The Great Oxidation Event is thought to have occurred about 2.4 billion years ago, when large amounts of oxygen became present in our planet’s atmosphere. A study of Australian shale samples indicates that the oceans were producing oxygen millions of years before this.
A geologist and an environmental toxicologist at Clemson University believe that toxic algae may have played an important role in some of Earth’s mass extinctions.
“The 20th century is the only period during the past 200 millennia in which aquatic indicators reflect increased warming, despite the declining effect of slow changes in the tilt of the Earth’s axis which, under natural conditions, would lead to climatic cooling.” Quoted from the University at Buffalo press release.
The Smithsonian Museum is preparing a new addition: The Hall of Human Origins. It will feature how humans evolved over the last 6 million years, and is slated to open on the museum’s 100th anniversary in March 2010.
Some fossils found in northeastern China could be the “missing link” in pterosaur evolution. The Darwinopterus, named after Charles Darwin, has characteristics of both earlier and more recent Mesozoic reptile species.
A new model for the deposition of banded iron formations offers a more complete picture of Earth’s environment between 3.8 and 1.7 billion years ago, including interactions between rocks, water, and air.
In this video, Penn State professor Richard Alley, one of the world’s leading climate researchers, explores some of the basic research behind climate change and explains how climate change might impact our future. He is interviewed by Patty Satalia, host of the Penn State “Conversations” interview series.
This interesting fact sheet has fossil photos, environment descriptions and paleogeographic maps for ten fossil sites in Utah spanning a time range of 500 million years. Featured fossils include trilobites, fish, plants, dinosaurs and ice age mammals.
Here is an easy-to-print geologic time scale in Microsoft Word format that we offer as a reference for students and teachers.
Please feel free to print this time scale, place it on your website, bookmark it or link to it as it suits your purpose. It lists the eras and periods with a scale of years for easy reference.
“A team of paleontologists and ornithologists has discovered evidence of vivid iridescent colors in fossil feathers more than 40 million years old. Discovery of a color-producing nanostructure in a fossil feather opens up the possibility that we may someday be able to determine such colors in fossil birds, as well as in feathered dinosaurs.” Quoted from the NSF news release.
The deepest ice core ever was taken from the Greenland ice sheet this summer. Researchers will now evaluate the core which is thought to contain a 120,000-year-long climate record.
Today is the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the Burgess Shale fossils by Charles Walcott in British Columbia, Canada. One reason for their fame is that they are an excellent example of soft-bodied preservation of Middle Cambrian organisms.
It is difficult to know for sure what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, or other large groups of species, in the history of our planet. While an asteroid could be the culprit in the dinosaurs’ case, astronomers from the University of Washington think that comets were probably not responsible for any mass extinction.
A flat of fine-grained limestone found in France has what are thought to be 140-million-year-old landing tracks of pterosaurs. This runway might provide interesting information about how these creatures flew, landed and walked.
“Scientists at Imperial College London have created detailed 3D computer models of two fossil spiders that lived about 300 million years ago. The study reveals some of the physical traits that helped them to hunt for prey and evade predators.” Quoted from the Imperial College London release.
Large bombardments of meteorites approximately four billion years ago could have helped to make the early Earth and Mars more habitable for life by modifying their atmospheres.
Andrew Alden has a nice gallery of sedimentary structure photos. Ripple marks, foreset beds, flame structure, imbrication, graded bedding, lamination, load casts, mudcracks and more. Don’t miss the gas-escape structures.
Lonsdaleite diamonds found on California’s Channel Islands are suggestive of a cosmic impact some 12,900 years ago. This impact is one of several theories on how some species became extinct at the end of the ice age.
Could evidence of life on Mars be preserved in structures similar to the stromatolites found on Earth? If microbial communities once flourished there the traces left behind might be similar to stromatolites or microbial reefs.
Neanderthals disappeared around the same time that modern humans spread out of Africa. A study published the Journal of Human Evolution, suggests that Neanderthals and early humans had violent interactions which may have played an important part in the extinction of Neanderthals.
An article in the Journal of Geophysical Research suggests that the eruption of Indonesia’s Toba supervolcano about 74,000 years ago triggered a volcanic winter that reduced human population and caused ice sheet advance.
This article from EARTH Magazine tells the geologic history of Utah’s Canyonlands National Park. It also has useful information for anyone planning a trip to the park.
Geologists constantly deal with fragmentary data. It’s what we are supposed to be good at. One drill hole per mile, a liter of water from a river, a bag of coal from a mine…. A post on QuoteSnack.com features an interesting quote from Charles Darwin on the relationship between confidence and knowledge. If you enjoy quotes you will like this one.
About seventy paleontologists attending the North American Paleontological Convention at the University of Cincinnati took a field trip to the Creation Museum, just across the Ohio River in Petersburg, Kentucky. An article in the New York Times describes their visit.
This news release by the University of California, Berkley describes what has been called: “The World’s Richest and Most Extensive Marine Bone Deposit.” How could such a deposit form? Was it a “killing field” or the location of a “sudden die-off?”
The fossilized teeth of a three-toed horse, Anchitherium clarencei, have been found in the Panama Canal. Excavations at the canal are providing scientists with the opportunity to examine fresh outcrops and gain new insights about the area.
The banded iron formations are thought to contain twenty times more oxygen than is currently in Earth’s atmosphere – yet these formations were deposited when Earth’s atmosphere was not rich in oxygen. How did this occur?
This article from UC Davis illustrates how the Earth’s mantle formed. A 144-processor computer was used to determine the effects of high heat and pressure in the solidifying planet.
An article on the ScienceMag website explains why some investigators believe that many Arctic mammals from about 50 million years ago did not migrate south to avoid the annual six months of darkness.
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Hobart King
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