Archive for December, 2012

Nyasasaurus parringtoni:Mysterious fossil identified

Researchers have found what could be the earliest known dinosaur to walk the earth lurking in the corridors of London’s Natural History Museum. A mysterious fossil specimen that has been in the museum’s collection for decades has now been identified as most likely coming from a dinosaur that lived about 245 million years ago – […]

Nysasaurus parringtoni: world’s oldest dinosaur lived 245 million years ago ?

A creature about the size of a Labrador retriever with a 1.5-metre-long tail could be the earliest-known dinosaur to have walked the Earth, according to scientists.Research published Wednesday in the journal Biology Letters describes a set of fossilized bones from Tanzania that predates all other discoveries by 10 to 15 million years. The new findings […]

Racemization:New Test Adds to Scientists’ Understanding of Earth’s History

A new study co-authored by a University of Florida researcher provides the first direct chronological test of sequence stratigraphy, a powerful tool for exploring Earth’s natural resources. The model allows geologists to better understand how sedimentary rocks are related to one another in time and space and predict what types of rocks are located in […]

Fossils and Genes Brought Together to Piece Together Evolutionary History

Paleontology, with its rocks and fossils, seems far removed from the world of developmental genetics, with its petri dishes and embryos. Whereas paleontology strives to determine “What happened in evolution?,” developmental genetics uses gene control in embryos to try to answer “How did it happen?” Combined, the two approaches can lead to remarkable insights that […]

Holes in fossil bones reveal dinosaur activity

New research from the University of Adelaide has added to the debate about whether dinosaurs were cold-blooded and sluggish or warm-blooded and active. Professor Roger Seymour from the University’s School of Earth & Environmental Sciences has applied the latest theories of human and animal anatomy and physiology to provide insight into the lives of dinosaurs. The results will be published […]

More Intense North Atlantic Tropical Storms Likely in the Future

Tropical storms that make their way into the North Atlantic, and possibly strike the East Coast of the United States, likely will become more intense during the rest of this century. That’s the prediction of one University of Iowa researcher and his colleague as published in an early online release in the Journal of Climate, the […]

Presence of Magnesium oxide: From Earth to super-Earth

The mantles of Earth and other rocky planets are rich in magnesium and oxygen. Due to its simplicity, the mineral magnesium oxide is a good model for studying the nature of planetary interiors. New work from a team led by Carnegie’s Stewart McWilliams studied how magnesium oxide behaves under the extreme conditions deep within planets […]

Solving a magma mystery

Oceanic crust covers two-thirds of the Earth’s solid surface, but scientists still don’t entirely understand the process by which it is made. Analysis of more than 600 samples of oceanic crust by a team including Carnegie’s Frances Jenner reveals a systemic pattern that alters long-held beliefs about how this process works, explaining a crucial step […]