Archive for August, 2013

New Proto-Mammal Fossil Sheds Light On Evolution of Earliest Mammals

A newly discovered fossil reveals the evolutionary adaptations of a 165-million-year-old proto-mammal, providing evidence that traits such as hair and fur originated well before the rise of the first true mammals. The biological features of this ancient mammalian relative, named Megaconus mammaliaformis, are described by scientists from the University of Chicago in the Aug 8 […]

How Did Earth’s Primitive Chemistry Get Kick Started?

How did life on Earth get started? Three new papers co-authored by Mike Russell, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., strengthen the case that Earth’s first life began at alkaline hydrothermal vents at the bottom of oceans. Scientists are interested in understanding early life on Earth because if we ever hope […]

The First Occurrence in the Fossil Record of an Aquatic Avian Twig-Nest with Phoenicopteriformes Eggs: Evolutionary Implications

We describe the first occurrence in the fossil record of an aquatic avian twig-nest with five eggs in situ (Early Miocene Tudela Formation, Ebro Basin, Spain). Extensive outcrops of this formation reveal autochthonous avian osteological and oological fossils that represent a single taxon identified as a basal phoenicopterid. Although the eggshell structure is definitively phoenicopterid, […]

Bird brains predate birds themselves

New research provides evidence that dinosaurs evolved the brainpower necessary for flight well before they actually took to the air as birds. Based on high-resolution X-ray computed tomographic (CT) scans, the study, published today in Nature, takes a comprehensive look at the so-called “bird brain.” Contrary to the cliché, the term describes a relatively enlarged […]

A Waterworld of Volcanoes

At Loki’s Castle in the Arctic Ocean, researchers from the University of Bergen (UiB) have discovered a so far unknown world of volcanic activity underwater. They hope that this can become Norway’s new national park. In 2008, UiB researchers discovered Loki’s Castle, a field of five active hydrothermal vents on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge between Norway […]