Paleontology

Humans And Megafauna: Don't Blame Us

Species of gigantic animals that once roamed Australia were long gone by the time people arrived, a major review of the available evidence has concluded. The research challenges the claim that humans were primarily responsible for the demise of the megafa ...

Article - News Staff - May 6 2013 - 6:00pm

The Earliest Bird: How A Toe Bone Can Change History

Do you know, my original title for this was "The Early Bird Gets the PR". I hastily changed it before posting because it was the most cynical title of I'd ever read, of anything, ever. But, it has undeniably happened. We have another earlie ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Jun 3 2013 - 5:51pm

Archicebus Achilles: Oldest Known Primate Discovered

The world’s oldest known fossil primate skeleton, unearthed from an ancient lake bed in central China’s Hubei Province, near the course of the modern Yangtze River, represents a previously unknown genus and species that has been named Archicebus achilles, ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 5 2013 - 12:46pm

3 Billion-Year-Old Plankton Microfossils Found

Spindle-shaped inclusions in 3 billion-year-old rocks are microfossils of plankton probably inhabited the oceans around the globe during that time- but these inclusions in the rocks were not only biological in origin, they were also likely planktonic auto ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 6 2013 - 5:58pm

Let's hope we don't have another Archaeoraptor on our hands

I mentioned at the end of last week's post about the new "earliest bird" that there were murmurs of discontent about the authenticity of the fossil specimen of Anchrionis. This fossil has come from an area rife with fakes; indeed, there is s ...

Blog Post - Oliver Knevitt - Jun 10 2013 - 9:54am

High Flying: Pterosaurs In England 110 Million Years Ago

Paleontologists have presented the most extensive review yet available of toothed pterosaurs from the Cretaceous in England, featuring detailed taxonomic information, diagnoses and photographs of 30 species. ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 12 2013 - 12:09pm

Odd Couple: 250 Million Years Ago A Mammal Forerunner And An Amphibian Lived (And Died) Together

The world's first known odd couple: 250 million years ago, a mammal forerunner and an amphibian shared a burrow in South Africa. Scientists scanning a 250 million-year-old fossilized burrow from the Karoo Basin of South Africa have discovered that tw ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 23 2013 - 5:36pm

Looking Inside The Bones Of Dinosaurs

Everyone has seen dinosaur skeletons in museums. You're not supposed to touch them, even on the outside. Dr. Qi Zhao of the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing got to not only touch some, he got to section two arm and two leg bones from ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 28 2013 - 10:48am

Megaconus Mammaliaformis: Cute And Armed

Researchers have described Megaconus mammaliaformis, an unusual mammal that lived about 165 million years ago. Previously, all that was known about this long-extinct mammal was a few little teeth with striking cusps on their occlusal surfaces. "Paleo ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 12 2013 - 1:30pm

Rugosodon Eurasiaticus: Fossil Of History's Most Successful Mammal Unearthed

A 160 million-year-old fossil of an extinct rodent-like creature from China has been identified as Rugosodon eurasiaticus and is helping to explain how multituberculates, the most evolutionarily successful and long-lived mammalian lineage in the fossil re ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 15 2013 - 3:24pm