Feature Channels: Paleontology

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Newswise: Vocal Communication Originated Over 400 Million Years Ago
Released: 25-Oct-2022 3:50 PM EDT
Vocal Communication Originated Over 400 Million Years Ago
University of Zurich

The use of vocalizations as a resource for communication is common among several groups of vertebrates: singing birds, croacking frogs, or barking dogs are some well-known examples.

Newswise: Ostrich-like dinosaurs from Mississippi are among the world’s largest at over 800kg
12-Oct-2022 11:25 AM EDT
Ostrich-like dinosaurs from Mississippi are among the world’s largest at over 800kg
PLOS

Ostrich-like dinosaurs called ornithomimosaurs grew to enormous sizes in ancient eastern North America, according to a study published October 19, 2022 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Chinzorig Tsogtbaatar of the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences and colleagues.

Newswise: Isotope data strengthens suspicions of ivory stockpile theft
12-Oct-2022 6:05 PM EDT
Isotope data strengthens suspicions of ivory stockpile theft
University of Utah

Markings on ivory seized in Uganda in 2019 suggested that the tusks may have been taken from a stockpile of ivory kept, it was thought, strictly under lock and key by the government of Burundi.

Newswise: Dinosaur “mummies” might not be as unusual as we think
10-Oct-2022 12:25 PM EDT
Dinosaur “mummies” might not be as unusual as we think
PLOS

Data from fossils and modern carcasses indicates simple path to preserving dinosaur skin.

Newswise: Jurassic ichthyosaurs divided food resources to co-exist, researchers find
Released: 3-Oct-2022 3:05 AM EDT
Jurassic ichthyosaurs divided food resources to co-exist, researchers find
University of Bristol

Early Jurassic ichthyosaur juveniles show predatory specialisations, scientists at the University of Bristol have revealed.

Newswise: What caused the holes in SUE the T. rex’s jaw? Probably not an infection
Released: 30-Sep-2022 4:05 PM EDT
What caused the holes in SUE the T. rex’s jaw? Probably not an infection
Field Museum

SUE the T. rex is one of the most complete, best-preserved Tyrannosaurus rex specimens ever found. That level of preservation helps reveal details about SUE’s life.

Newswise: Ancient 'shark' from China is humans’ oldest jawed ancestor
Released: 29-Sep-2022 1:10 PM EDT
Ancient 'shark' from China is humans’ oldest jawed ancestor
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Living sharks are often portrayed as the apex predators of the marine realm. Paleontologists have been able to identify fossils of their extinct ancestors that date back hundreds of millions of years to a time known as the Palaeozoic period.

Newswise: Dead fish breathes new life into the evolutionary origin of fins and limbs
26-Sep-2022 5:05 AM EDT
Dead fish breathes new life into the evolutionary origin of fins and limbs
University of Bristol

A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins.

Newswise: Armoured worm reveals the ancestry of three major animal groups
23-Sep-2022 5:05 AM EDT
Armoured worm reveals the ancestry of three major animal groups
University of Bristol

An international team of scientists, including from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, and the Natural History Museum, have discovered that a well-preserved fossilised worm dating from 518-million-years-ago resembles the ancestor of three major groups of living animals.

Newswise: 541-million-year-old 3D fossil algae reveal modern-looking ancestry of the plant kingdom
Released: 21-Sep-2022 4:00 PM EDT
541-million-year-old 3D fossil algae reveal modern-looking ancestry of the plant kingdom
University of Toronto

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of algae called Protocodium sinense which predates the origin of land plants and modern animals and provides new insight into the early diversification of the plant kingdom.

Newswise: Thrills and frills for Missouri S&T student with dinosaur find
Released: 20-Sep-2022 11:45 AM EDT
Thrills and frills for Missouri S&T student with dinosaur find
Missouri University of Science and Technology

Field school was ending in 20 minutes when Emma Puetz, a junior in geology at Missouri S&T, hiked into the Montana canyons to hunt fossils one last time before heading home to Rolla. She climbed up a steep hill covered with loose gravel in a promising area for fossils. Nothing. Disappointed, Puetz decided to head down the hill by a different path.

Newswise: Chinese fossil eggs show dinosaur decline before extinction
Released: 19-Sep-2022 4:20 PM EDT
Chinese fossil eggs show dinosaur decline before extinction
Chinese Academy of Sciences

Nearly 66 million years ago, a large asteroid hit Earth and contributed to the global extinction of dinosaurs, leaving birds as their only living descendants.

