How could a 300 million-year-old amphibian get a name like “FedEx”? Because he was found on land owned by the package carrier. The rare amphibian was found near Pittsburgh by an amateur fossil hunter.
Since very small organisms like plankton form the base of the ocean’s food chain, anything that affects them will impact most marine life. Microscopic aquatic fossils are being used to compile latitudinal details on the mass extinction events of 65 MYA.
A new fossil discovery was made in Tanzania of a dinosaur-like creature that lived about 10 million years before the first dinosaur. Characteristics of this animal suggest that the first dinosaur might have lived earlier than previously believed.
Scientists from three universities have written papers on how the fossilized primate Darwinius masillae (“Ida”) cannot be classified as a haplorhine – the primate category that contains monkeys, apes and humans. Rather, it is more likely a strepsirrhine – of the branch with lorises and lemurs.
A group of fossils from Gujarat Province, India reveal a dramatic snapshot in time: a dinosaur nest being invaded by a snake. The nest contains two eggs, a baby sauropod, and a Sanejeh indicus snake.
Polar bear fossils are not a common find, so information about the bears’ evolution is relatively scarce. Researchers have sequenced the DNA of a Norwegian polar bear fossil, and conclude that the species descended from brown bears, and then evolved notably in the late Pleistocene.
Sauropod skulls are extremely rare and only a few complete ones have been found. BYU researchers have found the first complete sauropod skulls known from the Cretaceous of the Western Hemisphere in Dinosaur National Monument in eastern Utah. Listen to how excited these paleontologists are about having these Abydosaurus skulls!
Sauropod skulls are extremely rare and only a few complete ones have been found. BYU researchers have found the first complete sauropod skulls known from the Cretaceous of the Western Hemisphere in Dinosaur National Monument in eastern Utah. Listen to how excited these paleontologists are about having these Abydosaurus skulls!
Last week, we visited the 2010 Gem, Mineral, and Fossil Showcase in Tucson, AZ – and it was unbelievable! We took lots of pictures to share with you. Even if you weren’t able to attend, you can still check out some huge amethyst geodes, giant fossils, gem and mineral specimens, exhibits, art, and more.
The Doushantuo fossil beds in China have provided some clues about the geochemical complexities of the early ocean. It is possible that in the Ediacaran Period, oceans became sulfidic and then ferruginous at greater depths.
Paleobotanists have come up with a new theory about Prototaxites fossils: perhaps the creatures were composed of Paleozoic moss-like mats of liverwort, similar to today’s Marchantia.
The enormous Titanoboa snake probably ate crocodiles for breakfast, according to fossils from the Cerrejon coal mines of Colombia. The pits contain fossils of the ancient snake and Cerrejonisuchus improcerus, a newly-discovered, crocodile-like species that was around 2 meters in length.
As man evolved, his brain size increased. However, not all primates have developed bigger brains through history; the gorilla, for instance, has grown more in body mass. Researchers at the Universities of Cambridge and Durham are studying brain and body development in primates to help unravel the enigma of the Homo floresiensis, or the “hobbit” fossil, which has a small brain in comparison to modern-day humans.
There is not an abundance of well-preserved dinosaur fossils in the Bisti/De-Na-Zin Wilderness of New Mexico. So, finding two almost-complete members of the T. Rex family there was a surprise. Bistahieversor sealeyi is a new species, and appears to be unique to the area.
DOHaD, or the Developmental Origins of Health and Disease Hypothesis, states that the health of a person during early development can predict their longevity. Some prehistoric teeth found in Peru support this hypothesis. Skulls of people who died young were more likely to have striated tooth enamel, an indicator of troubled formation.
Michael Heads, Ph.D., of the Buffalo Museum of Science, has a theory on primate evolution that differs from most others. He believes that primates did not evolve from one singular location, but were dispersed across Pangaea and evolved in independent groups due to geologic events, such as plate tectonics and volcanic activity.
Artists’ renderings of dinosaurs have changed as our knowledge and understanding of them have grown. Here is a nice slideshow of colorful dinosaur art from National Geographic. Species depicted include: Sinosauropteryx, Deinonychus, Oviraptor, Tyrannosaurus rex, Archaeopteryx, Caudipteryx zoui, Gigantoraptor, and Beipiaosaurus. There are also photos of Sinosauropteryx and Archaeopteryx fossils.
There has been a long-standing debate on what caused the extinction of some Australian megafauna in the late Pleistocene – was it humans or climate? Direct dating of some fossilized teeth in Cuddie Springs supports the human intervention theory.
The Royal Society has an interactive feature called “Turning the Pages” that allows visitors to explore historic documents from their collection. Available for viewing at this time are items dating from 1681 to 1843: Constitutions of Carolina by John Locke, wildflower and grass watercolors by Richard Waller, memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s life by William Stukeley, anatomical studies by Andrew van Rysmdyk, a letter on iron bridge design by Thomas Paine, a fossil notebook with trilobite drawings by Henry James, and specimens of calligraphy and natural history illustration.
Some fossilized animal tracks in Poland are inspiring some bold theories. Land-roaming tetrapods could have evolved 18 million years before we thought, and coexisted with their elpistostegid fish ancestors for over ten million years.
A team of researchers at the University of Bristol has used micro-tomography to examine the deciduous and permanent teeth of the Lagar Velho skeleton – the skeleton of an early modern human child found in Portugal in the late 1990s. The teeth were compared to those of Neanderthals, Pleistocene humans, and modern-day humans. The findings are summarized in this article.
The largest animals in the world, baleen whales, have a filter (baleen) in their mouths to separate food from water and sand. A dwarf whale fossil found in Australia, Mammalodon colliveri, may shed some light on how the baleen has evolved.
Reuters has assembled a slideshow of some of their space and science photos from 2009. Included are images of the Soyuz space capsule landing, some astronaut photographs, the space shuttle Atlantis, the Darwinopterus fossil, an ISS spacewalk, and more.
Molars can be used to help determine the age of fossilized primates. The development of these teeth coincides with varying stages of the animals’ lives.
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Hobart King
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