Ankle and foot bone evolution gave prehistoric mammals a leg up
The evolution of ankle and foot bones into different shapes and sizes helped mammals adapt and thrive after the extinction of the dinosaurs, a study suggests.
PALEONTOLOGY
Slender-snouted Besanosaurus was an 8 m long marine snapper
Middle Triassic ichthyosaurs are rare, and mostly small in size. The new Besanosaurus specimens described in the peer-reviewed journal PeerJ – the Journal of Life and Environmental Sciences – by Italian, Swiss, Dutch and Polish paleontologists provide new information on the anatomy of this fish-like ancient reptile, revealing its diet and exceptionally large adult size: up to 8 meters, a real record among all marine predators of this geological epoch.
Flatfish got weird fast due to evolutionary cascade
Ever look at a flatfish like a flounder or sole, with two eyes on one side of its head, and think, “How did that happen?”
Newly identified saber-toothed cat is one of largest in history
A giant saber-toothed cat lived in North America between 5 million and 9 million years ago, weighing up to 900 pounds and hunting prey that likely weighed 1,000 to 2,000 pounds, scientists reported today in a new study.
Microfossil found in Scottish Highlands could be ‘missing link’ in early animal evolution
Freshwater fossil displays multicellularity 400 million years earlier than previously established
Well-digging horses and donkeys engineer water availability for desert species
Horses and donkeys dig wells in dryland ecosystems, increasing water availability – and sometimes providing…
Extinct ‘horned’ crocodile gets new spot in the tree of life
New ancient DNA-based study on Madagascar crocodile suggests that modern crocodiles likely originated in Africa
How does a nose evolve into a blowhole? Study suggests there’s more than one way
Toothed and baleen whales show different patterns of blowhole development
How did dinosaurs deliver bone-crushing bites? By keeping a stiff lower jaw.
New research addresses longstanding mystery on the anatomy of the Tyrannosaurus rex jaw
Fat-footed tyrannosaur parents could not keep up with their skinnier adolescent offspring
New research by the University of New England’s Palaeoscience Research Centre suggests juvenile tyrannosaurs were slenderer and relatively faster for their body size compared to their multi-tonne parents.
Walk the dinosaur! New biomechanical model shows Tyrannosaurus rex in a swinging gait
Humans and animals have a preferred walking speed.
New results about the diets of people who lived on the Great Hungarian Plain
A transdisciplinary study of the dietary evolution of the first agricultural and pastoral communities in Central Europe
Little Foot fossil shows early human ancestor clung closely to trees
A long-awaited, high-tech analysis of the upper body of famed fossil “Little Foot” opens a window to a pivotal period when human ancestors diverged from apes, new USC research shows.
Earth’s biggest mass extinction took ten times longer on land than in the water
Our planet’s worst mass extinction event happened 252 million years ago when massive volcanic eruptions…
Tarantula’s ubiquity traced back to the cretaceous
Tarantulas are among the most notorious spiders, due in part to their size, vibrant colors…
New evaluation estimates absolute abundance and preservation rate of Tyrannosaurus rex
Over their entire late-Cretaceous reign, the total number of Tyrannosaurus rex that ever lived on…
Unearthing neanderthal population history using ancient nuclear DNA
Mitochondrial DNA of archaic humans has been retrieved from cave sediments, but it has limited…
Gigantic flying pterosaurs had spoked vertebrae to support their ‘ridiculously long’ necks
Little is known about azhdarchid pterosaurs, gigantic flying reptiles with impressive wingspans of up to…
Megafauna extinction mystery – size isn’t everything
Ancient clues, in the shape of fossils and archaeological evidence of varying quality scattered across…
Shift in diet allowed gray wolves to survive ice-age extinction
April12, 2021 – Gray wolves are among the largest predators to have survived the extinction…
Living fossils: Microbe discovered in evolutionary stasis for millions of years
It’s like something out of science fiction. Research led by Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences…
Scientists discover two new species of ancient, burrowing mammal ancestors
120-million-year-old animals evolved “scratch-digging” traits independently
Origin of modern rainforests traced to end-Cretaceous asteroid impact
In an analysis of thousands of fossil pollen and leaves spanning the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary,…
Skin deep: Aquatic skin adaptations of whales and hippos evolved independently
Hippos and cetaceans are close relatives, but their shared “aquatic” skin traits did not come from a common ancestor
Preconditions for life already 3.5 billion years ago
For the first time, organic molecules could be detected in such old liquids as possible nutrients for primordial microbes
Insight into the evolution of bones
Modern biology considers bone cells (osteocytes) as essential for bone development and health. However, when bone initially evolved some 400-million years ago, it did not contain bone cells. So why did bone cells evolve?
