Crocodile fossils found in Portsmouth seawalls
A group of students who headed to the beach last year for some fresh air amid the gloom of the pandemic, chanced upon a crocodile bone in the old seawall that led to the discovery of other fossils......»»
How citizen science is saving our seas
Ocean adventurers teaming up with scientists can improve the health of our seas, claims new research from the University of Portsmouth......»»
Key moment in the evolution of life on Earth captured in fossils
Curtin-led research has for the first time precisely dated some of the oldest fossils of complex multicellular life in the world, helping to track a pivotal moment in the history of Earth when the seas began teeming with new lifeforms—after 4 billi.....»»
Even the oldest eukaryote fossils show dazzling diversity and complexity
The sun has just set on a quiet mudflat in Australia's Northern Territory; it'll set again in another 19 hours. A young moon looms large over the desolate landscape. No animals scurry in the waning light. No leaves rustle in the breeze. No lichens en.....»»
Fossil birds: Surfaces of cervical vertebrae show conspicuous tubercles that may have served as "internal bony armor"
An international research team has examined unusual skeletal structures of various European bird fossils from the Eocene. The bone surfaces of the approximately 40- to 50-million-year-old cervical vertebrae show conspicuous tubercles, whose origin as.....»»
Fossil evidence of photosynthesis gets a billion years older
Remains of cells from two sites show structures similar to those in present cells. Enlarge / At left, one of the fossils, with stacks of thylakoids highlighted using yellow bars; at right, a higher magnification of the end of the.....»»
"Giant" predator worms more than half a billion years old discovered in North Greenland
Fossils of a new group of animal predators have been located in the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland. These large worms may be some of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonized the water column more than 518 mi.....»»
New research shows "juvenile" T. rex fossils are a distinct species of small tyrannosaur
A new analysis of fossils believed to be juveniles of T. rex now shows they were adults of a small tyrannosaur, with narrower jaws, longer legs, and bigger arms than T. rex. The species, Nanotyrannus lancensis, was first named decades ago but later r.....»»
3D preservation of trilobite soft tissues sheds light on convergent evolution of defensive enrollment
They'd been in the collections of the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology (MCZ) since the 1870s when they were first discovered. Nestled in among the largest collection of trilobites, the unique fossils rested in drawers until 145 years later when.....»»
Mysterious fruit found to be the oldest known fossils of the Frankincense and Myrrh family
Early in the 1970s, a paleontologist working on the outskirts of an Indian village found small, bead-like fossils embedded in the gray chert dotting the surrounding fields. The site was notorious for turning up plant fossils that were difficult to id.....»»
Better fossil dating could help to clear up human evolution
Timing is crucial when it comes to understanding the origins of humanity. Developing better dating techniques to discover the ages of key fossils will help scientists to discover how Homo sapiens and our relatives evolved......»»
Molecular fossils study sheds light on feeding strategy shift in ancient life
Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. Research published in Nature Communications combines geology and genetics, showing how change.....»»
It turns out, this plant fossil is really a baby turtle fossil
From the 1950s to the 1970s, a Colombian priest named Padre Gustavo Huertas collected rocks and fossils near a town called Villa de Levya. Two of the specimens he found were small, round rocks patterned with lines that looked like leaves; he classifi.....»»
Rains pound southern India ahead of cyclone
Rains lashed southern India's city of Chennai on Monday ahead of the landfall of a powerful cyclone, with a crocodile spotted swimming the streets and cars floating away......»»
New fossil assemblage highlights complexity of classifying silesaurid phylogeny
A set of fossils recovered in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil's southernmost state, has brought an extra layer of complexity to the study of the evolutionary history of silesaurids, a family of dinosauriforms (dinosaurs and their close relatives) that live.....»»
Feathery moa"s fossilized footprints, ancient age revealed
Cosmogenic nuclide dating, a method commonly used in dating coastal areas and alluvial riverbeds for landscape reconstruction, is also useful for calculating the age of trace fossils, such as a footprint, where no remains of the animal are preserved......»»
Astronomers discover how tiny dwarf galaxies form ‘fossils’
When tiny dwarf galaxies age and begin to erode away, they can transform into an even smaller and more dense shape, called an ultra-compact dwarf galaxy......»»
Cultural artifacts serve as "cognitive fossils," helping uncover the psychology of the past
No two societies in history think exactly alike. In fact, the mindset of a given society throughout history can help historians unpack important clues about the effects of psychological shifts—such as more social trust or more openness......»»
A new trail to exoplanets: Team successfully detects ammonia isotopologues in atmosphere of cold brown dwarf
They reveal the origin of wine, the age of bones and fossils, and they serve as diagnostic tools in medicine. Isotopes and isotopologues—molecules that differ only in the composition of their isotopes—also play an increasingly important role in a.....»»
Fossils tell tale of last primate to inhabit North America before humans
The story of Ekgmowechashala, the final primate to inhabit North America before Homo sapiens or Clovis people, reads like a spaghetti Western: A grizzled and mysterious loner, against the odds, ekes out an existence on the American Plains......»»
Bizarre new fossils shed light on ancient plankton
A scientist from the University of Leicester has discovered a new type of fossil that reveals life in the oceans half a billion years ago. The tiny organisms, detailed in a new study in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Scien.....»»