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Paleo news: Latest from the world of fossils
Oldest dinosaur nest site found
(Jan 25, 2012)
A nesting site for dinosaur eggs found in South Africa is 100 million
years older than the previous oldest site. Palaeontologists found
10 separate nests, each containing clutches of up to 34 eggs measuring
6 to 7 cm. The fossils are of the prosauropod Massospondylus,
a relative of the long-necked sauropods such as Diplodocus.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Powys fossils 'shed new light' on ocean
community evolution
(Dec 19, 2011)
Scientists believe they have made a remarkable discovery of fossils
said to be more than 450 million years old in a disused Powys quarry.
They think they are of a kind never before discovered. The well-preserved
organisms from the Ordovician period, which began about 495m years
ago, lived in what is now the town of Llandrindod Wells, which was
partially under water.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
'Earliest' evidence of human violence
(Nov 22, 2011)
A healed fracture discovered on an ancient skull from China may be
the oldest documented evidence of violence between humans, a study
has shown. The individual, who lived 150,000-200,000 years ago, suffered
blunt force trauma to the right temple – possibly from being
hit with a projectile. But the ancient hunter-gatherer – whose
sex is unclear – survived to tell the tale: the injury was completely
healed by the time of the person's death.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Tiny but toothy mammal unearthed
(Nov 3, 2011)
An extraordinary looking, mouse-sized, fossil animal is shedding new
light on the ancient history of mammals. With a thin snout, beady
eyes and long canines, the creature would have looked remarkably like
that fictional sabre-toothed squirrel of Ice Age movie-fame. But Cronopio
dentiacutus is one of the very few mammal specimens to come out
of South America from the era when dinosaurs ruled the Earth.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Large dinosaurs migrated huge distances,
say scientists
(Nov 2, 2011)
They may be yellowed and worn but these ancient teeth and jaw fragment
have something very revealing to say about how modern humans conquered
the globe. The specimens, unearthed in Italy and the UK, have just
been confirmed as the earliest known remains of Homo sapiens
in Europe. Careful dating suggests they are more than 41,000 years
old, and perhaps as much as 45,000 years old in the case of the Italian
"baby teeth".
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Large dinosaurs migrated huge distances,
say scientists
(Oct 28, 2011)
The largest dinosaurs to walk the Earth may have embarked on seasonal
migrations that covered hundreds of kilometers when local watering
holes dried up and food became scarce. Evidence that giant sauropods
set off on epic journeys came to light when scientists examined fossilized
teeth recovered from the remains of beasts unearthed in Wyoming and
Utah.
Read
more. Source: The Guardian |
Archaeopteryx regains its perch on the bird
family tree
(Oct 26, 2011)
Archaeopteryx, the famous feathered fossil, was probably the oldest
and most primitive bird after all. For 150 years the creature occupied
top spot on the avian evolutionary tree until this summer when the
discovery of a close relative suggested it was a mere bird-like dinosaur.
Now it looks to have regained its previous perch thanks to a more
sophisticated anatomical analysis.
Read
more. Source: The Guardian |
'Ugly' fossil is largest toothed pterosaur
(Oct 5, 2011)
A fossilized section of beak found in the UK is from the world's largest
toothed pterosaur, say scientists. The fossil, dated to 100 million
years ago, was kept at London's Natural history Museum but had not
been thoroughly studied. Using the fragment to reconstruct the extinct
beast, experts estimated that its wingspan measured up to 7m.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Old fossils solve mystery of earliest bird
extinction
(Sep 21, 2011)
Many early bird species suffered from the same catastrophic extinction
as the dinosaurs, new research has shown. The meteorite impact that
coincided with the disappearance of the dinosaurs 65 million years
ago, also saw a rapid decline in primitive bird species. Only a few
bird groups survived through the mass extinction, from which all modern
birds are descended.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
African fossils put new spin on human origins
story
(Sep 8, 2011)
The ancient remains of two human-like creatures found in South Africa
could change the way we view our origins. The 1.9-million-year-old
fossils were first described in 2010, and given the species name Australopithecus
sediba. But the team behind the discovery has now come back with
a deeper analysis.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Exciting stone tool find in Kenya
(Sep 4, 2011)
The world's earliest sophisticated stone tools have been found near
Lake Turkana in northwest Kenya. The teardrop-shaped hand-axes date
to about 1.76 million years ago, and would have been used for a range
of tasks from chopping wood to cutting up meat. They would have been
so useful in fact that scientists describe them as the "Swiss army
knife" of the Stone Age.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
'Oldest' woolly rhino discovered
(Sep 2, 2011)
A woolly rhino fossil dug up on the Tibetan Plateau is believed to
be the oldest specimen of its kind yet found. The creature lived some