Newswise: Researchers discover extinct prehistoric reptile that lived among dinosaurs
Released: 16-Sep-2022 3:45 PM EDT
Researchers discover extinct prehistoric reptile that lived among dinosaurs
Smithsonian Institution

Smithsonian researchers have discovered a new extinct species of lizard-like reptile that belongs to the same ancient lineage as New Zealand’s living tuatara.

Newswise: Paleontologists reveal new data on the evolution of the hominid cranium
Released: 15-Sep-2022 12:00 PM EDT
Paleontologists reveal new data on the evolution of the hominid cranium
University of Malaga

A new research conducted by two paleontologists at the University of Malaga has just revealed that human evolution uniquely combines an increase in brain size with the acquisition of an increasingly juvenile cranial shape.

Newswise: Changes in the tree canopy facilitated the evolution of the first-ever gliding reptile, new study suggests
Released: 9-Sep-2022 1:10 PM EDT
Changes in the tree canopy facilitated the evolution of the first-ever gliding reptile, new study suggests
Taylor & Francis

Researchers have run through near-perfect fossils of the World’s first gliding reptile with a fine-toothed comb and untangled hitherto unknown facets to discover it was a change in tree canopy which likely facilitated such flight in these creatures.

Released: 7-Sep-2022 5:05 PM EDT
Magma and ice
University of California, Santa Barbara

Let’s pretend it’s the Late Cretaceous, roughly 66 to 100 million years ago.

Newswise: Study Reveals How Prehistoric Humans Simplified the World’s Food Webs
Released: 30-Aug-2022 2:05 PM EDT
Study Reveals How Prehistoric Humans Simplified the World’s Food Webs
University at Albany, State University of New York

Research conducted with the help of a University at Albany anthropologist has revealed the cascading effects that humans have had on mammal declines and their food webs over the last 130,000 years, a new study in the journal Science shows.

24-Aug-2022 7:30 AM EDT
30-million-year-old amphibious beaver fossil is oldest ever found
Ohio State University

A new analysis of a beaver anklebone fossil found in Montana suggests the evolution of semi-aquatic beavers may have occurred at least 7 million years earlier than previously thought, and happened in North America rather than Eurasia.

Released: 23-Aug-2022 3:45 PM EDT
Study finds that ocean cooling over millennia led to larger fish
University of Oklahoma

Earth’s geological history is characterized by many dynamic climate shifts that are often associated with large changes in temperature.

Newswise: 60 million years of climate change drove the evolution and diversity of reptiles
Released: 19-Aug-2022 3:55 PM EDT
60 million years of climate change drove the evolution and diversity of reptiles
Harvard University

Just over 250 million years ago during the end of the Permian period and start of the Triassic, reptiles had one heck of a coming out party.

Newswise:Video Embedded new-3d-model-shows-megalodon-could-eat-prey-the-size-of-entire-killer-whales
VIDEO
Released: 17-Aug-2022 4:15 PM EDT
New 3D Model Shows: Megalodon Could Eat Prey the Size of Entire Killer Whales
University of Zurich

The reconstructed megadolon (Otodus megalodon) was 16 meters long and weighed over 61 tons. It was estimated that it could swim at around 1.4 meters per second, require over 98,000 kilo calories every day and have stomach volume of almost 10,000 liters.

Newswise: Scientists relieved to discover ‘curious’ creature with no anus is not earliest human ancestor
16-Aug-2022 5:05 AM EDT
Scientists relieved to discover ‘curious’ creature with no anus is not earliest human ancestor
University of Bristol

An international team of researchers have discovered that a mysterious microscopic creature from which humans were thought to descend is part of a different family tree.

Released: 11-Aug-2022 1:20 PM EDT
All the better to better eat you with – dinosaurs evolved different eye socket shapes to allow stronger bites
University of Birmingham

Large dinosaur predators, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, evolved different shapes of eye sockets to better deal with high bite forces, new research has shown.

Newswise: Uncovering the Past: Researchers Create 3D Images of Fossils
Released: 11-Aug-2022 10:45 AM EDT
Uncovering the Past: Researchers Create 3D Images of Fossils
Idaho National Laboratory (INL)

Idaho National Laboratory researchers recently imaged several fossils using a powerful X-ray microscope. The 3D images will be used to create exhibits for Wyoming’s Fossil Butte National Monument and help experts gain insight into the origins of these and other relics.

Newswise: Prehistoric podiatry: How dinos carried their enormous weight
Released: 10-Aug-2022 3:15 PM EDT
Prehistoric podiatry: How dinos carried their enormous weight
University of Queensland

Scientists have cracked an enduring mystery, discovering how sauropod dinosaurs – like Brontosaurus and Diplodocus – supported their gigantic bodies on land.

