Paleo in the News

How did humans learn to walk? New evolutionary study offers an earful

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 01/29/2024 - 11:25
A new study, which centers on evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, offers important clues about the origins of bipedal locomotion courtesy of a novel method: analyzing its bony inner ear region using three-dimensional CT-scanning. The inner ear appears to provide a unique record of the evolutionary history of ape locomotion.
Categories: Fossils

How did humans learn to walk? New evolutionary study offers an earful

Science Daily - Fossils - Mon, 01/29/2024 - 11:25
A new study, which centers on evidence from skulls of a 6-million-year-old fossil ape, Lufengpithecus, offers important clues about the origins of bipedal locomotion courtesy of a novel method: analyzing its bony inner ear region using three-dimensional CT-scanning. The inner ear appears to provide a unique record of the evolutionary history of ape locomotion.
Categories: Fossils

Newborn great white shark possibly seen in the wild for the first time

New Scientist - Mon, 01/29/2024 - 08:00
Drone footage filmed off the coast of California shows a 1.5-metre-long, entirely white great white shark pup, probably just hours old – something that has never been seen before
Categories: Fossils

Dinosaurs evolved feathers to scare prey, suggests robot experiment

New Scientist - Thu, 01/25/2024 - 10:00
Experiments with a robotic dinosaur suggest feathers may have evolved to startle prey into fleeing from hiding places, a strategy used by some modern birds
Categories: Fossils

Tiny marsupials sacrifice sleep for sex during the breeding season

New Scientist - Thu, 01/25/2024 - 10:00
Antechinus males only live for one breeding season, so they give up 3 hours of sleep a night during this short period before dying of exhaustion
Categories: Fossils

Owls may actually be able to turn their heads a full 360 degrees

New Scientist - Thu, 01/25/2024 - 09:00
Owls are famously good at rotating their heads, but now anatomical findings suggest they really could go a full 360 degrees without injuring themselves
Categories: Fossils

Exquisite Jurassic fossils reveal cannibalism in ancient fish

New Scientist - Thu, 01/25/2024 - 02:00
Three fossils of Pachycormus fish from the dinosaur era feature smaller members of the same species in their guts - perhaps showing how the animals got by when food was scarce
Categories: Fossils

DNA from preserved feces reveals ancient Japanese gut environment

Science Daily - Paleontology - Wed, 01/24/2024 - 15:45
DNA from ancient feces can offer archaeologists new clues about the life and health of Japanese people who lived thousands of years ago, according to a new study.
Categories: Fossils

DNA from preserved feces reveals ancient Japanese gut environment

Science Daily - Fossils - Wed, 01/24/2024 - 15:45
DNA from ancient feces can offer archaeologists new clues about the life and health of Japanese people who lived thousands of years ago, according to a new study.
Categories: Fossils

Ancient brown bear genomes sheds light on Ice Age losses and survival

Science Daily - Paleontology - Wed, 01/24/2024 - 12:28
The brown bear is one of the largest living terrestrial carnivores, and is widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike many other large carnivores that went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age (cave bear, sabretoothed cats, cave hyena), the brown bear is one of the lucky survivors that made it through to the present. The question has puzzled biologists for close to a century -- how was this so?
Categories: Fossils

Ancient brown bear genomes sheds light on Ice Age losses and survival

Science Daily - Fossils - Wed, 01/24/2024 - 12:28
The brown bear is one of the largest living terrestrial carnivores, and is widely distributed across the Northern Hemisphere. Unlike many other large carnivores that went extinct at the end of the last Ice Age (cave bear, sabretoothed cats, cave hyena), the brown bear is one of the lucky survivors that made it through to the present. The question has puzzled biologists for close to a century -- how was this so?
Categories: Fossils

New pieces in the puzzle of first life on Earth

Science Daily - Fossils - Wed, 01/24/2024 - 12:27
Microorganisms were the first forms of life on our planet. The clues are written in 3.5 billion-year-old rocks by geochemical and morphological traces, such as chemical compounds or structures that these organisms left behind. However, it is still not clear when and where life originated on Earth and when a diversity of species developed in these early microbial communities. Evidence is scarce and often disputed. Now, researchers have uncovered key findings about the earliest forms of life. In rock samples from South Africa, they found evidence dating to around 3.42 billion years ago of an unprecedentedly diverse carbon cycle involving various microorganisms. This research shows that complex microbial communities already existed in the ecosystems during the Palaeoarchaean period.
Categories: Fossils

Fungi grow faster if you play sounds to them

New Scientist - Wed, 01/24/2024 - 06:00
Fungi exposed to acoustic stimulation in lab experiments have faster growth rates, suggesting a possible way to speed up composting and restore habitats
Categories: Fossils

Four new emperor penguin colonies have been discovered

New Scientist - Tue, 01/23/2024 - 18:01
Satellite images have helped to locate four previously unknown colonies of emperor penguins in the Antarctic. One of the colonies has over 5000 members
Categories: Fossils

A bacterium switches from prey to predator when it gets cold

New Scientist - Tue, 01/23/2024 - 13:00
Growing up at a different temperature seems to transform common prey bacteria into predators, suggesting that bacterial ecology is more fluid than we thought
Categories: Fossils

See what the world looks like through the eyes of different animals

New Scientist - Tue, 01/23/2024 - 13:00
A camera can recreate how animals see the world through both visible and ultraviolet light
Categories: Fossils

Complex green organisms emerged a billion years ago

Science Daily - Fossils - Tue, 01/23/2024 - 11:21
Of all the organisms that photosynthesize, land plants have the most complex form. How did this morphology emerge? A team of scientists has taken a deep dive into the evolutionary history of morphological complexity in streptophytes, which include land plants and many green algae. Their research allowed them to go back in time to investigate lineages that emerged long before land plants existed.
Categories: Fossils

Stunning slo-mo videos show how insects survive raindrop collisions

New Scientist - Mon, 01/22/2024 - 14:00
A raindrop can weigh 40 times as much as a water strider. So how does the insect deal with rain when getting hit with a droplet is equivalent to a car crashing into a human?
Categories: Fossils

Student discovers 200-million-year-old flying reptile

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 01/22/2024 - 13:43
Gliding winged-reptiles were amongst the ancient crocodile residents of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, researchers at the have revealed.
Categories: Fossils

Student discovers 200-million-year-old flying reptile

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Mon, 01/22/2024 - 13:43
Gliding winged-reptiles were amongst the ancient crocodile residents of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, England, researchers at the have revealed.
Categories: Fossils

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