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Life goes on for marine ecosystems after cataclysmic mass extinction

One of the largest global mass extinctions did not fundamentally change marine ecosystems, scientists have found.

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Size not important for fish in the largest mass extinction of all time

Understanding modern biodiversity and extinction threats is important. It is commonly assumed that being large contributes to vulnerability during extinction crises.

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Brooding dinosaurs

A new method used to perform geochemical analysis of fossilized eggs from China has shown that oviraptorosaurs incubated their eggs with their bodies within a 35–40° C range, similar to extant birds...

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Bird-like dinosaurs hatched eggs like chickens: study

Feathered dinosaurs that walked on two legs and had parrot-like beaks shared another characteristic with modern birds—they brooded clutches of eggs at a temperature similar to chickens, a study showed...

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New study gives weight to Darwin's theory of 'living fossils'

A team of researchers from the University of Bristol studying the 'living fossil' Sphenodon - or tuatara - have identified a new way to measure the evolutionary rate of these enigmatic creatures,...

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'Tully monster' mystery is far from solved, group argues

Last year, headlines in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Scientific American and other outlets declared that a decades-old paleontological mystery had been solved. The "Tully monster," an ancient...

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How sauropods gobbled their way to gigantism

Sauropod dinosaurs are the biggest of all the wonderful behemoths to have ever roamed the Earth. Standing on four solid tree trunk legs, these giants are emblazoned in our hearts, minds and history...

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Ancestor of arthropods had the mouth of a penis worm

Imagine a meter long worm with 12 stubby legs and matching sets of flaps running down the body. On the head is a large pair of spiny appendages used for grasping prey that transport victims into a...

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Unearthed: the cannibal sharks of a forgotten age

Scientists have discovered macabre fossil evidence suggesting that 300 million-year-old sharks ate their own young, as fossil faeces of adult Orthacanthus sharks contained the tiny teeth of juveniles.

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Scientists cite evidence that mosasaurs were warm-blooded

Mosasaurs – an extinct group of aquatic reptiles that thrived during the Late Cretaceous period – possibly were "endotherms," or warm-blooded creatures, a paper co-written by a University of Alabama...

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Evolutionary leap from fins to legs was surprisingly simple

New research reveals that the limbs of the earliest four-legged vertebrates, dating back more than 360 million years ago, were no more structurally diverse than the fins of their aquatic ancestors.

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Isle of Skye fossil makes three species one

The discovery of a tiny, 170-million-year-old fossil on the Isle of Skye, off the north-west coast of the UK, has led Oxford University researchers to conclude that three previously recognised species...

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Just how good (or bad) is the fossil record of dinosaurs?

Everyone is excited by discoveries of new dinosaurs – or indeed any new fossil species. But a key question for palaeontologists is 'just how good is the fossil record?' Do we know fifty per cent of the...

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X-ray technology reveals a new bone in a very old fish

A new bone in the skull of an iconic fossil animal that represents the 'missing link' between fish and all land-dwelling vertebrate animals has been found by researchers from the University of Bristol.

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Brain of ancient sea creature reconstructed by undergraduate researcher

The world's first study into the brain anatomy of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, has shed light on how the reptilian brain adapted to life in the oceans....

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Compiling a 'dentist's handbook' for penis worms

A new study of teeth belonging to a particularly phallic-looking creature has led to the compilation of a prehistoric 'dentist's handbook' which may aid in the identification of previously unrecognized...

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A new beginning for baby mosasaurs

They weren't in the delivery room, but researchers at Yale University and the University of Toronto have discovered a new birth story for a gigantic marine lizard that once roamed the oceans.

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Newly discovered ancient arthropod lived hundreds of millions of years ago

The Burgess Shale Formation, in the Canadian Rockies of British Columbia, is one of the most famous fossil locations in the world. A recent Palaeontology study introduces a 508 million year old (middle...

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New lobster-like predator found in 508 million-year-old fossil-rich site

What do butterflies, spiders and lobsters have in common? They are all surviving relatives of a newly identified species called Yawunik kootenayi, a marine creature with two pairs of eyes and prominent...

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Jaw mechanics of a shell-crushing Jurassic fish revealed

The feeding habits of an unusual 200-million-year-old fish have been uncovered by a University of Bristol undergraduate in a groundbreaking study which has been published in Palaeontology, a leading...

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