Latest Vertebrate paleontology Stories

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...

Those delicious flatfishes, like halibut and sole, are also evolutionary puzzles. Their profoundly asymmetrical heads have one of the most unusual body plans among all backboned animals (vertebrates) but the evolution of their bizarre anatomy has long been a mystery. How did flatfishes, with both of their eyes on one side of their head, evolve? So puzzling was the anatomy of flounders and their kin that they were used in early arguments against Darwin and his theory of natural selection....

An analysis of skeletal remains has provided new evidence that humans made it to the Western Hemisphere during the last ice age, where they lived alongside giant, now-extinct mammals, claims a new study published online Thursday in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. University of Florida researchers used rare earth element analysis in order to measure the concentration of naturally occurring metals absorbed during fossilization in human and mammal remains discovered in south Florida...

  The Academy of Natural Sciences today announced the discovery of a new species of large predatory fish that prowled ancient North American waterways during the Devonian Period, before backboned animals existed on land. Drs. Edward "Ted" Daeschler and Jason Downs of the Academy and colleagues from the University of Chicago and Harvard University describe the new denizen of the Devonian they named Laccognathus embryi in the current issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology....

Scientists have discovered a cave housing 15-million-year-old fossils of prehistoric marsupials in the Outback. The researchers unearthed 26 skulls from an extinct, wombat-like marsupial called Nimbadon lavarackorum, which is an odd sheep sized creature with giant claws.  The findings were reported this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. "It's extraordinarily exciting for us," said University of New South Wales paleontologist Mike Archer, co-author of the article....

Evidence that the first widespread occurrence of terrestrial vertebrates 300 million years ago was in response to a brief episode of a globally warmer, drier climateA team of researchers from Carnegie Museum of Natural History has described a new genus and species of carnivorous amphibian from western Pennsylvania. The fossil skull, found in 2004 near Pittsburgh International Airport, was recovered from rocks deposited approximately 300 million years ago during the Late Pennsylvanian Period....

Skull fragments of prehistoric koalas from the Riversleigh rainforests of millions of year ago suggest they shared the modern koala's "lazy" lifestyle and ability to produce loud "bellowing" calls to attract mates and provide warnings about predators.However, the new findings published as the featured cover article in the current issue of The Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology suggest that the two species of koalas from the Miocene (24 to five million years ago) did not...

Scientists say a peculiar, bony armored amphibian prowled warm lakes 210 million years ago, catching fish and other tasty snacks with one of the most unusual bites in the history of life on Earth.Gerrothorax pulcherrimus lived alongside some of the early dinosaurs and opened its mouth not by dropping its lower jaw, as other vertebrate animals do, instead, it lifted back the top of its head in a way that looked a lot like lifting the lid of a toilet seat.Harvard University's Farish Jenkins,...

For the first time paleontologists have found fossilized burrows of tetrapods "“ any land vertebrates with four legs or leglike appendages "“ in Antarctica dating from the Early Triassic epoch, about 245 million years ago.The fossils were created when fine sand from an overflowing river poured into the animals' burrows and hardened into casts of the open spaces. The largest preserved piece is about 14 inches long, 6 inches wide and 3 inches deep. No animal remains were found inside the...

NEW YORK -- The big dinosaur extinction of 65 million years ago didn't produce a flurry of new species in the ancestry of modern mammals after all, says a huge study that challenges a long-standing theory.Scientists who constructed a massive evolutionary family tree for mammals found no sign of such a burst of new species at that time among the ancestors of present-day animals.Only mammals with no modern-day descendants showed that effect."I was flabbergasted," said study co-author...