Secrets from the age of the dinosaurs are usually revealed by fossilized bones, but a University of Alberta research team has turned up a treasure trove of Cretaceous feathers trapped in tree resin. The resin turned to resilient amber, preserving some 80 million-year-old protofeathers, possibly from non-avian dinosaurs, as well as plumage that is very […]
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Could Siberian Volcanism Have Caused the Earth’s Largest Extinction Event?
January 14th, 2012 
riffin Around 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian geologic period, there was a mass extinction so severe that it remains the most traumatic known species die-off in Earth’s history. Although the cause of this event is a mystery, it has been speculated that the eruption of a large swath of volcanic rock […]
‘Head-First’ Diversity Shown to Drive Vertebrate Evolution
January 9th, 2012 riffin The history of evolution is periodically marked by explosions in biodiversity, as groups of species try out a wide range of shapes and sizes. With a new analysis of two such adaptive radiations in the fossil record, researchers have discovered that these diversifications proceeded head-first. By analyzing the physical features of fossil fish that diversified […]
Rastellum species from cretaceous formation in India.
January 5th, 2012 riffin This specimen of rastellum (arcostrea) Sp. obtained from the late cretaceous bed from India. Stock photograph from World fossil society.
Fossil ‘suggests plesiosaurs did not lay eggs’
January 3rd, 2012 riffin Scientists say they have found the first evidence that giant sea reptiles – which lived at the same time as dinosaurs – gave birth to live young rather than laying eggs. They say a 78 million-year-old fossil of a pregnant plesiosaur suggests they gave birth to single, large young. Writing in Science, they say […]
Eyes of an Ancient Predator Had 16,000 Lenses
January 1st, 2012 riffin Anomalocaris was a squidlike predator with grasping claws that lived more than 500 million years ago. Now paleontologists from Australia have found a pair of fossilized eyes belonging to the creature. To say the least, the discovery supports the theory that it was a highly visual predator. The researchers report that anomalocaris had extraordinarily complex […]
Woolly Rhino Fossil Discovery in Tibet Provides Important Clues to Evolution of Ice Age Giants
December 31st, 2011 riffin A new paper published in the journal Science reveals the discovery of a primitive woolly rhino fossil in the Himalayas, which suggests some giant mammals first evolved in present-day Tibet before the beginning of the Ice Age. The extinction of Ice Age giants such as woolly mammoths and rhinos, giant sloths, and saber-tooth cats has been widely […]
Plant-Eating Dinosaur Discovered in Antarctica
December 29th, 2011 riffin ScienceDaily (Dec. 19, 2011) — For the first time, the presence of large bodied herbivorous dinosaurs in Antarctica has been recorded. Until now, remains of sauropoda — one of the most diverse and geographically widespread species of herbivorous dinosaurs — had been recovered from all continental landmasses, except Antarctica. Dr. Ignacio Alejandro Cerda, from CONICET […]
Tags: Large dinosaurs migrated huge distances, say scientists
December 28th, 2011 riffin The largest dinosaurs to walk the Earth may have embarked on seasonal migrations that covered hundreds of kilometres when local watering holes dried up and food became scarce.The 18-tonne sauropod dinosaur Camarasaurus may have migrated 300 kilometres in search of food and water. Evidence that giant sauropods set off on epic journeys came to light […]
