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archive: Apr-Jun 2007
Paleo-news archive: April-June 2007
'First west Europe tooth' found
(Jun 30, 2007)
Scientists in Spain say that they have found a tooth from a distant
human ancestor that is more than one million years old. The tooth,
a pre-molar, was discovered on Wednesday at the Atapuerca site in
northern Spain's Burgos Province. It represented western Europe's
"oldest human fossil remain", a statement from the Atapuerca Foundation
said.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Tropical giant penguin discovered
(Jun 26, 2007)
A giant penguin who preferred the tropics to the southern oceans has
been discovered by a team of scientists. The fossilised remains of
the penguin, who lived some 36 million years ago, were discovered
in what is today Peru. About 1.5 metres (5 ft) tall, the penguin would
have looked quite different from its modern-day cousins.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Feathered dino was twice your height and
had claws
(Jun 13, 2007)
Imagine an ostrich that tipped the scales at 1400 kilograms, standing
twice as tall as a human, with a solid tail and massive body, plus
long, feathered arms with sharp claws, and a turtle-like beak. That’s
how a newly discovered dinosaur called Gigantoraptor looked as it
roamed what is now China about 70 million years ago.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Fossil traces deep dinosaur roots
(Jun 13, 2007)
Scientists have described a new primitive dinosaur species, Eocursor
parvus, which lived in the Late Triassic – about 210 million
years ago. Unearthed in South Africa's Free State, the creature appears
to have been a small, agile plant-eater. The team tells a Royal Society
journal that Eocursor sheds light on the early evolution of the Ornithischia.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
T. rex was 'slow-turning plodder'
(Jun 5, 2007)
A Tyrannosaurus rex would have had great difficulty getting its jaws
on fast, agile prey, a study confirms. A US team has used detailed
computer models to work out the weight of a typical "king of the dinosaurs",
and determine how it ran and turned. The results indicate a 6-8 tonne
T. rex was unlikely to have topped 40km/h (25mph) and would have taken
a couple of seconds to swivel 45 degrees.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Upright walking 'began in trees'
(Jun 1, 2007)
The ancestors of humans began walking upright while they were still
living in trees – not out on open land, according to a new theory.
The traditional view is of bipedalism evolved gradually from the four-legged
"knuckle-walking" displayed by chimpanzees and gorillas today. Now,
a study published in the journal Science disputes this idea.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Genes shed light on fish fingers
(May 26, 2007)
A genetic study has shed light on the mystery of how fish made the
move from water to land millions of years ago. Previous research had
suggested that fish had made an abrupt genetic jump to acquire land-friendly
limbs. But a US team has now shown this event was not an evolutionary
novelty and the transition was far more gradual.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Tracks suggest dinos could swim
(May 24, 2007)
Ancient footprints have provided compelling evidence that some dinosaurs
were able to swim, scientists report. The 15m (50ft) trackway that
reveals the animal's underwater odyssey was discovered in the Cameros
Basin in Spain, once a vast lake. The S-shaped prints suggest the
beast clawed at sediment on the lake floor as it swam in about 3m
(10ft) of water. The marks are about 125 million years old, dating
to the Early Cretaceous, the team writes in the journal Geology.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Giant fossil rainforest unearthed
(Apr 25, 2007)
The discovery of a vast fossil forest hundreds of metres underground
has provided an extraordinary picture of some of Earth's earliest
plants. The exquisitely preserved remains were unearthed in a US coalmine
in Illinois, and date back to 300 million years ago. Writing in the
journal Geology, a UK-US team said a diverse array of now extinct
fossilised flora could be seen.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Fossilized trees mystery solved
(Apr 19, 2007)
A Cardiff fossil expert has identified a pair of 385-million-year-old
trees, thought to be among the world's oldest. American researchers
found fossilized remains in New York state two years ago, but their
identity was unknown. They called in Dr Christopher Berry from Cardiff
University, who confirmed the remains are from the Genus Wattieza,
a fern-like plant which formed earth's first known forests.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Protein links T. rex to chickens
(Apr 13, 2007)
Researchers compared organic molecules preserved in the T. rex fossils
with those of living animals, and found they were similar to chicken
protein. The discovery of protein in dinosaur bones is a surprise
– organic material was not thought to survive this long. A US
team of researchers have published the finding in Science
journal.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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