For the first time, researchers have successfully examined metabolism-related molecules preserved inside fossilized bones from animals that lived between 1.3 and 3 million years ago. These chemical traces offer rare insight into the animals…
Category: Paleontology
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Decades-Long Dinosaur Debate Settled: Nanotyrannus Was Real
A new approach using the hyoid bone uncovered distinct growth patterns. A new study has brought clarity to a long-running debate in dinosaur research by strengthening the case that Nanotyrannus was a small, separate species rather than a young…
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Did an exploding comet wipe out the mammoths?
Scientists are continuing to strengthen the case that a fragmented comet exploded in Earth’s atmosphere nearly 13,000 years ago. This event may have played a role in the sudden disappearance of mammoths, mastodons, and many other large Ice Age…
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This strange ancient snake was hiding in a museum for decades
An extinct snake is finally getting its moment in the spotlight, more than 40 years after its fossils were first found.
Scientists have now identified those bones as a brand new species called Paradoxophidion richardoweni, and it could help…
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Fossils Inside Fossils: The Bizarre Discovery Hidden in a Caribbean Cave
Paleontologists have discovered the first known fossilized bee nests built inside ancient bones, uncovered in a cave that came close to being used as a latrine. A cave on Hispaniola preserves rare evidence that ancient bees nested inside fossil…
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Ammonite survival across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary confirmed by new data from Denmark
Smit, J. & Brinkhuis, H. The Geulhemmerberg Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary section (Maastrichtian type area, SE Netherlands); Summary of results and a scenario of events. Geol. Mijnb. 75, 283–293 (1996).
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Earth’s worst extinction was followed by a shockingly fast ocean comeback
Scientists have uncovered more than 30,000 fossilized teeth, bones, and other remains on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen. The fossils come from a 249 million year old marine community that included extinct reptiles, amphibians, bony fish,…
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Ancient Climate Shift Linked to the Mysterious Extinction of the Real-Life “Hobbit” Humans
A new study links climate stress to the disappearance of the early human species Homo floresiensis, known as the “hobbits” of Flores. An international group of researchers, including scientists from the University of Wollongong (UOW), has…
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Study Sheds New Light on Evolutionary Success of Frogs
Frogs have conserved their ecology in the last 45 million years, according to new research led by University College Cork.
Falk et al. show that the geometry of melanosomes in the eyespots of fossil frogs from the Miocene and Eocene is similar…
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160-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Chile
The newly-discovered theropod and sauropod footprints are part of the Late Jurassic Majala Formation, and represent the oldest dinosaur footprints reported for Chile and the western margin of the ancient supercontinent Gondwana.
Paleoartistic…
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