Latest Transitional fossils Stories
Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online When you inspect the legs of most birds you will find everything from the knee down is scaly rather than feathery. There is an exception to this rule however. Some birds of prey, such as eagles, have more feathering below the knee extending down to the feet. As for those with scaly legs, it is a remnant of their ancestry, when birds evolved from small two-legged dinosaurs millions of years ago. For the most part, experts...
New fossil reveals history of last-living marine mammals to eat only aquatic plants A new fossil discovered in Tunisia represents the oldest known ancestor of modern-day sea cows, supporting the African origins of these marine mammals. The find is described in research published January 16 in the open access journal PLOS ONE by Julien Benoit and colleagues from the University of Science and Technology in Montpellier, France. Some fossils of sea cow ancestors have been found in Jamaica,...
[Watch Video: 3D X-Ray Images Of Early Tetrapod Backbone] Lawrence LeBlond for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Using high-energy X-rays and a new data extraction protocol, an international consortium of scientists have for the first time rendered a 3D model of a prehistoric tetrapod backbone. The new reconstruction has shed new light on how the early animals moved once they made it onto land. One of the main creatures studied was a fierce-looking ichthyostega that lived from 374...
April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Many researchers believe that one of the pivotal events in becoming human was the development of terrestrial bipedalism, or the ability to walk on two legs. Much has been made of our ancestors "coming down out of the trees." After all, the majority of our living primate relatives – for example, the great apes – still spend a great deal of their time in trees. In the primate family, humans are the only branch devoted to the ground,...
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...
A 3.4-million-year-old fossil foot found in eastern Ethiopia appears to settle a long-standing debate about whether there was just one line of hominins 3 to 4 million years ago, scientists said on Wednesday. The fossil record for that period had been virtually limited to the species Australopithecus afarensis, the early human ancestor made famous by the 3.2-million-year-old Lucy skeleton. However, research on the new specimen, which was found in February 2009 in an area locally known as...
