Tadpole that wriggled around 160m years ago surpasses previous record holder by about 20m years
Scientists have discovered the oldest-known fossil of a giant tadpole that wriggled around over 160m years ago.
The new fossil, found in Argentina, surpasses the previous ancient record holder by about 20m years.
Continue reading...Official hails discovery ‘of great significance’ on Port Island, with remains of as yet unknown species to go on display in shopping district on Friday
Hong Kong officials say they have discovered dinosaur fossils in the city for the first time, on a remote and uninhabited island.
The fossils were part of a large dinosaur from the Cretaceous period, about 145m to 66m years ago, the government said in a statement. They will need to conduct further studies to confirm the species of the dinosaur.
Continue reading...Researchers find two sites with fossils including saber-toothed salmon and megalodon, the huge prehistoric shark
Marine fossils dating back to as early as 8.7m years ago have been uncovered beneath a south Los Angeles high school.
On Friday, the Los Angeles Times reported that researchers had discovered two sites on the campus of San Pedro high school under which fossils including those of a saber-toothed salmon and a megalodon, the gigantic prehistoric shark, were buried.
Continue reading...Flores arm bone suggests Homo floresiensis was forced to undergo a dramatic reduction in body size
The remains of a member of the smallest ancient human species on record, who stood at just 1m tall, have been discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores.
The fossil arm bone belonged to a tiny adult human who roamed the island 700,000 years ago alongside pygmy elephants, Komodo dragons and giant rats the size of rabbits. It is thought to be from a very early individual of the “hobbit” species Homo floresiensis that has perplexed scientists since its discovery two decades ago.
Continue reading...Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis, which lived 166m years ago, ‘a piece of the puzzle’ explaining mammals’ success
The remains of a diminutive mouse-like creature that lived 166m years ago could help answer one of biology’s biggest questions of why mammals have become so successful, fossil experts say.
Krusatodon kirtlingtonensis belongs to the immediate predecessors of mammals and lived alongside the dinosaurs during the middle Jurassic age. But while it was originally known only from individual teeth, researchers have now reported two partial skeletons.
Continue reading...Comptonatus chasei roamed island 125m years ago and is most complete dinosaur fossil found in UK in a century
A new species of large plant-eating dinosaur that roamed the Isle of Wight about 125m years ago has been identified.
The specimen, which weighed as much as an African elephant, represents the most complete dinosaur discovered in the UK in a century with 149 bones in total, researchers said.
Comptonatus chasei, named after the late fossil hunter Nick Chase and the place where it was found, the cliffs of Compton Bay, belongs to a group of herbivorous dinosaurs known as iguanodontians, bulky creatures often described as the “cows of the Cretaceous period [145-66 m years ago]” by palaeontologists.
Jeremy Lockwood, a PhD student at the University of Portsmouth, said: “This animal would have been around a tonne (1,000kg), about as big as a large male American bison.
“Evidence from fossil footprints found nearby shows it was likely to be a herding animal, so possibly large herds of these heavy dinosaurs may have been thundering around if spooked by predators on the floodplains over 120m years ago.”
For the study, published in the the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, the researchers analysed every part of the fossil, including skull, teeth, spine and leg bones as well as a pubic hip bone “about the size of a dinner plate”.
Lockwood said it was unclear why the hip bone, found at the base of the abdomen, was so big, but added: “It [the bone] was probably for muscle attachments, which might mean its mode of locomotion was a bit different, or it could have been to support the stomach contents more effectively, or even have been involved in how the animal breathed, but all of these theories are somewhat speculative.”
When Comptonatus was discovered, the specimen was thought to be a different type of dinosaur called Mantellisaurus, three-toed plant-eaters that lived in Britain more than 120m years ago.
But Lockwood said Comptonatus differed from Mantellisaurus because of the “unique features in its skull, teeth and other parts of its body”.
He said: “Its lower jaw has a straight bottom edge, whereas most iguanodontians have a jaw that curves downwards.”
Dr Susannah Maidment, a senior researcher and palaeontologist at the Natural History Museum, said Comptonatus demonstrated fast rates of evolution in iguandontian dinosaurs during that time period.
About 2.5 metres long, creature was an apex predator 280m years ago, before age of dinosaurs, say scientists
A giant 280m-year-old salamander-like creature that was an apex predator before the age of the dinosaurs has been discovered by fossil hunters in Namibia.
The creature, Gaiasia jennyae, was about 2.5 metres long, had an enormous toilet seat-shaped head and fearsome interlocking fangs. It lurked in cold swampy waters and lakes with its mouth wide open, preparing to clamp down its powerful jaws on any prey unwise enough to swim past.
Continue reading...Discovery of ‘echidnapus’ and two more species show the furry egg-layers predated marsupials
Some time about 100m years ago in what is now an Australian opal field, a weird, furry, egg-laying, rabbit-sized mammal was gliding through a waterhole across a massive polar floodplain.
This mammal – Opalius splendens but which scientists have thankfully blessed with the nickname “echidnapus” – was among the ancient descendants of one of the planet’s most unique orders of animals, the monotremes.
Continue reading...Scientists estimate Vasuki indicus was up to 15m long, weighed a tonne and would have constricted its prey
Fossil vertebrae unearthed in a mine in western India are the remains of one of the largest snakes that ever lived, a monster estimated at up to 15 metres in length – longer than a T rex.
