Paleontology

The Pathogens In Otzi's Last Meal

Scientists are continually unearthing new facts about Homo sapiens from the mummified remains of Ötzi, the Copper Age man, who was discovered in a glacier in 1991. Five years ago, after Ötzi's genome was completely deciphered, it seemed that the well ...

Article - News Staff - Jan 7 2016 - 5:20pm

Pareiasaurs: The 'Ugliest Fossil Reptiles' Once Ruled Asia

Long before the dinosaurs, hefty herbivores called pareiasaurs ruled the Earth. A detailed investigation of all Chinese specimens of these creatures- often described as the 'ugliest fossil reptiles'- has been published in the Zoological Journal ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 19 2016 - 8:13am

Tully Monster Unmasked

Today in Science Codex I read this article ...

Blog Post - Robert H Olley - Mar 16 2016 - 6:15pm

Coroniceras of Wrangellia

This Jurassic ammonite is from an all but inaccessible site in Sayward, Bonanza Group, Vancouver Island. By the time these ammonites were being buried in sediment, Wrangellia, the predominately volcanic terrane that now forms Vancouver Island and the Quee ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jul 7 2019 - 12:40pm

Gods & Cephalopods

A great temple to the god Amon was built at Karnak in Upper Egypt around c. 1785. It is from Amon that we get his cephalopod namesake. Pliny the Elder, who lived around 79 AD near Pompeii, called these fossils ammonis cornua or "horns of Ammon" b ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jul 7 2019 - 4:18pm

Late Cretaceous Marine Predator: Mosasaurs

A close-up of the dentition of an ancient marine, carnivorous lizard, the mighty Mosasaur, from Late Cretaceous exposures on Vancouver Island. Mosasaurs were air breathers and powerful swimmers.  They gave birth to live young, similar to sea turtles, seek ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jul 9 2019 - 5:24pm

Extinction: The Asteroid That Got The Dinosaurs Almost Got All Mammals Too

A new paper in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology reviewed all mammal species known from the end of the Cretaceous period in North America and found that over 93 percent became extinct across the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, due to the same aste ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 20 2016 - 8:59am

Embryo Geometry Hopes To Explain How Vertebrates Evolved

A new hypothesis aims to explain how the complex vertebrate body, with its skeleton, muscles, nervous and cardiovascular systems, arises from a single cell during development and how these systems evolved over time. They give it a proper name, embryo geom ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 2 2016 - 6:30am

Richard Dawkins Misrepresents Science, Say British Scientists

Thanks, but no thanks, say British scientists about controversial British evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, primarily known for his criticism of religion. A majority of those surveyed who mentioned Dawkins’ work during research interviews reject his ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 31 2016 - 9:58am

Swimming Lizards Of The Antarctic Seas

Kaikaifilu is a new species of giant sea lizard (mosasaur) discovered in 66 million year-old rocks of Antarctica. At about 10 m long, it is the largest known top marine predator from this continent. It lived near the end of the dinosaur age, when Antarcti ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 7 2016 - 10:30am