In search of the first bacterium
Evolutionary biology: Publication in Communications Biology
450-million-year-old sea creatures had a leg up on breathing
First evidence of trilobites’ bizarre breathing organs uncovered
Early humans in the Kalahari were as innovative as their coastal neighbours
Archaeological evidence in a rockshelter at the edge of the Kalahari Desert, South Africa, is challenging the idea that the origins of our species were linked to coastal environments
Scientists zero in on the role of volcanoes in the demise of dinosaurs
Graduate Center, CUNY researchers uncover evidence suggesting that volcanic carbon emissions were not a major driver of the Earth’s most recent extinction event.
Ancient megafaunal mutualisms and extinctions as factors in plant domestication
Of the vast diversity of plants on Earth, only a few evolved to become prominent agricultural crops. Scholars now suggest they originally evolved to secure mutualistic relationships with now-extinct megafauna
Snappy evolution was behind the success of ancient crocodiles
New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed that crocodiles once flourished on land and in the oceans as a result of fast evolution.
Cephalopods: Older than was thought?
Fossil find from Canada could rewrite the evolutionary history of invertebrate organisms
Scientists examine more than 60 teeth of stegosaurs from Yakutia
The finds made it possible to understand that these herbivorous dinosaurs were sedentary, ate very solid food, changed teeth quite often, did not suffer from caries, and also had more complex jaw movements than previously thought.
Manta-like, plankton-eating sharks once soared through late cretaceous oceans
Introducing a “bizarre” shark from the Late Cretaceous that, more than 66 million years ago,…
Discovery of a ‘winged’ shark in the Cretaceous seas
93 million years ago, bizarre, winged sharks swam in the waters of the Gulf of…
Palaeontology: Prehistoric armoured dinosaur may have been able to dig
Newly excavated skeletal remains of an ankylosaurid — a large armoured herbivore that lived during…
TU Graz Researchers Identify Chemical Processes as Key to Understanding Landslides
Mass movements such as landslides and hill-slope debris flows cause billions of euros in economic…
Arctic was once lush and green, could be again, new research shows
Imagine not a white, but a green Arctic, with woody shrubs as far north as…
Study shows how varying climate conditions impact vulnerable species
Studying the effect of varying climate conditions in the Yamal region helps scientists understand the impact of climate change on vulnerable animals such as arctic foxes.
How does a crustacean become a crab?
Researchers find five independent carcinizations in both true and false crabs and at least seven instances of decarcinization
Paleontology: Microscope helps with dinosaur puzzle
Comparison of fossil bone tissue allows more reliable assignment to individuals
Fossilized feeding frenzy
47 million year old fly found with a full belly
Long-accepted theory of vertebrate origin upended by fossilized fish larvae
A new study out of the University of Chicago, the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Albany Museum challenges a long-held hypothesis that the blind, filter-feeding larvae of modern lampreys are a holdover from the distant past, resembling the ancestors of all living vertebrates, including ourselves.
Fossils from “Vegetational Pompeii” Resolve Deep Palaeontology Mystery
A recent study on spectacular fossil plants preserved in a volcanic ash fall deposit–known as…
Extracting information from ancient teeth
There’s a surprising amount of information stored in the hardened plaque, or calculus, between teeth….
Long-accepted theory of vertebrate origin upended by fossilized lamprey larvae
Ottawa, March 10, 2021 – A new study of fossilized lampreys dating from more than…
An ancient mystery
Alyson Santoro and Susannah Porter receive support from the Moore and the Simons foundations to study the eukaryotic cell’s origins
Long-accepted theory of vertebrate origin upended by fossilized fish larvae
Long considered a relic of deep evolutionary history, new fossils indicate that modern lamprey larvae are actually a relatively recent innovation
Fossil lamprey larvae overturn textbook assumptions on vertebrate origins
Study shows studies of the origin of vertebrates – including human – were based on incorrect assumptions since the late 1800s