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archive: Oct-Dec 2008
Paleo-news archive: October-December 2008
China finds major dinosaur site
(Dec 31, 2008)
Scientists in China say they believe a group of dinosaur fossils discovered
in the east of the country could be the largest collection ever found.
The researchers, from the Chinese Academy of Sciences, say they have
unearthed 7600 dinosaur bones since March in Shandong province. Most
of the bones date back to the late Cretaceous period which is around
the time when dinosaurs became extinct.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
New flying reptile species found
(Dec 4, 2008)
A new fossil species of flying reptile with a wingspan the size of
a family car has been uncovered by scientists. A researcher at the
University of Portsmouth has identified the new type of pterosaur,
the largest of its kind ever to have been discovered. It would have
flown in the skies above Brazil 115 million years ago.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Did Neanderthal cells cook as the climate
warmed?
(Nov 28, 2008)
Neanderthals may have gone extinct because their cells couldn't cope
with climate change, according to a new hypothesis presented at a
genetics conference this month. Metabolic adaptations to Ice Age Europe
may have proved costly to Neanderthals after the continent's climate
started to change, says Patrick Chinnery, a molecular biologist at
Newcastle University, UK.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
'Grape' is key to fossil puzzle
(Nov 21, 2008)
A single-celled ball about the size of a grape may provide an explanation
for one of the mysteries of fossil history. Writing in Current Biology,
researchers say the creature leaves tracks on the seabed which mirror
fossilised tracks left up to 1.8 billion years ago. Many palaeontologists
believe only multi-celled organisms could have made these tracks.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Frozen hair gives up first mammoth genome
(Nov 19, 2008)
Tufts of frozen woolly mammoth hair have yielded a rough draft of
its genome. It's the most successful attempt to sequence the DNA of
an extinct ancient animal to date, and although we won't see resurrected
mammoths grazing the tundra anytime soon, it could give us a peek
into the reasons for their extinction.
Read
more. Source: New Scientist |
Woolly rhino's ancient migration
(Nov 18, 2008)
The 460,000-year-old skull of a woolly rhino, reconstructed from 53
fragments, is the oldest example of these mighty, ice age beasts ever
found in Europe. The extinct mammals reached a length of three-and-a-half
metres in adulthood and, unlike their modern relatives, were covered
in shaggy hair. Details of the work appear in the journal Quaternary
Science Reviews.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Sabretooth tigers hunted in packs
(Nov 4, 2008)
Forget their ferocious fangs – sabretooth "tigers" were social
animals who lived in family prides, like lions today, according to
UK and US experts. The abundance of S.fatalis fossils in Californian
tar seeps suggests they were packs of scavengers, lured in by the
distress calls of trapped prey. Research in Africa found that audio
playbacks of prey sounds attract social carnivores, but not solitary
hunters.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
New feathered dinosaur discovered
(Oct 24, 2008)
The fossil of a "bizarre" feathered dinosaur from the era before birds
evolved has been discovered in China. Epidexipteryx was very bird-like,
with four long ribbon-like tail feathers – probably used in
display. But the pigeon-sized creature shows no sign of the flight
feathers seen in other bird-like dinosaurs, according to a report
in the journal Nature.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Rock records dino 'dance floor'
(Oct 20, 2008)
Scientists have identified an amazing collection of dinosaur footprints
on the Arizona-Utah border in the US. There are so many prints –
more than 1,000 – that geologists have dubbed the site "a dinosaur
dance floor". Located within the Vermilion Cliffs National Monument,
the marks were long thought simply to be potholes gouged out of the
rock by years of erosion.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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