Category Archives: Palaeontology

The Isle of Wight’s dinosaur hunter: we’re going to need a bigger museum

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Jeremy Lockwood spent lockdown identifying two specimens – and is a ‘bit obsessed’ in his search for more

Some of us binged on box sets, others grappled with the challenges of home school and zoned out of Zoom meetings: for many, life under lockdown felt glum. But for Jeremy Lockwood, a retired GP turned palaeontologist, 2021 was a standout year featuring two big dinosaur discoveries and laying plans to make the Isle of Wight famous for its prehistoric inhabitants once more. “It was an absolutely thrilling time for me,” Lockwood said.

Lockwood, 64, who retired as a family doctor in the Midlands seven years ago, was behind the widely publicised discovery of a new species of iguanadontian dinosaur with a distinctively large nose and a second species, nicknamed “the horned crocodile-faced Hell Heron”.

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Fossil hunter Richard Leakey who showed humans evolved in Africa dies at 77

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Kenyan conservationist found oldest near-complete human skeleton in 1984, dating from 1.5m years ago

The celebrated Kenyan conservationist and fossil hunter Richard Leakey, whose groundbreaking discoveries helped prove that humankind evolved in Africa, has died aged 77.

The president of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, announced Leakey’s death with “deep sorrow”.

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Dinosaur fossil with ‘totally weird’ spikes in skeleton stuns experts

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Extraordinary ankylosaur remains dating back 168m years a first for Africa

Fossil hunters have unearthed remnants of the oldest – and probably weirdest – ankylosaur known so far from a site in the Middle Atlas mountains in Morocco.

The remains of the heavily armoured animal are extraordinary in being the first to have defensive spikes that are fused to the skeleton, a feature researchers say is unprecedented in the animal kingdom.

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Firm raises $15m to bring back woolly mammoth from extinction

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Scientists set initial sights on creating elephant-mammoth hybrid, with first calves expected in six years

Ten thousand years after woolly mammoths vanished from the face of the Earth, scientists are embarking on an ambitious project to bring the beasts back to the Arctic tundra.

The prospect of recreating mammoths and returning them to the wild has been discussed – seriously at times – for more than a decade, but on Monday researchers announced fresh funding they believe could make their dream a reality.

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Woolly mammoth walked far enough to circle Earth twice, study finds

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Research into life of Kik adds weight to theory that climate change could have contributed to species’ demise

He was huge, hairy and boasted two enormous tusks: researchers say they have discovered a woolly mammoth called Kik who traipsed almost far enough in his life to circle the Earth twice.

Experts say the work not only sheds light on the movements of the giant proboscideans, but adds weight to ideas that climate change or human activity may have contributed to the demise of most of the creatures about 12,000 years ago.

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‘Real’ T rex goes on show in England for first time in over a century

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The skeleton of Titus, discovered in the US in 2018, makes its world debut at Nottingham museum

The first ‘real’ Tyrannosaurus rex to be exhibited in England for more than a century will go on show in Nottingham on Sunday.

The skeleton of Titus, discovered in the US state of Montana in 2018, will make its world debut at the Wollaton Hall Natural History Museum as part of a new exhibition on the dinosaur’s life and environment.

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Million-year-old mammoth genomes set record for ancient DNA

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DNA from teeth found in Siberia permafrost the oldest yet sequenced, pushing science into ‘deep time’

Teeth from mammoths buried in the Siberian permafrost for more than a million years have led to the world’s oldest known DNA being sequenced, according to a study that shines a genetic searchlight on the deep past.

Researchers said the three teeth specimens, one roughly 800,000 years old and two more than a million years old, provided important insights into the giant ice age mammals, including into the ancient heritage of, specifically, the woolly mammoth.

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Giant worm’s undersea lair discovered by fossil hunters in Taiwan

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Scientists believe 2-metre-long burrow once housed predator that ambushed passing sea creatures

The undersea lair of a giant worm that ambushed passing marine creatures 20m years ago has been uncovered by fossil hunters in Taiwan.

Researchers believe the 2-metre-long burrow found in ancient marine sediment once housed a prehistoric predator that burst out of the seabed and dragged unsuspecting animals down into its lair.

