Posts Tagged ‘fossil’

WFS News: Palaeotanyrhina exophthalma,A fossil insect with 360 degree vision

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Athira,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev While prehistoric insects encased in amber certainly are fascinating, they usually don’t look all that different from today’s insects. A newly discovered one, however, is so bizarre that it has been placed in its own unique family. Measuring just over 5 mm long, the insect was found in […]

WFS News:Scientists Find Fossil Of Prehistoric Bear-Dog

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Athira,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev. A group of scientists has found a fossilised lower jaw of a giant creature that one roamed the Earth. Named Tartarocyon cazanavei, it lived in what is now France – between 12.8 and 12 million years ago. Also known as the bear-dog, the fossilised body part of the […]

WFS News: Oldest Green Algae Fossil

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A  newly discovered fossil species of green algae indicates that photosynthesis originated in plants at least 1 billion years ago, paleobiologists reported in Nature Ecology & Evolution yesterday (February 24). The discovery of Proterocladus antiquus helps pinpoint what has been a very broad estimation of when the chlorophyte group of green algae, the relatives […]

WFS News: Fossil bite marks of Theropod connected with feeding nature

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Bite marks provide direct evidence for trophic interactions and competition in the fossil record. However, variations in paleoecological dynamics, such as trophic relationships, feeding behavior, and food availability, govern the frequency of these traces. Theropod bite marks are particularly rare, suggesting that members of this clade might not […]

WFS News: First Fossil Frog

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev First fossil frog from Antarctica: implications for Eocene high latitude climate conditions and Gondwanan cosmopolitanism of Australobatrachia Cenozoic ectothermic continental tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) have not been documented previously from Antarctica, in contrast to all other continents. Here we report a fossil ilium and an ornamented skull bone […]

WFS News: Ectoparasitism and infections in the exoskeletons of large fossil cingulates

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Ectoparasitism and infections in the exoskeletons of large fossil cingulates Studies on paleopathological alterations in fossil vertebrates, including damages caused by infections and ectoparasites, are important because they are potential sources of paleoecological information. Analyzing exoskeleton material (isolated osteoderms, carapace and caudal tube fragments) from fossil cingulates of the […]

WFS News: Najash,Fossil of an ancient legged snake

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev New fossils of an ancient legged snake, called Najash, shed light on the origin of the slithering reptiles, including how snakes got their bite and lost their legs. The fossil discoveries published in Science Advances have revealed they possessed hind legs during the first 70 million years of their evolution. […]

WFS News: Fossil shows trilobites go marching one by one

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev The trilobites go marching one by one, hurrah, hurrah … well, at least they did, some 480 million years ago.  New fossils from Morocco show lines of trilobites in orderly queues, likely buried by a storm as they trekked from one place to another under the Ordovician seas […]

WFS News: A School of Fish, Captured in a Fossil

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Fossilized fish captured mid-swim offer a rare glimpse into extinct animal behavior — and suggest that swimming in schools developed at least 50 million years ago. A limestone shale slab from the Eocene Epoch reveals that extinct, thimble-sized fish called Erismatopterus levatus may have coordinated their motion similar to how fish in […]

WFS News: Tiny tyrannosaur fossil discovery changes the dinosaur timeline

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Tyrannosaurus rex wasn’t always the king of the dinosaurs. Before they became towering predators, tyrannosaurs started out much smaller, and a newly discovered fossil is helping fill the gap between those two extremes. The fossil findings are detailed in a study published Thursday in Communications Biology. The dinosaur fossil […]