Science & Technology - Jun 16, 2010 11:17 - 2 Comments

34-million-year-old fig wasp fossil found

U. LEEDS (UK)—The world’s oldest known example of a fig wasp has been found on the Isle of Wight. The fossil wasp is almost identical to the modern species, proving that this tiny but specialized insect has remained virtually unchanged for more than 34 million years. (more…)

Science & Technology - Jun 1, 2010 9:57 - 0 Comments

New ‘wrinkle eye’ dino species confirmed

PENN (US)—A team of paleontologists has described a new species of dinosaur based upon an incomplete skeleton found in western New Mexico. (more…)

Earth & Environment - May 13, 2010 12:13 - 0 Comments

Morocco’s swimming in ancient sea creatures

YALE (US)—Paleontologists have discovered a rich array of exceptionally preserved fossils of marine animals that lived between 480 million and 472 million years ago. The specimens are the oldest yet discovered soft-bodied fossils from the Ordovician, which was marked by intense biodiversification. (more…)

Earth & Environment - May 11, 2010 11:52 - 0 Comments

Reading leaves to predict climate change

PENN STATE (US)—Fossil plant remains from millions of years ago may be the best predictor of future climate change caused by rising levels of carbon dioxide, according to a new study. (more…)

Science & Technology - May 6, 2010 17:10 - 0 Comments

Prehistoric fish leaves behind squiggles

EMORY (US)—The wavy lines etched into a slab of limestone found near Fossil Butte National Monument are prehistoric fish trails, made by Notogoneus osculus as it fed along a lake bottom. (more…)

Science & Technology - Apr 6, 2010 10:09 - 0 Comments

Fossil record offers mixed bag of information

U. CHICAGO (US)—Paleontologists can’t always get what they want, to paraphrase the Rolling Stones, but sometimes they can get what they need. The fossil record captures both the broad sweep of evolutionary changes in life on earth as well as ecological responses to shorter–term local and regional environmental shifts. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 10, 2010 13:39 - 2 Comments

Eggshells preserve elephant bird DNA

Like an outsized ostrich, Aepyornis stood nearly 3m high and its eggs are the largest bird eggs ever known, with a capacity of 11 litres—equivalent to 180-240 chicken eggs or seven ostrich eggs. Most of the birds appear to have died out before AD 1000, when a lost civilization emerged in the south of Madagascar. (Courtesy: U. Sheffield)

Science & Technology - Mar 4, 2010 13:28 - 1 Comment

Dino-cousin stars in Triassic prequel

U. TEXAS (US)—The discovery of a dinosaur-like animal living 10 million years earlier than the oldest known dinosaurs has researchers asking if dinosaurs and other close relatives such as pterosaurs (flying reptiles) might have lived much earlier than previously thought. (more…)

Science & Technology - Mar 3, 2010 11:13 - 1 Comment

Snake caught in the sauropod-eating act

U. MICHIGAN (US)—The remains of an extraordinary fossil unearthed in 67-million-year-old sediments from Gujarat in western India provide a rare glimpse at an unusual feeding behavior in ancient snakes. (more…)

Science & Technology - Feb 4, 2010 16:16 - 0 Comments

Feathered dinosaur in full color

YALE (US)—Scientists have uncovered the vibrant colors that adorned a feathered dinosaur extinct for 150 million years by deciphering microscopic clues hidden within fossils. (more…)

Science & Technology - Dec 16, 2009 4:47 - 0 Comments

Sea cow fossil hints to Madagascar’s past

MCGILL (CANADA)—An ancient little sea cow now has a name. This primitive “dugong” is among the world’s first fully aquatic sea cows, having evolved from terrestrial herbivores that began exploiting coastal waters. (more…)

Earth & Environment, Science & Technology - Dec 10, 2009 16:43 - 3 Comments

Meat-eating dino alters evolutionary tree

TEXAS-AUSTIN (US)—Discovery of a nearly complete skeleton of a previously unknown meat-eating dinosaur may answer questions about early dinosaur evolution and a period of explosive diversification when dinosaurs spread across the supercontinent Pangaea. (more…)

Best of 2009 - Nov 19, 2009 16:08 - 9 Comments

BEST OF 2009: Bizarre band of paleo-crocs

U. CHICAGO (US)/MCGILL (CANADA)—A suite of five ancient crocs, including one with teeth-like boar tusks and another with a snout like a duck’s bill, have been discovered in the Sahara. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Oct 8, 2009 17:44 - 0 Comments

Dinosaurs reacted fast to avoid slip-ups

U. MICHIGAN (US)—Early dinosaurs made on-the-fly adjustments to their movements to cope with slippery and sloping terrain, according to a new investigation of a fossilized tracksite in southern Africa. (more…)

Earth & Environment - Sep 18, 2009 4:00 - 2 Comments

‘Punk-size’ T. rex found in China

Above, the skull of Raptorex is dwarfed by the skull of “Sue,” the famous adult T. rex at the Field Museum. (Credit: Paul Sereno)

Earth & Environment - Aug 28, 2009 10:25 - 0 Comments

Clues to feather’s technicolor past

Researchers have discovered evidence that prehistoric feather fossils from in Germany were once vividly iridescent. The finding could help scientists reconstruct the colorful features of other fossils. “Of course, the ‘Holy Grail’ in this program is reconstructing the colors of the feathered dinosaurs,” says lead author Jakob Vinther. (Credit: Jakob Vinther/Yale University)

Earth & Environment - Aug 6, 2009 4:00 - 0 Comments

Drilling deep to take Earth’s temperature

“We now also know that, although the beginning of ice ages (in the Northern Hemisphere) is linked to greenhouse gases, the change in intensity is related to how ice sheets grow and decay,” says Sindia Sosdian (left in helmet), seen above working with core samples on an earlier expedition.

Earth & Environment - Jul 10, 2009 13:28 - 1 Comment

Dinosaurs of many kinds may have burrowed to survive

On the heels of his discovery in Montana of the first trace fossil of a dinosaur burrow, Emory University paleontologist Anthony Martin has found evidence of more dinosaur burrows—this time on the other side of the world, in Victoria, Australia. Martin believes the likely burrows were made by small ornithopod dinosaurs—herbivores that were prevalent in the region and were about the size of a large, modern-day iguana.

Posts Tagged ‘fossils’