Paleontology

A Dinosaur In The Church

The priest of Vigevano's Duomo must have been startled to realize that by far the most faithful presence at mass, ever since the altar was built, is not nonna Pina but a real dinosaur-a glaring testimony of the falsity of catholic-diffused pseudoscien ...

Article - Tommaso Dorigo - Oct 26 2010 - 10:52am

Instead Of Originating In Africa, Human Ancestors Colonized There From Asia, Says Study

A new paper suggests that instead of some primates evolving in Africa and spreading out from there, they colonized it, likely from Asia.   The search for data regarding the origins of man's earliest anthropoid ancestors is obviously one of the most ho ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 27 2010 - 12:49pm

An Engineer and a soar point with Pterosaurs

Colin Palmer, an engineer engaged in research on the aerodynamics of pterosaurs at the University of Bristol, has shown that the creatures were predominantly adapted to slow speed flight; too slow and flexible to use, or survive in, the stormy winds of so ...

Blog Post - Richard King - Nov 24 2010 - 11:44am

Palaeontology Highlight Of 2010: A Rotten Study Of Vertebrate Origins

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Article - Oliver Knevitt - May 18 2011 - 11:01am

5 Greatest Palaeontology Fakes Of All Time #5: The Linxia Cheetah

In a piece by Richard Stone in this week’s Science, it was pointed out that in Chinese Museums, it is likely that up to 80% of the marine reptiles on display have been altered or artificially combined to some degree. This seems like a shocking figure, but ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Feb 7 2011 - 12:58pm

New Ammonite From An Ancient Saltwater Lake

A new fossil cephalopod has turned up in the news! It's funny cuz I was just pondering ammonites recently. "It is a new species of squid, totally new, that has not been seen in other parts of the world," paleontologist Klaus Honninger told A ...

Article - Danna Staaf - Jan 23 2011 - 8:19pm

Dawn Of The Dinosaurs And The Carmian-Norian Transition

Did dinosaurs appear and replace other animals?  At least in one South American valley,  there's no indication that the dinosaurs appeared and wiped out other animals, which has been the prevailing hypothesis for the origin of dinosaurs based on fossi ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 24 2011 - 4:07pm

The Missing Link Fallacy

The comments thread for an article that I wrote a couple of weeks ago has suddenly been swamped by the replies of a young-earth creationist. Perhaps I should have expected it, with an article about hoaxed fossils. He presents an orgy of anecdotes that he c ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Feb 3 2011 - 6:57am

5 Greatest Palaeontology Hoaxes Of All Time #4: Irritator

Faked fossils hold up science; there’s no two ways about it. Palaeontologists need a thick skin to realize that sometimes, those hours spent examining and interpreting a fossil may have been entirely wasted. Sometimes, although the fossil may have been tam ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Feb 8 2011 - 1:06pm

Brontomerus Mcintoshi- New Dinosaur Species May Have Kicked Opponents To Death

A new dinosaur named Brontomerus mcintoshi, 'thunder-thighs' to its discoverers because of its powerful thigh muscles, has been described in a paper in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica.  A member of the long-necked sauropod group of dino ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 23 2011 - 6:11pm