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Geology News
Fossils Current Events

U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement agents seized four tons of fossils from a dealer at the 2006 Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Now they are on their way back to Argentina where they were removed from the country illegally.

An 87-million-year-old praying mantis was found in Japan, preserved in amber. The specimen dates back to the Cretaceous period. Worldwide, only six other mantis specimens from this time period are known to exist - but this particular mantis has some unique characteristics.

A 25-foot-long, 65-million-year-old triceratops skeleton found in North Dakota was purchased by an American at a Paris fossil auction for $942,797.

State Paleontologist, John Hoganson, was surprised and disappointed to hear that a 65 million-year-old triceratops found in his home state of North Dakota recently went up for sale in a Paris auction.

Anthropologists in Florida have used fossil evidence to engineer the types of sounds that a Neanderthal larynx would have been capable of. They apparently lacked the quantal vowel sounds of modern speech.

Christie’s is holding an auction today at which they will sell various prehistoric bones and fossils, including a 7.5 meter-long (24.6 feet) Triceratops skeleton. Since the auction of “Sue”, a Tyrannosaurus Rex sold in 1997, it is the first specimen of comparable quality to be put up for auction.

Paleontologists in Grenoble, France use a powerful X-ray machine to locate miniscule prehistoric insects preserved in opaque amber. Then, they can feed selected data into a 3-D model maker to create a giant-sized, fully detailed replica of the fossilized bug. This article features an interesting video clip about the process. Check it out!

This new species, perfectly preserved in sandstone, has given scientists more detailed information than any other plesiosaur fossil to date. It has now been declared the first member of a new genus.

A 130-million-year-old fossil found in Japan is thought to be the world’s oldest fully herbivorous lizard. The fossil raises questions of whether flowering plants existed at this time in history, which is millions of years sooner than when these plants are thought to have appeared.

Cold weather in China caused one of the heaviest ice accumulations in decades to form on the Yellow River. An ice dam broke last week and an enormous flood of water and ice swept down the channel. About 13,000 people were evacuated.

GEOTIMES has an interesting introduction to John Day Fossil Beds National Memorial posted on their website.

Students in a Mesalands Community College paleontology class field trip found a hip bone from an unidentified Triassic period creature that lived about 200 million years ago. Although the bone has some similarities with a coelophysis, it is thought to represent a previously undiscovered early dinosaur or proto-dinosaur.

Paleontologists in France have been analyzing a lump of amber containing seven downy feathers. The perfectly-preserved specimens have given rise to the theory that some dinosaurs may have had downy feathers for insulation.

Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of six previously-unknown species of prehistoric bats. The fossils show that these bats are more primitive members of existing families. The finding is significant because it suggests that bats could have evolved in Africa.

Paleontologists have discovered what is thought to be the oldest primate fossil in North America. The creature, named Teilhardina magnoliana, is a distant relative of the modern-day tarsier. The finding has sparked debate on the geographic origin of the primates.

The Burgess Shale is a Cambrian-age black shale outcropping in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, Canada. It contains a large number of exceptionally well preserved fossils. This article describes one idea about the exceptional preservation of these fossils.

An article at The-Vug.com by Christian C. Burke shows the tools and describes some procedures for cleaning mineral specimens. The presentation of many specimens can be significantly improved by a cleaning and selective removal of obscuring matrix.

Newly discovered bird fossils, dating to the Cretaceous Period about 65 million years ago have been found on the Chatham Islands. Large numbers of fossils have been exposed there by beach erosion.

“More than 55 million years ago, the Earth experienced a rapid jump in global carbon dioxide levels that raised temperatures across the planet. Now, researchers studying plants from that time have found that the rising temperatures may have boosted the foraging of insects.” Quoted from the NSF release.

He might be the largest and meanest frog that ever lived. This big-mouth-frog lived about 70 million years ago, was sixteen inches high and weighed ten pounds.

Chinese and Brazilian scientists have discovered one of the smallest pterosaurs known. Nemicolopterus crypticus is a toothless reptile with a 10-inch wingspan that lived in China about 120 million years ago.