Newswise: Nearly a hundred genes have been lost during the woolly mammoth’s evolution
Released: 10-Aug-2022 3:05 PM EDT
Nearly a hundred genes have been lost during the woolly mammoth’s evolution
Stockholm University

A new study shows that 87 genes have been affected by deletions or short insertions during the course of the mammoth’s evolution.

Released: 8-Aug-2022 4:15 PM EDT
Rotting fish help solve mystery of how soft tissue fossils form
University of Leicester

New research at the University of Leicester has transformed scientists’ understanding of how spectacular fossils with delicate soft tissues form.

Newswise: New discovery of panda species which may have been Europe’s last
Released: 1-Aug-2022 3:35 PM EDT
New discovery of panda species which may have been Europe’s last
Taylor & Francis

Lumbering through the forested wetlands of Bulgaria around six million years ago, a new species of panda has been uncovered by scientists who state it is currently the last known and “most evolved” European giant panda.

Newswise: New Mexico Mammoths Among Best Evidence for Early Humans in North America
Released: 1-Aug-2022 2:30 PM EDT
New Mexico Mammoths Among Best Evidence for Early Humans in North America
University of Texas at Austin, Jackson School of Geosciences

Butchering marks on the remains of two mammoths discovered in New Mexico show that humans lived in North America much earlier than previously thought. Credit: National Park Service.

Newswise: Oldest DNA from domesticated American horse lends credence to shipwreck folklore
Released: 27-Jul-2022 4:05 PM EDT
Oldest DNA from domesticated American horse lends credence to shipwreck folklore
Florida Museum of Natural History

An abandoned Caribbean colony unearthed centuries after it had been forgotten and a case of mistaken identity in the archaeological record have conspired to rewrite the history of a barrier island off the Virginia and Maryland coasts.

Newswise: Oldest DNA from domesticated American horse lends credence to shipwreck folklore
Released: 27-Jul-2022 2:00 PM EDT
Oldest DNA from domesticated American horse lends credence to shipwreck folklore
University of Florida

A single horse tooth from Haiti reveals that popular folklore that the Spanish shipwrecked horses off the coast of the U.S. is likely true.

Released: 25-Jul-2022 3:25 PM EDT
Trilobites’ growth may have resembled that of modern marine crustaceans
University of British Columbia

Trilobites- extinct marine arthropods that roamed the world’s oceans from about 520 million years ago until they went extinct 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period - may have grown in a similar fashion and reached ages that match those of extant crustaceans, a new study has found.

Newswise: Study Refutes Claim That T. Rex Was Three Separate Species
Released: 25-Jul-2022 12:15 PM EDT
Study Refutes Claim That T. Rex Was Three Separate Species
American Museum of Natural History

Paleontologists find insufficient evidence that iconic Tyrannosaurus rex should be reclassified

Newswise: New Study Challenges Old Views on What’s ‘Primitive’ in Mammalian Reproduction
Released: 25-Jul-2022 10:00 AM EDT
New Study Challenges Old Views on What’s ‘Primitive’ in Mammalian Reproduction
University of Washington

Scientists have discovered that multituberculates, an extinct group of mammals, reproduced using long gestation periods, like today's placental mammals. That calls into question a longstanding view that marsupials have a more "primitive" mode of reproduction and placentals a more "advanced" strategy.

Newswise: Cold Temperatures Paved the Way for T. Rex
Released: 20-Jul-2022 1:55 PM EDT
Cold Temperatures Paved the Way for T. Rex
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI)

About 201 million years ago, volcanic eruptions covered an area roughly the size of South America in lava as Pangaea started to split. The Earth was changed. In the years that followed, 40% of all four-legged land animals were wiped out in the End Triassic Extinction (ETE). The exact cause was unknown. However, researchers recently discovered that atmospheric changes as a result of the eruptions caused freezing temperatures at high latitudes. The land animals that survived had feathers or hair as insulation: large dinosaurs.

Newswise:Video Embedded new-fossil-shows-four-legged-fishapod-that-returned-to-the-water-while-tiktaalik-ventured-onto-land
VIDEO
14-Jul-2022 4:05 PM EDT
New fossil shows four-legged fishapod that returned to the water while Tiktaalik ventured onto land
University of Chicago Medical Center

Researchers discover a new fossil that is closely related to other animals that made the transition to land, but with features more suited for swimming and life in the water.

