New research into an Icelandic eruption has shed light on how the Earth’s crust forms, according to a paper published today in Nature. When the Bárðarbunga volcano, which is buried beneath Iceland’s Vatnajökull ice cap, reawakened in August 2014, scientists had a rare opportunity to monitor how the magma flowed through cracks in the […]
Archive for December, 2014
Earth grow a new layer under an Icelandic volcano
December 30th, 2014 
Riffin 
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Tags: Icelandic volcano, new layer, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society 
No Comments »Shedding new light on diet of extinct animals
December 27th, 2014 Riffin A study of tooth enamel in mammals living today in the equatorial forest of Gabon could ultimately shed light on the diet of long extinct animals, according to new research from the University of Bristol. Reconstructing what extinct organisms fed on can be a real challenge. Scientists use a variety of methods including the structure […]
fossil fish with rod and cones
December 25th, 2014 Riffin Scientists have discovered a fossilized fish so well preserved that the rods and cones in its 300-million-year-old eyeballs are still visible under a scanning electron microscope.lRelated New record: Ethereal deep-sea fish lives 5 miles underwater It is the first time that fossilized photoreceptors from a vertebrate eye have ever been found, according to a paper […]
Ancient, hydrogen-rich waters deep underground
December 22nd, 2014 Riffin A team of scientists, led by the University of Toronto’s Barbara Sherwood Lollar, has mapped the location of hydrogen-rich waters found trapped kilometres beneath Earth’s surface in rock fractures in Canada, South Africa and Scandinavia. Common in Precambrian Shield rocks — the oldest rocks on Earth — the ancient waters have a chemistry similar to […]
Conotubus fossils provide new clues about fossil formation
December 19th, 2014 Riffin A new study from University of Missouri and Virginia Tech researchers is challenging accepted ideas about how ancient soft-bodied organisms become part of the fossil record. Findings suggest that bacteria involved in the decay of those organisms play an active role in how fossils are formed — often in a matter of just a few […]
Shortening tails gave early birds a leg up
December 16th, 2014 Riffin A radical shortening of their bony tails over 100 million years ago enabled the earliest birds to develop versatile legs that gave them an evolutionary edge, a new study shows. A team led by Oxford University scientists examined fossils of the earliest birds from the Cretaceous Period, 145-66 million years ago, when early birds, such […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, Shortening tails, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Bridgmanite:Earth’s most abundant mineral
December 14th, 2014 Riffin An ancient meteorite and high-energy X-rays have helped scientists conclude a half century of effort to find, identify and characterize a mineral that makes up 38 percent of the Earth. And in doing so, a team of scientists led by Oliver Tschauner, a mineralogist at the University of Las Vegas, clarified the definition of the […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Bridgmanite, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Aquilops : Oldest horned dinosaur species in North America
December 12th, 2014 Riffin cientists have named the first definite horned dinosaur species from the Early Cretaceous in North America, according to a study published December 10, 2014 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Andrew Farke from Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology and colleagues. The limited fossil record for neoceratopsian–or horned dinosaurs–from the Early Cretaceous in North […]
volcanoes may be much closer than thought
December 10th, 2014 Riffin Credit: Virginia Tech Traditional thought holds that hot updrafts from the Earth’s core cause volcanoes, but researchers say eruptions may stem from the asthenosphere, a layer closer to the surface. Credit: Virginia Tech A long-held assumption about the Earth is discussed in today’s edition of Science, as Don L. Anderson, an emeritus professor with […]
Fossil hunters find skeleton of 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth in North Sea
December 9th, 2014 Riffin Fossil hunters find skeleton of 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth in North Sea
Posted in Featured Post Tags: 000-year-old woolly mammoth, 40, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »
