Fossils trapped in amber aren’t just beautiful, they may preserve real ecological interactions, including possible parasitism or commensal relationships between ants and mites, as revealed by a new, cutting-edge morphological study of six…
Category: Paleontology
-
MIT study finds Earth’s first animals were likely ancient sea sponges
Researchers at MIT have uncovered new chemical clues in extremely old rocks that suggest some of the earliest animals on Earth were likely ancestors of modern sea sponges.
Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the team…
Continue Reading
-
Scientists compared dinosaurs to mammals for decades but missed this key difference
Imagine a baby Brachiosaurus no bigger than a golden retriever searching for plants alongside its siblings while trying to avoid predators eager for an easy meal. Far away, its parents, towering more than 40 feet tall, continue their lives with…
Continue Reading
-
90-Million-Year-Old Patagonian Fossil Reveals Missing Chapter in Evolution of Alvarezsauroid Dinosaurs
A remarkably complete skeleton of the alvarezsauroid dinosaur species Alnashetri cerropoliciensis from Patagonia, Argentina, as well as two alvarezsauroid specimens from the northern hemisphere reveal how the once-mysterious lineage of…
Continue Reading
-
Atmospheric CO2 drawdown during the Emeishan flood basalt volcanism
Materials
Samples were collected from the Shangsi section (32°20′ N, 105°28′ E, Supplementary Fig. 1), Shangsi Village, Guangyuan City, Sichuan Province, China. The Shangsi section, a prominent candidate for the Global Stratotype Section…
Continue Reading
-
Early Triassic Fossils from Australia Uncover Diverse Marine Amphibian Community
Several 250-million-year-old specimens from museum collections in Australia and the United States have revealed a surprising diversity of trematosaurid temnospondyls in Western Australia, showing that early marine amphibians spread across…
Continue Reading
-
Argentine fossil rewrites evolutionary history of a baffling dinosaur clade
Altangerel, P., Norell, M. A., Chiappe, L. M. & Clark, J. M. Flightless bird from the Cretaceous of Mongolia. Nature 362, 623–626 (1993).
Google Scholar
Qin, Z. et al. Growth and…
Continue Reading
-
Scientists Discover Unusual Long-Legged Ancient Crocodile From 200 Million Years Ago
A new Triassic crocodylomorph from Gloucester sheds light on early crocodile evolution and pre-extinction ecosystems. Scientists have identified a new species of crocodylomorph from the Triassic period based on fossils discovered in Gloucester,…
Continue Reading
-
How the Triceratops Used Its Giant Nose
Explore
In looking at a Triceratops skull, your gaze is naturally drawn to its trio of…
Continue Reading
-
New Sauropod Dinosaur Species Identified in Brazil
Paleontologists in Brazil have identified a previously unknown species of somphospondylan sauropod dinosaur with European affinities, hinting at ancient migration routes that once linked two continents now separated by the Atlantic Ocean.
An…
Continue Reading