Archive for October, 2017

WFS Dino Facts : Ophthalmosaurus ‭(‬Eye lizard‭)

@ WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Name: Ophthalmosaurus ‭(‬Eye lizard‭)‬. Phonetic: Of-fal-moe-sore-us. Named By: Harry Govier Seeley‭ ‬-‭ ‬1874. Synonyms: Apatodontosaurus,‭ ‬Ancanamunia,‭ ‬Baptanodon,‭ ‬Paraophthalmosaurus,‭ ‬Yasykovia. Classification: Chordata,‭ ‬Reptilia,‭ ‬Ichthyosauria,‭ ‬Ophthalmosauridae,‭ ‬Ophthalmosaurinae. Species: O.‭ ‬icenicus‭ (‬type‭)‬,‭ ‬O.‭ ‬natans,‭ ‬O.‭ ‬saveljeviensis,‭ ‬O.‭ ‬yasykovi. Diet: Piscivore,‭ ‬possibly a specialist in deep water squid. Size: Up to‭ […]

WFS News: Fossil Footprints Reveal Existence of Big Early Dinosaur Predator

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A trail of fossilized three-toed footprints that measure nearly two feet (57 cm) long shows that a huge meat-eating dinosaur stalked southern Africa 200 million years ago at a time when most carnivorous dinosaurs were modest-sized beasts. Scientists on Thursday described the footprints from an […]

WFS News: Ichthyosaur fossil discovered for first time in India

@ WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Scientists in India have discovered a 152 million-year-old fossil of an ichthyosaur – an extinct marine reptile – in the western state of Gujarat. This is the first time an ichthyosaur fossil has been discovered in India.The fossil was found inside rocks from the Mesozoic Era, which […]

WFS News:Growing pains: The oldest trees on Earth ripped themselves apart, fossils show

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Scientists have discovered 374-million-year-old tree fossils from the dawn of Earth’s forests — and found that these strange plants literally had to rip themselves apart as they grew. The fossils, described in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shed light on the nature of ancient forests […]

WFS News:Fossils from the world’s oldest trees reveal complex anatomy never seen before

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev The first trees to have ever grown on Earth were also the most complex, new research has revealed. Fossils from a 374-million-year-old tree found in north-west China have revealed an interconnected web of woody strands within the trunk of the tree that is much more intricate than that […]

WFS News: Mongolian micro fossils point to the rise of animals on Earth.

@ WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A Yale-led research team has discovered a cache of embryo-like microfossils in northern Mongolia that may shed light on questions about the long-ago shift from microbes to animals on Earth. Called the Khesen Formation, the site is one of the most significant for early Earth fossils since […]

WFS News: Scientists determine source of world’s largest mud eruption

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev On May 29, 2006, mud started erupting from several sites on the Indonesian island of Java. Boiling mud, water, rocks and gas poured from newly-created vents in the ground, burying entire towns and compelling many Indonesians to flee. By September 2006, the largest eruption site reached a peak, […]

WFS News: New tyrannosaur fossil is most complete found in Southwestern US

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A remarkable new fossilized skeleton of a tyrannosaur discovered in the Bureau of Land Management’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) in southern Utah was airlifted by helicopter Sunday, Oct 15, from a remote field site, and delivered to the Natural History Museum of Utah where it will be […]

WFS News: Archaeology fossil teeth discovery in Germany could re-write human history

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A 9.7-million-year-old discovery has left a team of German scientists scratching their heads. The teeth seem to belong to a species only known to have appeared in Africa several million years later. A team of German archaeologists discovered a puzzling set of teeth in the former riverbed of […]

WFS News: Researchers discover 48-million-year-old lipids in a fossil bird

@WFS,World Fossil Society,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev As a rule, soft parts do not withstand the ravages of time; hence, the majority of vertebrate fossils consist only of bones. Under these circumstances, a new discovery from the UNESCO World Heritage Site “Messel Pit” near Darmstadt in Germany comes as an even bigger surprise: a 48-million-year […]