Palaeontologists from the Fundación Conjunto Paleontológico de Teruel-Dinópolis have published new research in the scientific journal Vertebrate Zoology. The article describes a partial stegosaurian skull discovered in the municipality of…
Category: Paleontology
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Chemists recreate how RNA might have reproduced for first time
Chemists at UCL and the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth — a key process in the origin of life.
Scientists believe that, in the earliest life forms,…
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Dating the evolution of oxygenic photosynthesis using La-Ce geochronology
Cardona, T. Thinking twice about the evolution of photosynthesis. Open Biol. 9, 180246 (2019).
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Sánchez-Baracaldo, P. & Cardona, T. On…
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Oldest whale bone tools discovered
Humans were making tools from whale bones as far back as 20,000 years ago, according to a study conducted by scientists from the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB), the French…
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New Species of Jurassic Herbivorous Dinosaur Discovered in China
A new genus and species of eusauropod dinosaur has been identified from a fossilized partial skeleton with a nearly complete skull found in the Chinese province of Gansu.
Skull of Jinchuanloong niedu in left lateral view. Image credit: Li et…
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Megatooth Sharks were Opportunistic Supercarnivores, New Research Reveals
In a study published today in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters, paleontologists analyzed the ratio of two different zinc isotopes in the dental enamel of 19 species from an Early Miocene marine ecosystem, including the megatooth…
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Nebesna sotnia gen. & sp. nov. from Baltic amber supports a Pangean distribution of the amphinotic family Ameletopsidae (Ephemeroptera)
Systematic placement of Nebesna gen. nov.
Based on the significantly reduced size of its hind wings and a costal brace anteriorly fused with the costal vein, Nebesna gen. nov. is clearly nested within the crown-group Ephemeroptera. Nebesna gen….
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Three-dimensional structure, crystallography, and magnetism of giant magnetofossils
Weiner, S. & Dove, P. M. An overview of biomineralization processes and the problem of the vital effect. Rev. Mineral. Geochem. 54, 1–29 (2003).
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Pérez-Huerta, A.,…
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New Research Sheds Light on Emergence and Demise of Giant Sloths
Today, there are only two sloth species, but historically, there were dozens of them, including one with a bottle-nosed snout that ate ants and another that likely resembled the ancestors of modern armadillos. Most of these extinct sloths also…
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Paleontologists Identify Strange New Species of Elasmosaur: Traskasaura sandrae
Traskasaura sandrae, a 12-m-long elasmosaur (a type of plesiosaur) that lived in the Cretaceous seas, 85 million years ago, had a strange mix of primitive and derived traits unlike any other elasmosaur; its unique suite of adaptations enabled…
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