Latest Paleontology Stories
[ Listen to the Recreation ] An international team of scientists took it upon themselves to recreate the love song of an extinct cricket that lived more than 160 million years ago during the Jurassic Period. The song was reconstructed using microscopic wing features on a fossilized bush cricket (Archaboilus musicus) found in northeast China. The call of the Jurassic cricket was simple, pure and capable of traveling long distances in the night, scientists noted. The reproduced sounds...
Mammals can evolve from the size of a mouse to the size of an elephant in as little as 24 million generations, although they shrink more than 10 times as fast as they grow to large sizes, according to new research reported Monday by an international team of biologists and paleontologists. The study is the first of its kind to measure how fast large-scale evolution can occur in mammals. The researchers explored increases and decreases in mammal size following the extinction of dinosaurs...
Inside the World of Dinosaurs™ narrated by Stephen Fry is a stunning new iPad App that provides a comprehensive interactive library of over 60 dinosaurs and 200 pages of 3D modeling all in one single download. Each page has been meticulously detailed from expert paleontologists and world-class animators and modelers, to create an unparalleled experience on mobile devices. Melbourne, Australia (PRWEB) January 27, 2012 Melbourne, Australia – M5859 Studios is proud to announce the...
MELBOURNE, Australia, Jan. 27, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- M5859 Studios is proud to announce the release of one of the most exciting and content-rich apps in the world of interactive publishing - Inside the World of Dinosaurs(TM) ~ Narrated by Stephen Fry! Inside the World of Dinosaurs(TM) is a comprehensive and fully-interactive digital dinosaur encyclopedia that utilises all the multimedia capabilities of the iPad to engage users of all ages. Featuring the A to Z of dinosaurs - from...
A strange tulip-shaped creature discovered in half-a-billion-year-old rocks had a feeding system unlike any other animal, researchers reported this week. Officially named Siphusauctum gregarium, the fossils, unearthed from the Middle Cambrian Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies, reveal a peculiar creature roughly 7-8 inches long with a unique filter feeding system. The creature has a long stem with a bulbous cup-like structure -- similar to that of a tulip -- near the top that...
Numerous fossils -- including some collected by Charles Darwin -- have been rediscovered in an old wooden cabinet that had been tucked away in a dark corner of the British Geological Survey (BGS) headquarters in the UK, reports The Telegraph. The “treasure trove” of fossils was found by Dr. Howard Falcon-Lang, a paleontologist at Royal Holloway, University of London, undoubtedly by accident. The fossils had been lost to science for nearly 165 years, before Falcon-Lang stumbled onto...
How did insects get their hearing? A new study of 50 million year-old cricket and katydid fossils — sporting some of the best preserved fossil insect ears described to date— help trace the evolution of the insect ear, says a new study by researchers working at the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center. Insects hear with help from unusual ears, said co-author Roy Plotnick of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Grasshoppers have ears on their abdomens. Lacewings have ears on their...
University of Oregon scientist finds evidence that the transition occurred in humid, wooded floodplains A small fish crawling on stumpy limbs from a shrinking desert pond is an icon of can-do spirit, emblematic of a leading theory for the evolutionary transition between fish and amphibians. This theorized image of such a drastic adaptation to changing environmental conditions, however, may, itself, be evolving into a new picture. University of Oregon scientist Gregory J. Retallack,...
New study of fish fossil records near extinction events contradicts previous models The history of evolution is periodically marked by explosions in biodiversity, as groups of species try out a wide range of shapes and sizes. With a new analysis of two such adaptive radiations in the fossil record, researchers have discovered that these diversifications proceeded head-first. By analyzing the physical features of fossil fish that diversified around the time of two separate extinction...
Exhibit opens Saturday, December 10 PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- One of the world's largest collections highlighting the biggest dinosaurs ever stampedes into The Franklin Institute this Saturday, December 10 in the world premiere exhibition Giant Mysterious Dinosaurs. This exclusive exhibition gets visitors up-close-and-personal with GIGANTIC dinosaurs, as long as 70 feet, excavated from such remote regions as Argentina and the Gobi Desert of Inner...
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...
