transform faults that represent one of the three principal plate boundaries on Earth. The confluence of tectonically exhumed mantle rocks and CO2-rich alkaline basalt formed through limited extents of melting characteristic of the St. Paul's transform faults may be a pervasive feature at oceanic transform faults in general. Because transform faults have not been accounted for in previous estimates of global geological CO2 fluxes, the mass transfer of magmatic CO2 to the altered oceanic mantle and seawater may be larger than previously thought.
Categories: Fossils

The hidden rule for flight feathers -- and how it could reveal which dinosaurs could fly

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 02/12/2024 - 14:33
Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds first evolved the ability to fly, and which dinosaurs were capable of flight.
Categories: Fossils

The hidden rule for flight feathers -- and how it could reveal which dinosaurs could fly

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Mon, 02/12/2024 - 14:33
Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds first evolved the ability to fly, and which dinosaurs were capable of flight.
Categories: Fossils

The hidden rule for flight feathers -- and how it could reveal which dinosaurs could fly

Science Daily - Fossils - Mon, 02/12/2024 - 14:33
Scientists examined hundreds of birds in museum collections and discovered a suite of feather characteristics that all flying birds have in common. These 'rules' provide clues as to how the dinosaur ancestors of modern birds first evolved the ability to fly, and which dinosaurs were capable of flight.
Categories: Fossils

Surprisingly vibrant color of 12-million-year-old snail shells

Science Daily - Paleontology - Fri, 02/09/2024 - 15:34
Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on the other hand, are usually pale and inconspicuous because the pigments are very sensitive and have already decomposed. Residues of ancient color patterns are therefore very rare. This makes a new discovery all the more astonishing: researchers found pigments in twelve-million-year-old fossilized snail shells.
Categories: Fossils

Surprisingly vibrant color of 12-million-year-old snail shells

Science Daily - Fossils - Fri, 02/09/2024 - 15:34
Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on the other hand, are usually pale and inconspicuous because the pigments are very sensitive and have already decomposed. Residues of ancient color patterns are therefore very rare. This makes a new discovery all the more astonishing: researchers found pigments in twelve-million-year-old fossilized snail shells.
Categories: Fossils

New fossil site of worldwide importance uncovered in southern France

Science Daily - Paleontology - Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:41
Nearly 400 exceptionally well-preserved fossils dating back 470 million years have been discovered in the south of France by two amateur paleontologists. The discovery provides unprecedented information on the polar ecosystems of the Ordovician period.
Categories: Fossils

New fossil site of worldwide importance uncovered in southern France

Science Daily - Fossils - Fri, 02/09/2024 - 12:41
Nearly 400 exceptionally well-preserved fossils dating back 470 million years have been discovered in the south of France by two amateur paleontologists. The discovery provides unprecedented information on the polar ecosystems of the Ordovician period.
Categories: Fossils

Ancient pollen trapped in Greenland ice uncovers changes in Canadian forests over 800 years

Science Daily - Paleontology - Thu, 02/08/2024 - 13:24
The Greenland ice sheet lies thousands of miles from North America yet holds clues to the distant continent's environmental history. Nearly two miles thick in places, the ice sheet grows as snow drifts from the sky and builds up over time. But snow isn't the only thing carried in by air currents that swirl around the atmosphere, with microscopic pollen grains and pieces of ash mixing with snowfall and preserving records of the past in the ice. A new study examined these pollen grains and identified how eastern Canada's forests grew, retreated, and changed through time.
Categories: Fossils

What turned Earth into a giant snowball 700 million years ago? Scientists now have an answer

Science Daily - Paleontology - Wed, 02/07/2024 - 18:44
Inspired during field work in South Australia's Flinders Ranges, geoscientists have proposed that all-time low volcanic carbon dioxide emissions triggered a 57-million-year-long global 'Sturtian' ice age.
Categories: Fossils

Otherworldly beauty of fungi on show in photo competition

New Scientist - Wed, 02/07/2024 - 12:00
These stunning images are finalists in the World of Fungi category in the International Garden Photographer of the Year contest
Categories: Fossils

Orca pod disappears after being trapped in drifting ice off Japan

New Scientist - Wed, 02/07/2024 - 11:55
A group of more than a dozen orcas has disappeared after being trapped in freezing Japanese waters for about a day – it isn’t known if they escaped or have died
Categories: Fossils

Dinosaurs' success helped by specialized stance and gait, study finds

Science Daily - Paleontology - Wed, 02/07/2024 - 11:04
Dinosaurs' range of locomotion made them incredibly adaptable, researchers have found.
Categories: Fossils

Dinosaurs' success helped by specialized stance and gait, study finds

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 02/07/2024 - 11:04
Dinosaurs' range of locomotion made them incredibly adaptable, researchers have found.
Categories: Fossils

Bizarre worm lizard not seen for 90 years found by landmine removers

New Scientist - Wed, 02/07/2024 - 06:00
A subspecies of the Somali sharp-snouted worm lizard was found by a landmine clearance team, the first official sighting since 1931
Categories: Fossils

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