Stanford scientists have identified key acoustic characteristics of the 2011 Japan earthquake that indicated it would cause a large tsunami. The technique could be applied worldwide to create an early warning system for massive tsunamis. On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake occurred 43 miles off the shore of Japan. The earthquake generated […]
Archive for June, 2013
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Secondary Cartilage Revealed in a Non-Avian Dinosaur Embryo
June 9th, 2013 
Riffin The skull and jaws of extant birds possess secondary cartilage, a tissue that arises after bone formation during embryonic development at articulations, ligamentous and muscular insertions. Using histological analysis, we discovered secondary cartilage in a non-avian dinosaur embryo, Hypacrosaurus stebingeri (Ornithischia, Lambeosaurinae). This finding extends our previous report of secondary cartilage in post-hatching specimens of […]
How the turtles got their shells: Clues from fossils !
June 8th, 2013 Riffin Through careful study of an ancient ancestor of modern turtles, researchers now have a clearer picture of how the turtles’ most unusual shell came to be. The findings, reported on May 30 in Current Biology, a Cell Press publication, help to fill a 30- to 55-million-year gap in the turtle fossil record through study of […]
Sturgeon Fish Are Evolutionary Speedsters
June 7th, 2013 Riffin Efforts to restore sturgeon in the Great Lakes region have received a lot of attention in recent years, and many of the news stories note that the prehistoric-looking fish are “living fossils” virtually unchanged for millions of years. But a new study by University of Michigan researchers and their colleagues reveals that in at least […]
Discovery of Oldest-Known Fossil Primate Skeleton announced
June 6th, 2013 Riffin A mouse-sized fossil from China has provided remarkable new insights into the origin of primates.Xijun Ni points out the key features in the fossil At 55 million years old, it represents the earliest known member of this broad group of animals that includes humans.scientists have called the diminutive creature Archicebus, which roughly translates as “ancient […]
Oldest Known Eucalyptus Macrofossils Are from South America
June 5th, 2013 Riffin The evolutionary history of Eucalyptus and the eucalypts, the larger clade of seven genera including Eucalyptus that today have a natural distribution almost exclusively in Australasia, is poorly documented from the fossil record. Little physical evidence exists bearing on the ancient geographical distributions or morphologies of plants within the clade. Herein, we introduce fossil material […]
Fossil Remains Reveal New Species of Marine Fish from 408 Million Years Ago in Teruel, Spain
June 4th, 2013 Riffin Researchers from the University of Valencia and the Natural History Museum of Berlin have studied the fossilised remains of scales and bones found in Teruel, Spain, and the south of Zaragoza, ascertaining that they belong to a new fish species called Machaeracanthus goujeti that lived in that area of the peninsula during the Devonian period. […]
world class fossils finds in Leicestershire
June 3rd, 2013 Riffin Geologists say thousands more fossils exist at a Leicestershire site than previously realised. The fossils, which are almost impossible to see with the naked eye, were found at Charnwood Forest. Scientists from the British Geological Survey, in Nottinghamshire, made casts of the fossils which are on display at New Walk Museum in Leicester. In 1957, […]
Albertadromeus syntarsus extends knowledge of dinosaur ecosystems
June 2nd, 2013 Riffin Dinosaurs are often thought of as large, fierce animals, but new research highlights a previously overlooked diversity of small dinosaurs. In the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, a team of paleontologists from the University of Toronto, Royal Ontario Museum, Cleveland Museum of Natural History and University of Calgary have described a new dinosaur, the smallest plant-eating […]
Billion-Year-Old Water Could Hold Clues to Life On Earth and Mars
June 1st, 2013 Riffin A UK-Canadian team of scientists has discovered ancient pockets of water, which have been isolated deep underground for billions of years and contain abundant chemicals known to support life. This water could be some of the oldest on the planet and may even contain life. Not just that, but the similarity between the rocks that […]
