Feature Channels: Paleontology

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Newswise: T. rex's short arms may have lowered risk of bites during feeding frenzies
Released: 1-Apr-2022 1:05 PM EDT
T. rex's short arms may have lowered risk of bites during feeding frenzies
University of California, Berkeley

Over the two decades paleontologist Kevin Padian taught a freshman seminar called The Age of Dinosaurs, one question asked frequently by undergraduates stuck with him: Why are the arms of Tyrannosaurus rex so ridiculously short?

Newswise: Dense bones allowed Spinosaurus to hunt underwater
22-Mar-2022 2:00 PM EDT
Dense bones allowed Spinosaurus to hunt underwater
University of Portsmouth

Spinosaurus is the largest predatory dinosaur known - over two metres longer than the longest Tyrannosaurus rex - but the way it hunted has been a subject of debate for decades. In a new paper, published today in Nature, a group of palaeontologists have taken a different approach to decipher the lifestyle of long-extinct creatures: examining the density of their bones.

Newswise: Baltic amber reveals a lacewing that looks like a praying mantis
Released: 21-Mar-2022 4:55 PM EDT
Baltic amber reveals a lacewing that looks like a praying mantis
Pensoft Publishers

Lacewings (Neuroptera) are small predatory insects, whose larvae are sometimes used as pest control agents in agriculture. Few non-specialists, however, know that some lacewings can look a lot like praying mantises.

Released: 21-Mar-2022 1:50 PM EDT
A whale’s tale: the story hidden in their mouths
University of New South Wales

Baleen plates –the signature bristle-like apparatus toothless whales use to feed – reveal how these large aquatic mammals adapt to environmental changes over time.

Newswise: Ancient ancestors evolved to be strong and snappy, study finds
16-Mar-2022 7:05 AM EDT
Ancient ancestors evolved to be strong and snappy, study finds
University of Bristol

Researchers led by the University of Bristol show that the earliest jaws in the fossil record were caught in a trade-off between maximising their strength and their speed.

Newswise: New sabre-tooth predator precedes cats by millions of years
Released: 15-Mar-2022 10:45 AM EDT
New sabre-tooth predator precedes cats by millions of years
PeerJ

The fossil, housed in The Nat’s paleontology collection, offers a window into what the Earth was like during the Eocene Period, more than 40 million years ago.

Newswise: Giant impact crater in Greenland occurred a few million years after dinosaurs went extinct
Released: 10-Mar-2022 2:20 PM EST
Giant impact crater in Greenland occurred a few million years after dinosaurs went extinct
University of Copenhagen

Danish and Swedish researchers have dated the enormous Hiawatha impact crater, a 31 km-wide meteorite crater buried under a kilometer of Greenlandic ice.

Newswise: Cooler waters created super-sized Megalodon, latest study shows
Released: 7-Mar-2022 5:35 PM EST
Cooler waters created super-sized Megalodon, latest study shows
Taylor & Francis

A new study reveals that the iconic extinct Megalodon or megatooth shark grew to larger sizes in cooler environments than in warmer areas.

Newswise: New species of stegosaur is oldest discovered in Asia, and possibly the world
Released: 7-Mar-2022 12:05 AM EST
New species of stegosaur is oldest discovered in Asia, and possibly the world
Taylor & Francis

Relatively small, but fearsome-looking stegosaur measured about 2.8 metres (9 feet) from nose to tail—but scientists can’t tell whether the remains are those of an adult or juvenile.

Newswise: Cooler waters created larger Megalodon than warmer waters
3-Mar-2022 3:05 PM EST
Cooler waters created larger Megalodon than warmer waters
DePaul University

A new study reveals that the iconic extinct Megalodon or megatooth shark grew to larger sizes in cooler environments than in warmer areas. DePaul University paleobiology professor Kenshu Shimada and coauthors take a renewed look through time and space at the body size patterns of Otodus megalodon, the fossil shark that lived nearly worldwide roughly 3.6 million to 15 million years ago. The new study appears in the international journal Historical Biology.

Newswise: Researchers reconstruct ancient fish lizard
Released: 4-Mar-2022 4:05 AM EST
Researchers reconstruct ancient fish lizard
Lund University

Geologists at Lund University in Sweden have mapped 300 years of research on the prehistoric marine reptiles known as ichthyosaurs.

Released: 1-Mar-2022 4:05 PM EST
Tyrannosaurus remains hint at two possible species distinct from T. rex
Springer

A new analysis of Tyrannosaurus skeletal remains reveals physical differences in the femur, other bones and dental structures across specimens that could suggest Tyrannosaurus rex specimens need to be re-categorised into three distinct groups or species, reports a study published in Evolutionary Biology.

Newswise: The last day of the dinosaurs
Released: 23-Feb-2022 2:05 PM EST
The last day of the dinosaurs
Uppsala University

The asteroid which killed nearly all of the dinosaurs struck Earth during springtime. This conclusion was drawn by an international team of researchers after having examined thin sections, high-resolution synchrotron X-ray scans, and carbon isotope records of the bones of fishes that died less than 60 minutes after the asteroid impacted.

Newswise: New fossil birds discovered near China’s Great Wall – one had a movable, sensitive “chin”
Released: 18-Feb-2022 10:05 AM EST
New fossil birds discovered near China’s Great Wall – one had a movable, sensitive “chin”
Field Museum

Approximately 80 miles from the westernmost reach of China’s Great Wall, paleontologists found relics of an even more ancient world. Over the last two decades, teams of researchers unearthed more than 100 specimens of fossil birds that lived approximately 120 million years ago, during the time of the dinosaurs.

Newswise: Fossils excavated in the 1960s add missing link to crocodile evolution
Released: 9-Feb-2022 2:05 PM EST
Fossils excavated in the 1960s add missing link to crocodile evolution
University of Birmingham

A set of Triassic archosaur fossils, excavated in the 1960s in Tanzania, have been formally recognised as a distinct species, representing one of the earliest-known members of the crocodile evolutionary lineage.

Newswise: Latest study reveals no one still knows what the Megalodon really looked like
2-Feb-2022 11:55 AM EST
Latest study reveals no one still knows what the Megalodon really looked like
DePaul University

A new scientific study shows that all previously proposed body forms of the gigantic Megalodon, or megatooth shark, which lived nearly worldwide roughly 15-3.6 million years ago, remain in the realm of speculations.

Newswise: Low volcanic temperature ushered in global cooling and the thriving of dinosaurs
Released: 31-Jan-2022 11:55 AM EST
Low volcanic temperature ushered in global cooling and the thriving of dinosaurs
Tohoku University

Researchers in Japan, Sweden, and the US have unearthed evidence that low volcanic temperatures led to the fourth mass extinction, enabling dinosaurs to flourish during the Jurassic period.

Newswise: Ice-age remains near Sea of Galilee show ancient residents thrived as ice melted
Released: 27-Jan-2022 5:30 PM EST
Ice-age remains near Sea of Galilee show ancient residents thrived as ice melted
Hebrew University of Jerusalem

A new article published today in PLOS ONE by a Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HU)’s Institute of Archaeology team and colleagues focused on the remains of a previously submerged fisher-hunter-gatherer camp on the shores of the Sea of Galilee from around 23,000 years ago.

Newswise: Muscular study provides new information about how the largest dinosaurs moved and evolved
Released: 19-Jan-2022 10:35 AM EST
Muscular study provides new information about how the largest dinosaurs moved and evolved
University of Bristol

New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed how giant 50-tonne sauropod dinosaurs, like Diplodocus, evolved from much smaller ancestors, like the wolf-sized Thecodontosaurus.



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