Paleo in the News

Backflipping springtails are the fastest spinners known in nature

New Scientist - Thu, 08/29/2024 - 09:00
High-speed camera recordings show that springtails spin at up to 368 rotations per second when they jump away from danger
Categories: Fossils

A selection of elaborate birds' nests from around the world

New Scientist - Wed, 08/28/2024 - 13:00
These photos showcase some of the intricately created birds' nests found in the Natural History Museum in Tring, UK, home to one of the world's largest ornithological collections
Categories: Fossils

Algorithm raises new questions about Cascadia earthquake record

Science Daily - Paleontology - Tue, 08/27/2024 - 18:25
A study is calling into question the reliability of the earthquake record of Cascadia. The researchers analyzed a selection of turbidite layers from the Cascadia subduction zone dating back about 12,000 years ago with an algorithm that assessed how well turbidite layers correlated with one another. They found that, in most cases, the correlation between the turbidite samples was no better than random. Since turbidites can be caused by a range of phenomena, and not just earthquakes, the results suggest that the turbidite record's connection to past earthquakes is more uncertain than previously thought.
Categories: Fossils

Inside NASA's lab exploring conditions for life on other worlds

New Scientist - Tue, 08/27/2024 - 03:00
The Origins and Habitability Lab at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory is a testbed exploring how geological conditions could impact life in environments such as early Earth, Mars or the icy moons of Jupiter
Categories: Fossils

What microscopic fossilized shells tell us about ancient climate change

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 17:29
By analyzing foram shells recovered in drill cores, study led by geologists links rapid climate change that led to thermal maxima 50 million years ago to rising CO2 levels.
Categories: Fossils

What microscopic fossilized shells tell us about ancient climate change

Science Daily - Fossils - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 17:29
By analyzing foram shells recovered in drill cores, study led by geologists links rapid climate change that led to thermal maxima 50 million years ago to rising CO2 levels.
Categories: Fossils

Matching dinosaur footprints found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:13
An international team of paleontologists has found matching sets of Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints on what are now two different continents.
Categories: Fossils

Matching dinosaur footprints found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:13
An international team of paleontologists has found matching sets of Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints on what are now two different continents.
Categories: Fossils

Matching dinosaur footprints found on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean

Science Daily - Fossils - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:13
An international team of paleontologists has found matching sets of Early Cretaceous dinosaur footprints on what are now two different continents.
Categories: Fossils

Darwin's fear was unjustified: Writing evolutionary history by bridging the gaps a big issue

Science Daily - Paleontology - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:06
Fossils are used to reconstruct evolutionary history, but not all animals and plants become fossils and many fossils are destroyed before we can find them (e.g., the rocks that contain the fossils are destroyed by erosion). As a result, the fossil record has gaps and is incomplete, and we're missing data that we need to reconstruct evolutionary history. Now, a team of sedimentologists and stratigraphers examined how this incompleteness influences the reconstruction of evolutionary history. To their surprise, they found that the incompleteness itself is actually not such a big issue.
Categories: Fossils

Darwin's fear was unjustified: Writing evolutionary history by bridging the gaps a big issue

Science Daily - Fossils - Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:06
Fossils are used to reconstruct evolutionary history, but not all animals and plants become fossils and many fossils are destroyed before we can find them (e.g., the rocks that contain the fossils are destroyed by erosion). As a result, the fossil record has gaps and is incomplete, and we're missing data that we need to reconstruct evolutionary history. Now, a team of sedimentologists and stratigraphers examined how this incompleteness influences the reconstruction of evolutionary history. To their surprise, they found that the incompleteness itself is actually not such a big issue.
Categories: Fossils

To kill mammoths in the Ice Age, people used planted pikes, not throwing spears, researchers say

Science Daily - Paleontology - Wed, 08/21/2024 - 13:59
Archeologists say new findings might help resolve the debate about Clovis points and reshape how we think about what life was like roughly 13,000 years ago. After an extensive review of writings and artwork -- and an experiment with replica Clovis point spears -- a team of archaeologists says humans may have braced the butt of their weapons against the ground in a way that would impale a charging animal. The force would have driven the spear deeper into the predator's body, unleashing a more damaging blow than even the strongest prehistoric hunters would have been capable of by throwing or jabbing megafauna.
Categories: Fossils

David Attenborough's latest explores the lives of an orangutan family

New Scientist - Wed, 08/21/2024 - 13:00
The veteran presenter adds authority to Secret Lives of Orangutans, a film about a family of endangered orangutans in Sumatra. File this new entry in his vast oeuvre under lovable but lightweight
Categories: Fossils

How shrinking populations could help to save our planet

New Scientist - Wed, 08/21/2024 - 13:00
Our ability to exert conscious control over our family sizes is unique – and can be transformational, says Christopher Wills
Categories: Fossils

We now know that life began on Earth much earlier than we thought

New Scientist - Wed, 08/21/2024 - 07:20
A big rethink of our planet’s early years adds to growing fossil, chemical and DNA evidence that Earth was only a few hundred million years old when life began
Categories: Fossils

Fossil hotspots in Africa obscure a more complete picture of human evolution

Science Daily - Paleontology - Tue, 08/20/2024 - 11:45
A new study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human evolution.
Categories: Fossils

Fossil hotspots in Africa obscure a more complete picture of human evolution

Science Daily - Fossils - Tue, 08/20/2024 - 11:45
A new study shows how the mismatch between where fossils are preserved and where humans likely lived may influence our understanding of early human evolution.
Categories: Fossils

Why the underground home of the world’s weirdest wildlife is in danger

New Scientist - Mon, 08/19/2024 - 11:30
Up to 100,000 extraordinary species, from spiders and beetles to salamanders and fish, live in subterranean caves and cracks. They aren’t as safe down there as we thought
Categories: Fossils

Spiders use fireflies as flashing lures to catch more prey

New Scientist - Mon, 08/19/2024 - 11:00
Male fireflies caught in an orb-weaver spider’s web start flashing in an unusual pattern, a deadly deception that seems to attract additional victims for the spider
Categories: Fossils

Tracking down the asteroid that sealed the fate of the dinosaurs

Science Daily - Paleontology - Fri, 08/16/2024 - 11:39
The asteroid that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago probably came from the outer solar system.
Categories: Fossils

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