Scientists have recovered 27 vertebrae from the snake, including a few still in the same position as they would have been when the reptile was alive. They said the snake, which they named Vasuki indicus, would have looked like a large python and would not have been venomous.
Continue reading...Experts believe remains belong to a type of ichthyosaur that roamed the seas about 202m years ago
Fossils discovered by an 11-year-old girl on a beach in Somerset may have come from the largest marine reptile ever to have lived, according to experts.
The fossils are thought to be from a type of ichthyosaur, a prehistoric marine reptile that lived in the time of dinosaurs. The newly discovered species is believed to have roamed the seas towards the end of the Triassic, about 202m years ago.
Continue reading...Kermitops gratus are thought to be among first true amphibians and a key step in transition of life from water to land
After achieving worldwide fame through numerous hit films and TV shows, leading to a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, Kermit the Frog has another accolade: a 270m-year-old fossil named after him.
Scientists have discovered a species of an ancient amphibian ancestor, which they have named Kermitops gratus because of its resemblance to the bright green star of The Muppet Show.
Continue reading...Fossil of giant river dolphin found in Peru, whose closest living relation is in South Asia, gives clues to future extinction threats
Scientists have discovered the fossilised skull of a giant river dolphin, from a species thought to have fled the ocean and sought refuge in Peru’s Amazonian rivers 16m years ago. The extinct species would have measured up to 3.5 metres long, making it the largest river dolphin ever found.
The discovery of this new species, Pebanista yacuruna, highlights the looming risks to the world’s remaining river dolphins, all of which face similar extinction threats in the next 20 to 40 years, according to the lead author of new research published in Science Advances today. Aldo Benites-Palomino said it belonged to the Platanistoidea family of dolphins commonly found in oceans between 24m and 16m years ago.
Continue reading...Traces of DNA found on lumps of tree resin suggest trout and hazelnuts were popular 10,000 years ago
DNA from a type of “chewing gum” used by teenagers in Sweden 10,000 years ago is shedding new light on the stone age diet and oral health, according to research.
The wads of gum are made from pieces of birch bark pitch, a tar-like black resin, and carry clearly visible teethmarks.
Continue reading...Re-examination finds what were taken to be veins of leaves are actually bone growth patterns
Two small, oval fossils thought to be prehistoric plants are actually the remains of baby marine turtles, researchers have revealed.
The fossils, found in rocks dating to between 132 and 113 million years ago, were discovered in Colombia in the middle of the 20th century by Padre Gustavo Huerta, a priest with a penchant for fossil plants.
Continue reading...Tritylodonts, mid-sized mammal-related herbivores, roamed the area’s deserts 200m years ago
Scientists have discovered an “extremely rare” set of fossils at Lake Powell that the National Park Service (NPS) is calling one of the most important vertebrate discoveries in the US this year.
The findings, revealed this week, include skulls and teeth from dozens of mid-sized, mammal-related herbivores called tritylodonts that once roamed the region’s vast desert. The bones lay hidden in the sandstone walls of the reservoir for roughly 180m years before a lucky discovery in March.
Continue reading...Fossil footprints date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, upending previous theory that humans reached continent later
New research confirms that fossil human footprints in New Mexico are probably the oldest direct evidence of human presence in the Americas, a finding that upends what many archaeologists thought they knew.
The footprints were discovered at the edge of an ancient lakebed in White Sands national park and date back to between 21,000 and 23,000 years ago, according to research published on Thursday in the journal Science.
Continue reading...Archeologists and palaeontologists say legislation needed to protect major finds championed by David Attenborough
Leading British archaeologists and palaeontologists are warning that one of the nation’s most significant palaeolithic sites is under threat because there is not enough legislation to protect it.
They are calling for changes to the law amid fears that crucial evidence at a site in the Cotswolds could be lost to the UK for ever.
Continue reading...Fossils found in Peru from extinct species show it may have had body mass of 85-340 tonnes – heavier than blue whales
The fossilised bones of an ancient creature that patrolled coastal waters 40m years ago belong to a newly discovered species that is a contender for the heaviest animal ever to have existed on Earth.
Fossil hunters discovered remnants of the enormous and long-extinct whale in a rock formation in the Ica desert of southern Peru. Fully grown adults might have weighed hundreds of tonnes, researchers believe.
Continue reading...Discovery in China challenges view of early mammals as ‘fodder’ for dinosaurs, say researchers
Whether they had sharp teeth, vicious claws or were simply enormous, dinosaurs were creatures to be feared. But a newly identified fossil shows that, at least sometimes, the underdog bit back.
Experts revealed the 125m-year-old fossil that froze in time after being taken on by a small mammal a third of its size. They are tangled together, the mammal’s teeth sunk into the beaked dinosaur’s ribs, its left paw clasping the beast’s lower jaw.
Continue reading...Scientists studied jewelry made from now extinct creatures and theorize that humans arrived in Americas 27,000 years ago
New research suggests humans lived in South America at the same time as now extinct giant sloths, bolstering evidence that people arrived in the Americas earlier than once thought.
Scientists analyzed triangular and teardrop-shaped pendants made of bony material from the sloths. They concluded that the carved and polished shapes and drilled holes were the work of deliberate craftsmanship.
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