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Paleontology & Fossils news
Africa is full of bats, but their fossils are scarce—why these rare records matter
Africa is home to more than 20% of the world's bat population. There are more than 200 species to be found on the continent. South Africa is particularly diverse, with 72 bat species.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 18, 2024
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Discovery of new ancient giant snake in India
A new ancient species of snake dubbed Vasuki Indicus, which lived around 47 million years ago in the state of Gujarat in India, may have been one of the largest snakes to have ever lived, suggests new research published in ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 18, 2024
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Scientists construct organo-phosphatic shells of brachiopods
Biomineralized columns, stacked in layers like a sandwich gave Cambrian brachiopod shells their strength and flexibility 520 million years ago.
Evolution
Apr 18, 2024
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Paleontologists unearth what may be the largest known marine reptile
The fossilized remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two meters long has been found on a beach in Somerset, UK. Experts have identified the bones as belonging to the jaws of a new species of enormous ichthyosaur, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 17, 2024
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How interspecies competition led to a 'bizarre' pattern in our own evolutionary tree
Competition between species played a major role in the rise and fall of hominins—and produced a "bizarre" evolutionary pattern for the Homo lineage—according to a new University of Cambridge study that revises the start ...
Evolution
Apr 17, 2024
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143
Seed ferns experimented with complex leaf vein networks 201 million years ago, paleontologists find
According to a research team led by paleontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several ...
Evolution
Apr 16, 2024
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Digging up new species of Australia and New Guinea's giant fossil kangaroos
Paleontologists from Flinders University have described three unusual new species of giant fossil kangaroo from Australia and New Guinea, finding them more diverse in shape, range and hopping method than previously thought.
Plants & Animals
Apr 14, 2024
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Fossilized dinosaur eggshells can preserve amino acids, the building blocks of proteins, over millions of years
As a scientist, lab work can sometimes get monotonous. But in 2017, while a Ph.D. student of paleobiology at the University of Bristol in the U.K., I heard a gleeful exclamation from across the room. Kirsty Penkman, head ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 10, 2024
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3D mouth of an ancient jawless fish suggests they were filter-feeders, not scavengers or hunters
Early jawless fish were likely to have used bony projections surrounding their mouths to modify their mouth shape while they collected food.
Evolution
Apr 10, 2024
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Mysterious bones may have belonged to gigantic ichthyosaurs
Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the subject of much debate ...
Evolution
Apr 9, 2024
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196
Jurassic shuotheriids reveal earliest dental diversification of mammaliaforms
Paleontologists have presented a new insight into the initial dental variations across mammaliaforms, providing a fresh perspective on the evolutionary past of these ancient beasts.
Plants & Animals
Apr 6, 2024
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Dinosaur study challenges Bergmann's rule
When you throw dinosaurs into the mix, sometimes you find that a rule simply isn't.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 6, 2024
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Ancient DNA and bones reveal species on the move as a result of climate changes thousands of years ago
By analyzing DNA and studying old animal bones, researchers have been able to reconstruct the animal diversity from a cave in Nordland, Norway.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 5, 2024
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New fossil dolphin identified
University of Otago researchers have formally identified and named a fossil dolphin which they discovered has a unique feeding method.
Plants & Animals
Apr 4, 2024
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Early dinosaurs grew up fast, but fossil analysis suggests they weren't the only ones
The earliest dinosaurs had rapid growth rates, but so did many of the other animals living alongside them, according to a study published in PLOS ONE by Kristina Curry Rogers of Macalester College, Minnesota and colleagues.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 3, 2024
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Amber reveals mating behavior of cretaceous water striders
Fossilized mating insects are an irreplaceable find for understanding the evolution of mating behaviors and life history traits in the deep-time record of insects.
Paleontology & Fossils
Apr 3, 2024
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New Jurassic fossil findings provide insights into the development of the middle ear in mammals
An international team of paleontologists has made a significant discovery in fossils that offer key information about the evolutionary shift from the jaw joint bones to those of the middle ear in early mammals.
Evolution
Apr 3, 2024
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Two Jurassic mammaliaforms from China shed light on mammalian evolution
Mammaliaforms are extinct and extant organisms that are closely related to mammals. Studying mammaliaforms helps scientists understand the evolutionary processes that led to various mammalian features.
Evolution
Apr 3, 2024
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210
New data from fossil shows changes in axial skeleton that foreshadow the evolution of walking
Before the evolution of legs from fins, the axial skeleton—including the bones of the head, neck, back and ribs—was already going through changes that would eventually help our ancestors support their bodies to walk on ...
Evolution
Apr 3, 2024
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Temple bones in the skulls of dinosaurs and humans alike were formed by feeding habits, study suggests
Whether human or reptile, in the skull of most terrestrial vertebrates there is a gaping hole in the temple; in the case of most reptiles, there are two. Scientists have been looking for explanations for this for 150 years.
Evolution
Apr 2, 2024
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More news
Scientists confirm that methane-processing microbes produce a fossil record
Scientists discover endoparasitic marine tapeworm trapped in Cretaceous amber
Research shows that five three-horned dinosaurs lived, and died, together
Researchers discover 125,000-year-old coastal ecosystem underneath spaceport in Kourou
In paleontology, correct names are keys to accurate study
Duckbill dinosaur discovery in Morocco: Expert unpacks the mystery of how they got there
Ancient giant dolphin discovered in the Amazon
Biologists use machine learning to classify fossils of extinct pollen
Tanks of the triassic: New crocodile ancestor identified
Elephant calves have been found buried. What does that mean?
Researchers present the world's oldest long-necked marine reptile
Newly discovered fossil of giant turtle is named after Stephen King novel character
Researchers discover a new species of carnivorous dinosaur in La Rioja, Spain
New method finds higher carnivorous dinosaur biodiversity in Kem Kem beds of Morocco
Alaska dinosaur tracks reveal a lush, wet environment
Other news
Chemists introduce new copper-catalyzed C-H activation strategy
Which countries are more at risk in the global supply chain?
Study suggests Io's volcanoes have been active for 4.5 billion years
Accelerating the discovery of new materials via the ion-exchange method
Global study finds there really are more insects out after dark
Scientists trigger mini-earthquakes in the lab
A brief guide to birdwatching in the age of dinosaurs
Earth's earliest forest revealed in Somerset fossils
Fossil unearthed in New Zealand contains the largest fossil crab claw ever found
One of the best fossil eyes on the planet
Mycoheterotrophic plants as a key to the 'Wood Wide Web'
A hydrocarbon molecule as supplier and energy storage solution for solar energy
