Paleontologists in Portugal have found several specimens from large-sized ankylopollexian iguanodontians that lived 150 million years ago (Late Jurassic epoch).
Life reconstruction of a large-sized ankylopollexian iguanodontian dinosaur…
Category: Paleontology
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Extinct North American Rhinos Lived in Huge Herds, Paleontologists Say
Paleontologists have examined teeth of Teleoceras major — an extinct species of rhinocerotid that lived in North America from 17.5 to 5 million years ago — found at the Ashfall Fossil Beds in Nebraska, the United States. Here, more than…
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Sink or Swim: The fate of sinking tectonic plates depends on their ancient tectonic histories
Newly published research has revealed that compositional rock anomalies within oceanic plates caused by ancient tectonics influence the trajectory and speed of the plates as they plunge deep into Earth’s mantle.
Between depths of 410 and 660…
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Mediterranean hunter gatherers navigated long-distance sea journeys well before the first farmers
Small, remote islands were long thought to have been the last frontiers of pristine natural systems. Humans are not thought to have been able to reach or inhabit these environments prior to the dawn of agriculture, and the technological shift…
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A wetter ancient Arabia could have enabled easier intercontinental species dispersal
Markowska, M. et al. Nature https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-08859-6 (2025).
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Bibi, F., Kraatz, B., Beech, M. J. & Hill, A. Sands of Time: Ancient Life in the Late Miocene of Abu…
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A Jurassic acanthocephalan illuminates the origin of thorny-headed worms
Kennedy, C. R. Ecology of the Acanthocephala (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2006).
Van Cleave, H. J. Relationships of the Acanthocephala. Am. Nat. 75, 31–47 (1941).
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Conway Morris, S. &…
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Jurassic fossil reveals the origin of parasitic thorny-headed worms
Herlyn, H. in The Evolution and Fossil Record of Parasitism: Identification and Macroevolution of Parasites (eds De Baets, K. & Huntley, J. W.) 273–313 (Springer, 2021).
Conway Morris, S. &…
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Ancient fossil sheds big light on evolution mystery: Solving a 100-year arthropod mystery
For over a century, the Cambrian arthropod Helmetia expansa remained a mystery. Discovered by paleontologist Charles Doolittle Walcott in 1918, it was initially classified as a crustacean. Despite frequent mentions in research papers, this…
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Life recovered rapidly at site of dino-killing asteroid: A hydrothermal system may have helped
About 66 million years ago, an asteroid slammed into the planet, wiping out all non-avian dinosaurs and about 70% of all marine species.
But the crater it left behind in the Gulf of Mexico was a literal hotbed for life enriching the overlying…
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In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history
Just steps from the center of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old Maya city in the heart of modern-day Guatemala, a global team of researchers including scholars from Brown University have unearthed a buried altar that could unlock the secrets of a…
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