3.6 million years ago – long before similar beasts roamed northern
Asia and Europe in the ice ages that gripped those regions. The discovery
team says the existence of this ancient rhino supports the idea that
the frosty Tibetan foothills of the Himalayas were the evolutionary
cradle for these later animals.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Fossil redefines mammal history
(Aug 27, 2011)
A small, 160-million-year-old Chinese fossil has something big to
say about the emergence of mammals on Earth. The shrew-like creature
is the earliest known example of an animal whose kind evolved to provide
nourishment to their unborn through a placenta. Its features clearly
set it apart from marsupial mammals, which adopt a very different
reproductive strategy.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Fossil 'suggests plesiosaurs did not lay
eggs'
(Aug 12, 2011)
Scientists say they have found the first evidence that giant sea reptiles
– which lived at the same time as dinosaurs – gave birth
to live young rather than laying eggs. They say a 78 million-year-old
fossil of a pregnant plesiosaur suggests they gave birth to single,
large young. Writing in Science, they say this also suggests
a degree of parental care.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Giant fossil shows huge birds lived among
dinosaurs
(Aug 3, 2011)
An enormous jawbone found in Kazakhstan is further evidence that giant
birds roamed – or flew above – the Earth at the same time
as the dinosaurs. Writing in Biology Letters, researchers
say the new species, Samrukia nessovi, had a skull some 30cm
long. If flightless, the bird would have been 2–3m tall; if
it flew, it may have had a wingspan of 4m.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Ancient primate fossil unearthed
(Aug 3, 2011)
Researchers working in Uganda say they have unearthed the well-preserved
fossil skull of an ancient primate. The 20 million-year-old specimen
comes from the site of an extinct volcano in Uganda's north-east Karamoja
region. The scientists say preliminary analysis showed the tree-climbing
herbivore was roughly 10 years old when it died.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
An earlier bird than Archaeopteryx?
(Jul 28, 2011)
A chicken-sized dinosaur fossil found in China may have overturned
a long-held theory about the origin of birds. For 150 years, a species
called Archaeopteryx has been regarded as the first true
bird, representing a major evolutionary step away from dinosaurs.
But the new fossil, called Xiaotingia suggests this creature
was just another feathery dinosaur and not the significant link that
palaeontologists had believed.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Enormous wombat-like fossil found in Australia
(Jul 7, 2011)
The fossilized bones of a "giant wombat", dating back 2 million years,
have been found on a farm in north-eastern Australia's Queensland
state. The vegetarian marsupial would have been the size of a four-wheel
drive car and weighed three metric tons, according to researchers.
This is the first time a complete skeleton of a Diprotodon optatum
has been uncovered.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Dinosaur temperatures from teeth
(Jun 28, 2011)
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology claim to have
accurately measured the body temperatures of dinosaurs by examining
their teeth. Chemical analysis of the Jurassic period fossil teeth
from two sauropods – long-necked dinosaurs that were among the
largest land animals ever to roam the Earth – showed they were
about as warm as most modern mammals.
Read
more. Source: Reuters |
Dinosaur fossil in Australia mirrors earlier
find in UK
(Jun 15, 2011)
A neck bone from a newly found dinosaur in Australia is almost identical
to one of the famous British crocodile-like dinosaur Baryonyx
walkeri. The discovery suggests that northern and southern hemisphere
dinos had a lot more in common than previously thought.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Better sense of smell spurred brain evolution
(May 20, 2011)
An improved sense of smell in the ancestors of mammals living about
200 million years ago was an important factor in the evolution of
modern mammalian brains, fossil data suggest. The tiny skulls of Hadrocodium
wui (on the right in the image here) and Morganucodon oehleri
reveal an enlargement of the olfactory bulbs probably associated with
the need for an acute sense of smell in order to hunt at night.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Biggest known fossil spider found
(Apr 20, 2011)
Paleontologists have discovered the biggest known spider in rocks
from China dating back 165 million years. The monster archnid, called
Nephila jurassica, is female, has a leg span of about 15cm,
and belongs to the family of golden orb weavers. The previous oldest
Nephilid, a much smaller male from the Cretaceous Period about 35
million years ago, was found in Spain.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
Dinosaurs were active both day and night,
study claims
(Apr 15, 2011)
Studies of the eyes of existing birds and reptiles with different
daily activity patterns were compared with similar parts in dinosaur
fossils. The results suggests that small, meat-eating dinosaurs were
nocturnal; large, plant-eating dinosaurs tended to forage both during
the day and at night. The Science study also challenges the notion
that mammals' nocturnal nature evolved to avoid day-active dinosaurs.
Read
more. Source: BBC |
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