According to new research from Keele University and the Universidad de Alicante, near-Earth explosions of giant O- and B-type stars occur at a rate of 2.5 per one billion year; this result supports the view that such events could have caused…
Category: Paleontology
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Dark coats may have helped the earliest mammals hide from hungry dinosaurs
Zebra stripes? Leopard print? Neither were in vogue among the earliest mammals during the Age of Dinosaurs.
Early mammals and their close relatives probably sported dark, drab coats from snout to tail, researchers report in the March…
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New name for one of the world’s rarest rhinoceroses
A new study revealed significant differences in the appearance and behaviour of the two one-horned Asiatic rhinoceros species, challenging long-standing classifications and supporting a re-evaluation of their status.
The study, led by zoologist…
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Dozens of 3-toed dinosaurs leave their mark in Australia
A University of Queensland researcher has confirmed a boulder at a regional school contains one of the highest concentrations of dinosaur footprints per square metre ever documented in Australia.
Dr Anthony Romilio from UQ’s Dinosaur Lab has…
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Electromagnetic fields and dinosaur choir win international instrument contest
After narrowing the field to just 10 finalists last month, Georgia Tech’s 27th annual Guthman Musical Instrument Competition has officially announced this year’s winning melodic inventions. And to celebrate, the university has made…
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New Fossils Reveal Diverse Terrestrial Ecosystem 75,000 Years after End-Permian Mass Extinction
Searching for land refugia becomes imperative for human survival during the hypothetical sixth mass extinction. Studying past comparable crises can offer insights, but there is no fossil evidence of diverse megafloral ecosystems surviving the…
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200-Million-Year-Old Three-Toed Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Australia
Paleontologists have studied and described three previously unknown dinosaur track-bearing surfaces from a locality near Biloela in Queensland, Australia.
Dinosaur track-bearing surface from the Dunn Creek mining area of the Precipice…
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Fragment of a human face aged over one million years discovered
The discovery of a human facial fragment aged over one million years represents the oldest known face in western Europe and confirms the region was inhabited by two species of human during the early Pleistocene, finds a new study involving a UCL…
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palaeontologist who solved a problem that vexed Darwin
Credit: Yale Univ.
Elisabeth Vrba’s meticulous studies of fossil and living mammals challenged the conventional view of evolution. Instead of a process of slow, continuous adaptive changes driven by natural selection, she linked episodes of…
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First report of a nearly complete comatulid crinoid (Comatulida, Echinodermata) from the Cretaceous of Australia
Hess, H. & Messing, C. G. Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, part T, Echinodermata 2, Crinoidea Vol. 3 1–261 (The University of Kansas, 2011).
Meyer, D. L. & Macurda, D. B. Adaptive radiation of comatulid crinoids. Paleobiology 3, 74–82…
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