Feature Channels: Paleontology

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Released: 21-Sep-2020 8:50 AM EDT
Computational study of a famous fossil offers insight into the evolution of locomotion in “ruling reptiles”
University of Bristol

Scientists from the University of Bristol and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) used three-dimensional computer modelling to investigate the hindlimb of Euparkeria capensis–a small reptile that lived in the Triassic Period 245 million years ago–and inferred that it had a “mosaic” of functions in locomotion.

15-Sep-2020 8:10 AM EDT
Discovery of a new mass extinction
University of Bristol

It’s not often a new mass extinction is identified; after all, such events were so devastating they really stand out in the fossil record. In a new paper, published today in Science Advances, an international team has identified a major extinction of life 233 million years ago that triggered the dinosaur takeover of the world. The crisis has been called the Carnian Pluvial Episode.

Released: 3-Sep-2020 2:35 PM EDT
True size of prehistoric mega-shark finally revealed
Swansea University

A new study led by Swansea University and the University of Bristol has revealed the size of the legendary giant shark Megalodon, including fins that are as large as an adult human.

2-Sep-2020 10:35 AM EDT
True size of prehistoric mega-shark finally revealed
University of Bristol

To date only the length of the legendary giant shark Megalodon had been estimated but now, a new study led by the University of Bristol and Swansea University has revealed the size of the rest of its body, including fins that are as large as an adult human.

26-Aug-2020 12:00 PM EDT
Mastodons traveled vast distances across North America to adapt to climate change: research
McMaster University

New research from an international team of evolutionary geneticists, bioinformaticians and paleontologists suggests that dramatic environmental changes accompanying the shift or melting of continental glaciers played a key role as American mastodons moved north from their southern ranges.

Released: 27-Aug-2020 11:15 AM EDT
Fossil evidence of ‘hibernation-like’ state in 250-million-year-old Antarctic animal
University of Washington

Scientists report evidence of a hibernation-like state in Lystrosaurus, an animal that lived in Antarctica during the Early Triassic 250 million years ago. The fossils are the oldest evidence of a hibernation-like state in a vertebrate, and indicate that torpor arose in vertebrates even before mammals and dinosaurs evolved.

Released: 24-Aug-2020 2:35 PM EDT
New species of Cretaceous brittle star named in honour of Nightwish vocalist
PeerJ

Palaeontologists from the Natural History Museums in Luxembourg and Maastricht have discovered a previously unknown species of brittle star that lived in the shallow, warm sea which covered parts of the present-day Netherlands at the end of the Dinosaur Era

Released: 13-Aug-2020 1:20 PM EDT
Some dinosaurs could fly before they were birds
McGill University

New research using the most comprehensive study of feathered dinosaurs and early birds has revised the evolutionary relationships of dinosaurs at the origin of birds.

Released: 5-Aug-2020 11:10 AM EDT
Arizona biologist part of international team to sequence genome of rare reptilian ‘living fossil’
Northern Arizona University

Northern Arizona University professor Marc Tollis was one of a dozen collaborators sequencing the genome of the tuatara, a lizard-like creature that lives on the islands of New Zealand. This groundbreaking research was done in partnership with the Māori people of New Zealand, as the tuatara is a sacred animal for many tribes.

Released: 4-Aug-2020 8:35 AM EDT
Between shark and ray: The evolutionary advantage of the sea angels
University of Vienna

Angel sharks are sharks, but with their peculiarly flat body they rather resemble rays. An international research team led by Faviel A. López-Romero and Jürgen Kriwet of the Institute of Palaeontology has now investigated the origin of this body shape. The results illustrate how these sharks evolved into highly specialised, exclusively bottom-dwelling ambush predators and thus also contribute to a better understanding of their threat from environmental changes.

30-Jul-2020 9:55 AM EDT
Malignant Cancer Diagnosed in a Dinosaur for the First Time
McMaster University

A collaboration led by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and McMaster University has led to the discovery and diagnosis of an aggressive malignant bone cancer — an osteosarcoma — for the first time ever in a dinosaur. No malignant cancers (tumours that can spread throughout the body and have severe health implications) have ever been documented in dinosaurs previously. The paper was published August 3rd in the prestigious medical journal The Lancet Oncology.

Released: 30-Jul-2020 5:50 PM EDT
Study sheds light on the evolution of the earliest dinosaurs
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)

The classic dinosaur family tree has two subdivisions of early dinosaurs at its base: the Ornithischians, or bird-hipped dinosaurs, which include the later Triceratops and Stegosaurus; and the Saurischians, or lizard-hipped dinosaurs, such as Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus.

Released: 24-Jul-2020 4:50 PM EDT
Ocean features and changes in the past are explored to anticipate future climate
University of the Basque Country

The climate represents the set of atmospheric conditions that characterize a region. Yet these conditions are the result of global interaction between dry land, vegetation, ice, atmosphere and ocean.

16-Jul-2020 11:05 AM EDT
Foxes have been eating humans’ leftovers for 42,000 years
PLOS

The diets of ancient foxes were influenced by humans, and these small carnivores might be tracers of human activity over time, according to a study published July 22, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Chris Baumann of the University of Tübingen, Germany and colleagues.

Released: 21-Jul-2020 8:10 PM EDT
Mutant zebrafish reveals a turning point in spine's evolution
Duke University

A chance mutation that led to spinal defects in a zebrafish has opened a little window into our own fishy past.

Released: 13-Jul-2020 6:05 AM EDT
Insights into climate change during origin of dinosaurs
University of Utah

In a new study in the journal Gondwana Research demonstrated that the Carnian Pluvial Episode affected the southern hemisphere, specifically South America, which strengthens the case that it was a global climate event.

Released: 9-Jul-2020 11:50 AM EDT
Researcher reconstructs skull of two million year-old giant dormouse
University of York

A PhD student has produced the first digital reconstruction of the skull of a gigantic dormouse, which roamed the island of Sicily around two million years ago.

Released: 8-Jul-2020 9:45 AM EDT
Famous ‘Jurassic Park’ Dinosaur is Less Lizard, More Bird
University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin)

From movies to museum exhibits, the dinosaur Dilophosaurus is no stranger to pop culture. Many probably remember it best from the movie “Jurassic Park,” where it’s depicted as a venom-spitting beast with a rattling frill around its neck and two paddle-like crests on its head.

Released: 2-Jul-2020 1:45 PM EDT
Arctic plants may not provide predicted carbon sequestration potential
University of Stirling

The environmental benefits of taller, shrubbier tundra plants in the Arctic may be overstated, according to new research involving the University of Stirling.

Released: 26-Jun-2020 11:20 AM EDT
Tiny Japanese dinosaur eggs help unscramble Cretaceous ecosystem
University of Tsukuba

When most of us think of dinosaurs, we envision large, lumbering beasts, but these giants shared their ecosystems with much smaller dinosaurs, the smaller skeletons of which were generally less likely to be preserved.



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