Latest Paleontology Stories
Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online A team of British and American scientists have discovered the fossils of a tiny new species of animal in 425-million-year-old rocks located along the England-Wales border, according to the their report published in the journal Proceedings of The Royal Society B. The new species is an ostracod – a small crustacean related to crabs, lobsters and shrimps – and was exceptionally well preserved. Its fossil included a complete shell...
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Some of the earliest known dinosaurs to have walked the planet were considered to be small dinosaurs like the swift-footed Eoraptor. But researchers have discovered a new dinosaur-like fossil that may be even older. Called Nyasasaurus parringtoni, the specimen is thought to have existed 10 to 15 million years earlier than dinosaur fossils have previously shown, originating in the Middle rather than the Late Triassic Period. Study...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The heaviest flying bird tops out at between 40-42 pounds. And sure, some of the flightless birds can grow to upwards of 300 pounds. But to imagine ancestors of these modern day creatures tipping the scales at upwards of 7,000 pounds is hard to do, indeed. A recent study out of North Carolina State University (NCSU) and the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois, looks specifically at the feathered herbivores of the Cretaceous period...
CSIRO Australia The earbones, or 'otoliths', help fish to detect movement and to orient themselves in the water. Otoliths set down annual growth rings that can be measured and counted to estimate the age and growth rates of fish. "Otoliths can form the basis of new techniques for modelling fish growth, productivity and distribution in future environments," said Dr John Morrongiello of CSIRO's Wealth from Oceans Flagship, lead author of a paper published online in Nature Climate Change...
A new twist on the evolution of species What happens when the modern evolutionary theory of punctuated equilibrium collides with the older theory of mosaic evolution? Part of the answer comes from a new, wide-ranging study by paleobiologists Melanie J Hopkins at the Museum fuer Naturkunde Berlin and Scott Lidgard at the Field Museum in Chicago. Their results are published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). While processes of evolution are largely...
Michael Harper for redOrbit.com – Your Universe Online There’s a popular cartoon geared towards adults which tells the story of a hapless young man who accidentally stumbles into a cryogenic capsule just moments before the turn of the century. The capsule just so happens to be set for 1,000 years, long enough for a couple of alien and robot uprisings and for the entire world our character knew to be virtually wiped away. The rest of the show is centered on how this 20th century guy...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Developmental genetics and paleontology seem worlds away from each other and the gulf between fossils and petri dishes seems insurmountable. Even the essential questions of the two disciplines are miles apart. Paleontology strives to determine "What happened in evolution?", while developmental genetics uses gene control in embryos to try to answer "How did it happen?" Scientists have been combining the two, however, with some remarkable...
Alan McStravick for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Before noted paleontologist and ichthyologist Edward Cope passed away in 1897, he had devised a theory that has, to this day, its proponents and detractors. His theory, known today as Cope’s Rule, stated that animals will, in their own voyage through the process of evolution, grow ever larger. This evolutionary trend has been noted across the animal kingdom. Researchers from the National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) want to...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Scientists have known that Australopithecus afarensis – the species of the well-known Lucy specimen – was an upright walking species, but they debate whether or not A. afarensis spent much of its time in trees. A comprehensive answer to this question has been unavailable because a complete set of A. afarensis shoulder blades has never been available for study. Professor David Green of Midwestern University and Zeresenay...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online 100-million year old pieces of tiny fossil skull found in Fort Worth, Texas, have been identified as a new species of coelacanth fish, according to paleontologist John F. Graf of Southern Methodist University (SMU) in Dallas. At 400 million years, the coelacanth has one of the longest lineages of any animal. The coelacanth is the most closely related fish to vertebrates, including humans. The findings of this discovery were published...
Latest Paleontology Reference Libraries
The Common Starfish (Asterias rubens), also known as the Common Sea Star, is the most common species of starfish found in the northeast Atlantic Ocean. It is usually found on rocky and gravelly substrate. This starfish has five arms and usually grows to between 4 and 12 inches in diameter, although some specimens have been recorded up to 21 inches across. It is typically orange or brown in color, but sometimes can be yellow, white, blue, purple or green; deep-water specimens are paler....
The Antarctic Sea Urchin (Sterechinus neumayeri), is a species of sea urchin in the family Echinidae. It is found in the Antarctic Ocean living on the seafloor. It is common around the circumpolar waters, including the Balleny Islands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Terra Nova Bay, and Victoria Land. It is found at depths of about 820 feet. The colors of this species range from bright red to dull purple and can grow to 2 inches in diameter. The test (shell) is globular with...
The Magnificent Star (Luidia magnifica), is a species of starfish in the family Luidiidae. It is found only in the Pacific Ocean on sandy areas of the seabed surrounding Hawaii and the Philippines at a depth of 60 to 440 feet. This starfish can grow quite large, with one specimen found on the Pearl and Hermes Atoll, Hawaii, measuring 33 inches in diameter. It usually has ten long, tapering arms with pointed tips, but will sometimes have 11 arms. One or more of these arms may regenerate...
Tyrannosaurus, meaning “tyrant lizard,” was a genus of theropod dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period (68 to 65 million years ago). It was among the last non-avian dinosaurs to exist prior to the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event. Perhaps the most famous Tyrannosaurus species, T. rex, was named in 1905 by Henry Fairfield Osborn, president of the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). Teeth belonging to Tyrannosaurus were first discovered in 1874 by A. Lakes near Golden...
Massospondylus, meaning “longer vertebrae,” is a genus of prosauropod dinosaur from the Hettangian to Pliensbachian ages of the Early Jurassic Period (200 to 183 million years ago). Massospondylus was discovered in 1853 by J.M. Orpen in the Upper Elliott Formation at Harrismith, South Africa. It was described in 1854 by Sir Richard Owen. It is one of the first dinosaurs to have been named. The type species is M. carinatus. There have been seven other named species during the past 150...
