Category Archives: Fossils

New Mexico footprints are oldest sign of humans in Americas, research shows

Posted on by

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...

UK experts fear losing access to ice age mammoths Cotswolds site to UAE

Posted on by

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...

Newly discovered whale species could have been heaviest animal ever

Posted on by

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...

‘Not always king’: fossil shows mammal sinking teeth into dinosaur

Posted on by

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...

Giant sloth pendants indicate humans settled Americas much earlier than thought

Posted on by

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.

Continue reading...

New analysis of ancient human protein could unlock secrets of evolution

Posted on by

The technique – known as proteomics – could bring new insights into the past two million years of humanity’s history

Tiny traces of protein lingering in the bones and teeth of ancient humans could soon transform scientists’ efforts to unravel the secrets of the evolution of our species.

Researchers believe a new technique – known as proteomics – could allow them to identify the proteins from which our predecessors’ bodies were constructed and bring new insights into the past 2 million years of humanity’s history.

Continue reading...

‘Charmouth crocodile’ identified as new genus of croc-like creature

Posted on by

Remains of 2-metre-long animal were discovered in 2017 by two fossil hunters for whom it has been named

Scientists have identified a new genus of fearsome crocodile-like creature that once hunted off what is now Dorset’s Jurassic Coast.

The remains of the 2-metre-long animal were discovered by fossil hunters after a series of landslips on to a beach in 2017, and the newly recognised beast has been named Turnersuchus hingleyae in honour of the finders, Paul Turner and Lizzie Hingley.

Continue reading...

Queensland graziers unearth 100m-year-old plesiosaur remains likened to Rosetta Stone

Posted on by

Amateur fossil hunters find skull connected to body of marine giant elasmosaur for the first time in Australia

A group of female graziers from outback Queensland who hunt fossils in their downtime have uncovered the remains of a 100m-year-old creature that palaeontologists are likening to the Rosetta Stone for its potential to unlock the discovery of several new species of prehistoric marine giant.

One of the “Rock Chicks” – as the amateur palaeontologists call themselves – uncovered the fossilised remains of the long-necked plesiosaur, known as an elasmosaur, while searching her western Queensland cattle station in August.

Continue reading...

‘The sheer scale is extraordinary’: meet the titanosaur that dwarfs Dippy the diplodocus

Posted on by

One of the largest creatures to have walked the Earth is to become the Natural History Museum’s new star attraction

It will be one of the largest exhibits to grace a British museum. In spring, the Natural History Museum in London will display the skeleton of a titanosaur, a creature so vast it will have to be shoehorned into the 9-metre-high Waterhouse gallery.

One of the most massive creatures ever to have walked on Earth, Patagotitan mayorum was a 57-tonne behemoth that would have shaken the ground as it stomped over homelands which now form modern Patagonia. Its skeleton is 37 metres long, and 5 metres in height – significantly larger than the museum’s most famous dinosaur, Dippy the diplodocus, which used to loom over its main gallery.

Continue reading...

Christie’s cancels T rex skeleton auction after doubts raised

Posted on by

Sale of 1,400kg skeleton withdrawn after New York Times reported claims of similarities to T rex sold in 2020

The British auction house Christie’s has been forced to call off the £20m auction of a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton just days before it was due to go under the hammer after a well-known paleontologist raised concerns that parts of it looked similar to another dinosaur.

Christie’s said on Monday that the 1,400kg (3,100lb) skeleton – nicknamed Shen – had been withdrawn from the auction in Hong Kong on 30 November, when it was set to be the star lot.

Continue reading...

‘Alien goldfish’ may have been unique mollusc, say scientists

Posted on by

Researchers think they may have solved enduring mystery of where Typhloesus wellsi sits on tree of life

The mystery of a bizarre creature dubbed the “alien goldfish”, which has baffled fossil experts for decades, may have been solved, according to scientists who say the animal appears to have been some sort of mollusc.

Typhloesus wellsi lived about 330m years ago and was discovered in the Bear Gulch Limestone fossil site in Montana in the late 1960s, with the remains of other species subsequently identified.

Continue reading...

Discovery of small armoured dinosaur in Argentina is first of its kind

Posted on by

Jakapil kaniukura was about 5ft long and probably walked upright in then-steamy Patagonian landscape about 100m years ago

Palaeontologists have announced the discovery of a previously unknown small armoured dinosaur in southern Argentina, a creature that probably walked upright on its back legs roaming a then-steamy landscape about 100m years ago.

