By applying computational engineering methods to model weight and gravitational forces acting on sauropod femurs, researchers found that these massive four-legged dinosaurs were generally able to stay upright while feeding, mating, and defending…
Category: Paleontology
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These Giant Long-Necked Dinosaurs Could Stand Upright – and Scientists Finally Figured Out Why
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It Shouldn’t Exist: Scientists Find Signs of Ancient Life in the Most Unlikely Place
Deep-sea sediment layers show rare microbial wrinkle structures that formed in environments far beyond the reach of sunlight. Dr. Rowan Martindale, a paleoecologist and geobiologist at the University of Texas at Austin, was hiking through…
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Scientists Discover a 23-Million-Year-Old “Arctic Rhino” in Canada
Museum scientists have identified and described an extinct rhinoceros species from Canada’s High Arctic. Researchers at the Canadian Museum of Nature have identified and formally described a previously unknown species of extinct rhinoceros from…
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Tyrannosaurids Took Their Time Growing to 17,000 Pounds
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How long did it take for a Tyrannosaurus rex to grow to its maximum size of more…
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14,400-Year-Old Woolly Rhinoceros Genome Shows No Evidence of Recent Inbreeding
The woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is a cold-adapted herbivore that went extinct around 14,000 years ago, but little is known about their population decline prior to extinction. In new research, scientists from the Centre for…
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Mummified cave cheetahs inform rewilding actions in Saudi Arabia
Ripple, W. J. et al. Status and ecological effects of the world’s largest carnivores. Science 343, 1241484 (2014).
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Durant, S. M. et al. The global decline of cheetah Acinonyx…
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The Secrets of an Undigested Hunk of Woolly Rhinoceros Meat
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The stomach of a preserved wolf puppy from the Siberian permafrost concealed a…
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These Alien-Looking Fossils May Explain the Origins of Complex Life
Exceptionally preserved fossils from the Ediacaran period challenge what scientists thought was possible in sandstone. In the fossil record, creatures without hard shells or skeletons, such as jellyfish, are rarely preserved for long periods of…
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New 190-Million-Year-Old “Sword Dragon” Rewrites Ichthyosaur Evolution
A uniquely preserved ichthyosaur from the Pliensbachian period helps resolve when a major evolutionary shift occurred among Jurassic marine reptiles. A nearly complete skeleton discovered along the UK’s Jurassic Coast has been identified as a…
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Thick-Skulled Troodontid Dinosaur Unearthed in Mexico
A team of paleontologists from Mexico and the United States has identified a new species of bird-like dinosaur with an unusually thick and domed skull, suggesting it may have used head-butting during combat with members of its own species.
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