Tiny fossil teeth from Colorado are revealing new clues about the very first relatives of primates, including humans. Scientists have discovered tiny fossils of Purgatorius, the earliest known relative of all primates including humans, in a more…
Category: Paleontology
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These Tiny Teeth Could Change What We Know About Human Origins
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New Giant Mosasaur Species Discovered in Morocco
Paleontologists have identified a new, giant species of the mosasaur genus Pluridens from the Late Cretaceous phosphate deposits of Morocco. Named Pluridens imelaki, the species belonged to a group of relatively slender-jawed mosasaurs and may…
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Restoring Panama to When Prehistoric Beasts Roamed the Jungle
Panama was a much wilder place 17,000 years ago. The lush vegetation provided food for huge prehistoric beasts like giant ground sloths, massive armadillos, and even a species of elephant. That all changed after humans showed up, and new research…
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Strange 90-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Rewrites History
A newly described Patagonian fossil reveals the evolutionary origins and global spread of the tiny alvarezsaur dinosaurs. Researchers led by University of Minnesota Twin Cities paleontologist Peter Makovicky and Argentine scientist Sebastian…
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The Dainty Dinosaur That’s Rewriting Evolutionary History
Alvarezsaurs were strange, small dinosaurs adapted to feed on ants and termites. Their stubby arms, powered by big chest muscles, ended in single thumb claws, suggesting a digging lifestyle. Tubular snouts housed long jaws peppered with tiny…
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T. rex took 40 years to reach full size, study finds
For many years, paleontologists have studied annual growth rings preserved inside the fossilized leg bones of Tyrannosaurus rex. Much like the rings inside a tree trunk, these marks help scientists estimate how old the dinosaurs were when they…
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2700-year-old teeth reveal the hidden lives of Iron Age Italians
Teeth can hold remarkable clues about how people lived thousands of years ago. A new study published in the open access journal PLOS One, led by Roberto Germano of Sapienza University of Rome and colleagues, shows how the teeth of Iron Age…
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Southernmost Fossils of Earliest Primate Relative Unearthed in Colorado
The newly-discovered minuscule fossils of Purgatorius — a shrew-sized mammal considered the earliest known relative of all primates, including humans, and long thought to be confined to northern North America — extend the known range of…
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Paleontologists Solve the Mystery of a Twisted Jawbone With Sideways Teeth
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Years ago, in a dry riverbed in Brazil, paleontologists discovered a strikingly…
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Largest Silurian fish illuminates the origin of osteichthyan characters
Botella, H., Blom, H., Dorka, M., Ahlberg, P. E. & Janvier, P. Jaws and teeth of the earliest bony fishes. Nature 448, 583–586 (2007).
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