Archive for January, 2016

Genyornis newtoni: Extinction points to humans

WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society:Key The first direct evidence that humans played a substantial role in the extinction of the huge, wondrous beasts inhabiting Australia some 50,000 years ago — in this case a 500-pound bird — has been discovered by a University of Colorado Boulder-led team. The flightless bird, known as Genyornis […]

Ptilocercus kylin:Treeshrew fossil found in China

 Treeshrews are widely considered a “living model” of an ancestral primate, and have long been called”living fossils”. Actual fossils of treeshrews, however, are extremely rare. In a paper published 14 January in Scientific Reports (6), Drs. LI Qiang and NI Xijun, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, reported a new […]

Explosive underwater volcanoes of ‘Snowball Earth’

WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,Explosive underwater volcanoes of ‘Snowball Earth’ Around 720-640 million years ago, much of the Earth’s surface was covered in ice during a glaciation that lasted millions of years. Explosive underwater volcanoes were a major feature of this ‘Snowball Earth’, according to new research led by the University of Southampton. […]

world’s oldest Jurassic dinosaur fossil?

It could be the long-lost ancestor of the dinosaurs from Jurassic Park. A fossil discovered in the UK is thought to be the oldest Jurassic dinosaur ever found and is one of the most complete specimens from the time period.The well-preserved remains of a juvenile dinosaur were found at Lavernock Point near Cardiff, Wales, a […]

How to Read a Prehistoric Temperature

Here’s a recipe for a mass extinction: Introduce a sudden ice age that piles the land with ice, and then, a few hundred thousand years later, rapidly warm the world. This one-two punch killed off about 50% of Earth’s genera 445 million years ago, ranking it as the third largest mass extinction, right below the […]

Spinosaurus Devoured Meals Like a Giant Pelican

Spinosaurus gained a notorious reputation in Jurassic Park 3 (spoiler alert), stomping on to the screen to take down the mighty T. rex in a rather memorable duel. Since gaining global fame on the silver screen, researchers now believe Spinosaurus was an adept swimmer, terrorizing local inhabitants of ancient river systems in North Africa some […]

Glossopteris Impressions from Karai Formation

The Glossopteridales are an extinct group of seed plants that arose during the Permian on the great southern continent of Gondwana. These plants went on to become a dominant part of the southern flora through the rest of the Permian, though they dwindled to extinction by the end of the Triassic Period. Glossopteris, the genus […]

A ‘kink’ in fault explains long-term growth of the Himalaya

An international team of scientists has shed new light on the earthquake that devastated Nepal in April 2015, killing more than 8,000 people. A study published in the journal Nature Geoscience shows that a kink in the regional fault line below Nepal explains why the highest mountains in the Himalayas are seen to grow between […]

Sivatherium: Largest Giraffe

A prehistoric giraffe that died out 10,000 years ago might have been the largest ruminant that walked the Earth.Victorian scientists believed the creature was a giraffe with a trunk and a “missing link” between mammals.Digital reconstructions of the bones show that while the giraffe was gigantic, the theory that it was as big as an […]

Machimosaurus: Giant crocodile fossil

The biggest sea-dwelling crocodile ever found has turned up in the Tunisian desert. The whopper of a prehistoric predator grew to over 30 feet long (nearly ten meters) and weighed three tons.Paleontologists have dubbed the new species Machimosaurus rex and describe it Monday in the journal Cretaceous Research.Although the recovered remains are fragmentary, enough remained […]