We are starting to find the “good stuff” at the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show. Here are a few more photos of things that we saw today.

Newly found fossils of 106 million-year-old crayfish and their trace fossils might fill important gaps in the evolutionary history of these crustaceans.

Paleontologists in Brazil have discovered a land-bound reptile that they suspect might be a “missing link” to modern-day crocodiles.

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In North Dakota, fossil hunters have found a fossil of a 67 million-year-old duck-billed hadrosaur that has soft tissue preserved. Skin, muscle, tendons and other tissues are preserved in this specimen. This will provide a rare opportunity to check the accuracy of some of the previous ideas that have been inferred from skeletal information alone.

What can you learn about a mammoth if you have one of its molars to examine? Do you think that you can determine its age? Or, determine its gender, or diet, or climate that it lived in, or how long ago it walked the earth? This article explores mammoth dentistry in detail.

Andrew Alden shares some photos of sedimentary structures, dinosaur tracks, burrows, trackmarks, dinosaur bones and outcrops at his about.com Geology site.

University of Kansas researchers have found what is believed to be the oldest jellyfish fossil. This 500 million-year-old specimen was found in Utah. It is very rare to find fossils of this type of soft-bodied organism.

A slab covered with hundreds of fossil retile tracks has been discovered in New Brunswick, Canada. The tracks have five fingers and scales, which is good evidence that they were made by a reptile. They were probably made by Hylonomus lyelli.

A footprint found in Montana’s Hell Creek formation could have been made by a Tyrannosaurus rex about 65 million years ago. Based upon the shape and size of the print, researchers are confident that it was made by either Tyronnosaurus rex or by Nanotyrannus.

A new species of ceratopsian dinosaur has been discovered in Montana. It is thought to be a long sought link between the dinosaurs of Asia and those of North America.

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The remains of at least 25 mammoths were discovered at this site in 1978 but it has remained closed to the public. Now, the city of Waco and Baylor University are discussing a management plan for the site that might enable it to be opened for public viewing.

The Bureau of Land Management will not renew a mining permit in New Mexico because the mine site contains Permian-age trackways.

In 1998 a nearly complete skeleton of a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex was excavated north of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, on leased land. Since then, ownership of the fossil has been in dispute. Was the lease valid or were the fossil hunters trespassing when they removed the fossil? Its finally going to court.

A 30-million-year-old piece of amber from the Dominican Republic contains what might be the oldest known vertebrate eggshell. It is believed th be the shell of a hummingbird egg and if this is confirmed it will also be the oldest evidence of the bird in the Americas.

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Nels Peterson of Montana State University is developing methods to use LIDAR (light detection and ranging) that will produce a three dimensional computer model of dinosaur bones as they are excavated. This will provide valuable information about the animal’s resting place and perhaps some detail about how it lived or died.

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James Fassett, geologist emeritus of the US Geological Survey has dates on a number of dinosaur fossils from New Mexico that date about one million years after the KT Extinction. Could they have survived the extinction only to die out a million years later?

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From the article: “His methods have upset numerous academics, but Larson has become the world’s most successful dealer in the bones of Tyrannosaurus rex and countless other prehistoric specimens retrieved from the great western plains of Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota. Ten years after his release from a federal prison when he fought off damaging allegations of bone-stealing, Larson is riding a new palaeontology boom.”

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In an interview, Scientist Jorge Vago explains how the European Space Agency’s ExoMars rover, scheduled for launch in 2011, will focus on looking for fossil evidence of ancient life on Mars and why such evidence may be easier to find there than it is on Earth.

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The Wyoming Dinosaur Center has a program that allows anyone to join them for one day on a dinosaur dig at their Warm Springs Ranch. During that day you are introduced to the dig site, fossil stabilization, excavation, quarry mapping, and documentation. The participation fee is $150 for adults and $80 for children. If you are really good at the work you might be able to earn “Volunteer” status and participate in future digs without charge.