Dino eggs shape Easter eggs, says new study
An international group of researchers has helped to determine that dinosaurs have shaped the Easter eggs we buy in the high street.
View ArticleAncient sea reptile with gammy jaw suggests dinosaurs got arthritis too
Imagine having arthritis in your jaw bones... if they're over two meters long! A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human...
View ArticleCT scan and 3-D print help scientists reconstruct an ancient mollusk (w/ Video)
(Phys.org)—Using a combination of traditional and innovative model-building techniques, scientists in the U.S. and a specialist in Denmark have created a lifelike reconstruction of an ancient mollusk,...
View ArticleNew ancient shark species gives insight into origin of great white
(Phys.org)—The great white shark is one of the largest living predatory animals and a magnet for media sensationalism, yet its evolutionary history is as misunderstood as its role as a menace.
View ArticleTell-tale toes point to oldest-known fossil bird tracks from Australia
Two fossilized footprints found at Dinosaur Cove in Victoria, Australia, were likely made by birds during the Early Cretaceous, making them the oldest known bird tracks in Australia.
View Article110-million-year-old crustacean holds essential piece to evolutionary puzzle
University of Alberta PhD student Javier Luque has found the oldest crown-group true higher crab ever discovered, deep in the tropics of Colombia. The discovery of Telamonocarcinus antiquus pushes back...
View ArticleJaw 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...
View ArticleNew 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...
View ArticleNewly 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...
View ArticleA 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.
View ArticleCompiling 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...
View ArticleBrain 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....
View ArticleX-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.
View ArticleJust 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...
View ArticleIsle 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...
View ArticleEvolutionary 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.
View ArticleScientists 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...
View ArticleUnearthed: 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.
View ArticleAncestor 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...
View ArticleHow 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...
View Article'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...
View ArticleNew 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,...
View ArticleBird-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...
View ArticleBrooding 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...
View ArticleSize 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.
View ArticleLife 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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