The Cretaceous period dinosaur, named Jakapil kaniukura, would have been well-protected with rows of bony disc-shaped armour along its neck and back and down to its tail, they said. It measured about 5ft (1.5 meters) long and weighed only 9-15lb (4-7kg), similar to an average house cat.

Continue reading...

Rare collection of bird fossils from 55m years ago donated to Scottish museum

Posted on by

Collection bequeathed to National Museums Scotland includes species that are unknown to science

A remarkable collection of fossilised birds that lived 55 million years ago has been bequeathed to the National Museums Scotland (NMS) in Edinburgh and includes dozens of species that are unknown to science.

Dating from the beginning of the Eocene epoch, they represent the early stages in the evolution of modern birds.

Continue reading...

‘Exceptionally rare’: Australian scientists find 17 dinosaur teeth in Queensland

Posted on by

Australian Age of Dinosaurs Museum in Winton first discovered 12 sauropod teeth in 2019, with a further five uncovered

Scientists have unearthed 17 teeth from a giant herbivorous dinosaur that roamed Queensland millions of years ago in an “exceptionally rare” Australian find.

The teeth were discovered near the western Queensland town of Winton, which palaeontologists believe was at the edge of an inland ocean around 96 million years ago.

Continue reading...

Early human ancestors one million years older than earlier thought

Posted on by

Fossils from South African cave are 3.4 to 3.6m years old and walked the Earth at same time as east African relatives

The fossils of our earliest ancestors found in South Africa are a million years older than previously thought, meaning they walked the Earth around the same time as their east African relatives like the famous “Lucy”, according to new research.

The Sterkfontein caves at the Cradle of Humankind world heritage site southwest of Johannesburg have yielded more Australopithecus fossils than any other site in the world.

Continue reading...

Statue of fossil-hunting pioneer Mary Anning to be unveiled in Dorset

Posted on by

A nine-year-old pointed out what was missing in Lyme Regis. Her long campaign has now borne fruit

It all began with a curious nine-year-old and a question that she asked her mother. Where in their hometown of Lyme Regis was the statue of Mary Anning, the pioneering Victorian fossil hunter who, she had recently discovered, had lived and worked there?

There wasn’t one, Anya Pearson was forced to tell her indignant daughter. Anning’s lifetime of discoveries – including finding the first ichthyosaur skeleton at the age of just 12 – may have profoundly shaped the emerging science of palaeontology, but in her own Dorset town and farther afield, she had been largely forgotten.

Continue reading...

Ancient cemetery of flying reptiles unearthed in Chile’s Atacama desert

Posted on by

Scientists say remains belong to pterosaurs, who lived alongside dinosaurs more than 100m years ago

Scientists in Chile have unearthed a rare cemetery with well-preserved bones of ancient flying reptiles that roamed the Atacama desert more than 100m years ago.

The remains belong to pterosaurs, scientists determined, flying creatures that lived alongside dinosaurs and had a long wingspan and fed by filtering water through long, thin teeth, similar to flamingos.

Continue reading...

112m-year-old dinosaur tracks damaged in Utah by construction machinery

Posted on by

Damage evaluated as minor, but fractures to the rims of several prints cannot be repaired at the Mill Canyon track site

They survived intact for 112m years through scorching summer heat and freezing winters at Utah’s Mill Canyon. But several of the world’s most important and historic dinosaur footprints were damaged beyond repair earlier this year when a construction crew arrived to build a new boardwalk for tourists.

The extent of the harm to the footprints – and those of an ancient crocodile crossing in the canyon near Moab – was detailed in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) report into the January incident published last week.

Continue reading...

Australian scientists solve mystery of moment monotremes migrated

Posted on by

Fossil analysis is shedding new light on the origins of egg-laying mammals and their arrival on the continent

Researchers have pinpointed exactly how and when echidnas likely arrived in Australia as part of a fossil analysis shedding new light on the origins of egg-laying mammals.

The platypus and four species of echidna are the only remaining living monotremes – mammals that lay eggs instead of giving birth to live young. New analysis of every monotreme fossil discovered to date has recast the earliest history of the animals.

Continue reading...

Mystery owner of Stan the T rex finally revealed following $31.8m auction

Posted on by

Paleontologists celebrate ‘happy ending’ as Abu Dhabi museum is revealed as owner, after fearing implications of sale to secret buyer

On 6 October 2020, a mysterious buyer paid a record-breaking $31.8m for the famous Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton known as Stan.

The rare, mostly complete skeleton of the dinosaur quickly vanished from the public eye. Paleontologists were left worried that the auction sale to a secret buyer would drive up the cost of rare skeletons, price out smaller museums and deny researchers – and the public – access to them.

Continue reading...