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Baby shark! Newborn megalodons larger than humans, scientists say

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Creatures that patrolled the oceans 3m years ago were about two metres long at birth, researchers find

Enormous megatooth sharks, or megalodons, which patrolled the world’s oceans more than three million years ago, gave birth to babies larger than most adult humans, scientists say.

Researchers made the unsettling discovery when they X-rayed the vertebra of a fossilised megalodon and found that it must have been about two metres (6.5 ft) long when it was born.

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Seven footprints may be the earliest evidence of humans on the Arabian Peninsula

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Experts say discovery of 120,000-year-old prints could shed new light on spread of Homo sapiens out of Africa

A set of seven footprints made at a lake about 120,000 years ago have been hailed as the earliest evidence of modern humans on the Arabian Peninsula – a discovery experts say could shed light on the spread of our species out of Africa.

The path by which Homo sapiens spread around the world was full of twists and turns. Genetic studies suggested it was not until 60,000 years ago that a migration of modern humans out of Africa led to a successful spread across Europe.

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Scientists follow the nose to solve mystery of long-necked reptile

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Scans suggest Tanystropheus, which lived 242m years ago, had nostrils on top of its snout

The mystery of an ancient reptile with a tremendously long neck has been solved, according to researchers who say the creature lived in the water.

Fossils of the creature, known as Tanystropheus, were first unearthed in Germany around 150 years ago and further specimens have turned up over the decades, largely at Monte San Giorgio on the Swiss-Italian border.

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Scientists digitally reconstruct skulls of dinosaurs in fossilised eggs

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Research on Massospondylus carinatus embryos sheds new light on animals’ development

The fossilised skulls of dinosaur embryos that died within their eggs about 200m years ago, have been digitally reconstructed by scientists, shedding new light on the animals’ development, and how close they were to hatching.

The rare clutch of seven eggs, some of which contain embryos, was discovered in South Africa in 1976, with the developing young found to be a species of dinosaur called Massospondylus carinatus.

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Earth may have been a ‘water world’ 3bn years ago, scientists find

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Chemical signatures in ancient ocean crust point to a planet without continents

Scientists have found evidence that Earth was covered by a global ocean that turned the planet into a “water world” more than 3bn years ago.

Telltale chemical signatures were spotted in an ancient chunk of ocean crust which point to a planet once devoid of continents, the largest landmasses on Earth.

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Fossils of largest parrot ever recorded found in New Zealand

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Giant bird estimated to have weighed about 7kg has been named Heracles inexpectatus

Fossils of the largest parrot ever recorded have been found in New Zealand. Estimated to have weighed about 7kg (1.1st), it would have been more than twice as heavy as the kākāpo, previously the largest known parrot.

Palaeontologists have named the new species Heracles inexpectatus to reflect its unusual size and strength and the unexpected nature of the discovery.

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Sahara was home to some of largest sea creatures, study finds

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Scientists reconstruct extinct species using fossils found in northern Mali from ancient seaway

Some of the biggest catfish and sea snakes to ever exist lived in what is today the Sahara desert, according to a new paper that contains the first reconstructions of extinct aquatic species from the ancient Trans-Saharan Seaway.

The sea was 50 metres deep and once covered 3,000sq km of what is now the world’s biggest sand desert. The marine sediment it left behind is filled with fossils, which allowed thescientists who published the study to build up a picture of a region that teemed with life.

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Fossil of 99m-year-old bird with unusually long toes found

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Ancient bird’s foot is so distinctive palaeontologists declare it a new species

The fossilised remains of a bizarre, ancient bird that had middle toes longer than its lower legs have been found in a lump of amber from Myanmar.

The elongated toe resembles those seen on lemurs and tree-climbing lizards, and suggests an unusual lifestyle for some of the earliest birds that lived alongside the dinosaurs, researchers said.

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‘Like finding a sneeze’: fossil identified as 100m-year-old hagfish

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Discovery of slimy sea creature could help settle row over early evolution of vertebrates

The fossilised remains of a foot-long slimy sea creature dating from 100m years ago suggest that the last common ancestor of all vertebrates looked less like a squishy eel and more typically “fish-like”, researchers claim.

They say the fossil, unearthed around eight years ago in Lebanon, is an early hagfish, a peculiar creature that has no jaws, eyes or true vertebrae but that boasts the ability, when threatened, to squirt out a mixture that turns into an expanse of slime.

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