Newswise: Artificial Intelligence Meets Extinct Carnivores
Released: 19-Jul-2022 4:50 PM EDT
Artificial Intelligence Meets Extinct Carnivores
Science China Press

A paper published in Science Bulletin, a multidisciplinary academic journal supervised by the Chinese Academy of Sciences and co-sponsored by the CAS and the National Natural Science Foundation of China, shows that Artificial Intelligence is a highly effective tool to know which species of extinct carnivores acted on the fossil bones found at paleontological sites.

Newswise: Vulture Claws Back Into History
Released: 19-Jul-2022 3:10 PM EDT
Vulture Claws Back Into History
Flinders University

Australia’s first fossil vulture has been confirmed more than 100 years after it was first described as an eagle.

Newswise: Newly discovered Liexi Fauna reveals early stage of Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event
Released: 18-Jul-2022 4:35 PM EDT
Newly discovered Liexi Fauna reveals early stage of Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event
Chinese Academy of Sciences

From the beginning of the Ordovician, marine life began its great radiation, which was characterized by the rapid appearance of new orders, families, and genera, together with the replacement of existing groups.

Newswise: 500-million-year-old fossilized brains of stanleycaris prompt a rethink of the evolution of insects and spiders
Released: 8-Jul-2022 3:55 PM EDT
500-million-year-old fossilized brains of stanleycaris prompt a rethink of the evolution of insects and spiders
Royal Ontario Museum

ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) revealed new research based on a cache of fossils that contains the brain and nervous system of a half-billion-year-old marine predator from the Burgess Shale called Stanleycaris

Newswise: A New Giant Dinosaur Gives Insight Into Why Many Prehistoric Meat-Eaters Had Such Tiny Arms
7-Jul-2022 7:00 AM EDT
A New Giant Dinosaur Gives Insight Into Why Many Prehistoric Meat-Eaters Had Such Tiny Arms
University of Minnesota College of Science and Engineering

An international team that includes a University of Minnesota Twin Cities researcher has discovered a new big, meat-eating dinosaur, dubbed Meraxes gigas, that provides clues about the evolution and anatomy of predatory dinosaurs such as the Carcharodontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex.

Newswise: Wildfires May Have Sparked Ecosystem Collapse During Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction
Released: 30-Jun-2022 10:40 AM EDT
Wildfires May Have Sparked Ecosystem Collapse During Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction
University College Cork

Researchers at University College Cork (UCC) and the Swedish Museum of Natural History examined the end-Permian mass extinction (252 million years ago) that eliminated almost every species on Earth, with entire ecosystems collapsing.

Newswise: Triassic Revolution: Animals Grew Back Faster and Smarter After Mass Extinction
Released: 20-Jun-2022 4:05 AM EDT
Triassic Revolution: Animals Grew Back Faster and Smarter After Mass Extinction
University of Bristol

Palaeontologists in the UK and China have shown that the natural world bounced back vigorously following the End-Permian Extinction.

Released: 16-Jun-2022 1:20 PM EDT
Researchers Reveal New Mechanism of End-Permian Terrestrial Mass Extinction
University of Science and Technology of China

End-Permian extinction (EPE) is the greatest biotic crisis in Earth's history, eliminating more than 90% of species in the oceans and more than 70% of species on land.

Newswise: Researchers Discover Crocodile Species That Likely Preyed on Human Ancestors
Released: 15-Jun-2022 5:05 PM EDT
Researchers Discover Crocodile Species That Likely Preyed on Human Ancestors
University of Iowa

Millions of years ago, giant dwarf crocodiles roamed a part of Africa with a taste for our human ancestors.

Newswise: A Large Predator From the Pyrenees
Released: 15-Jun-2022 10:15 AM EDT
A Large Predator From the Pyrenees
PeerJ

A fossilized lower jaw has led an international team of palaeontologists, headed by Bastien Mennecart from the Natural History Museum Basel, to discover a new species of predator that once lived in Europe.

Newswise: New research questions hypotheses about climate-controlled ecosystem change during the origin of dinosaurs in Argentina
Released: 13-Jun-2022 2:05 PM EDT
New research questions hypotheses about climate-controlled ecosystem change during the origin of dinosaurs in Argentina
University of Utah

A group of researchers from CONICET and the University of Utah demonstrated that during the time of the first dinosaurs, variations in the diversity and abundance of the plant and vertebrate animal species cannot be related to the climatic changes recorded throughout its deposition, in contrast with previous hypotheses.

Newswise: Europe’s Largest Land Predator Unearthed
8-Jun-2022 6:05 AM EDT
Europe’s Largest Land Predator Unearthed
University of Portsmouth

Research involving palaeontologists from the Universities of Portsmouth and Southampton has identified the remains of one of Europe’s largest ever land-based hunters: a dinosaur that measured over 10m long and lived around 125 million years ago.



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