WFS

Formation of sedimentary layers of white clay, Tamilnadu, India

Fossil site for wood fossils, Tamilnadu, India

Fossil site in Kerala, India

Fossil wood park maintained by geological survey of India at Tamilnadu

Cretaceous fossil sites india

Fossils in rack:-Cyad

Fossils in rack:-echiniderms

Fossils in rack:-Rastellum sp

Pre-historic seabed, Cretaceous period

Spinosaurus: only known swimming dinosaur?

December 31st, 2015

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In the film Jurassic Park III, a giant sail-backed dinosaur called Spinosaurus fights a terrestrial Tyrannosaurus—and wins. But a study published online today in Science shows that the 15-meter-long Spinosaurus (shown in this artist’s reconstruction) had adaptations to life both in the water and on land, suggesting that the fierce beast was more of a danger to fish than to any terrestrial creature. In 97-million-year-old freshwater sediments in eastern Morocco, researchers discovered new Spinosaurus fossils, including parts of the skull, vertebral column, pelvis, and limb bones. The researchers were able to see signs of watery adaptation not seen in other dinosaurs: a small nostril located far back on the head, apparently to limit water intake; relatively long forelimbs; big flat feet suitable for paddling as well as walking on muddy ground; and very dense limb bones, which would have allowed Spinosaurus to submerge itself rather than float at the surface. The adaptations resemble those of early whales and today’s hippopotamus, and make Spinosaurus the only dinosaur known to swim, the researchers say.

Illustration Davide Bonadonna/Nizar Ibrahim/Simone Maganuco

Ref:Article by Elizabeth Culotta Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,

Karai Formation (Ariyalur ) declared as geoheritage site

December 27th, 2015

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The Karai Formation of Uttatur Group at Karai-Kulakkalnattam section in Perambalur district forms the lower part of the Cretaceous sedimentary succession of the Cauvery Basin. Tiwari et.al, (1996) considered the Karai area as the type area for Karai Formation. The Karai Formation is exposed as badlands with a series of conical mounds separated by gulleys. It is a wasteland with scanty vegetation and without any topsoil on either side of Karai-Kulakkalnattam road (along Alattur – Ariyalur road). The Karai Formation consists of grey-brown, gypsiferous, glauconitic mudstone and marl with sporadic thin inter-beds of siltstone, calcareous sandstone and coquinite particularly in its upper part – sporadic calcareous, sideritic and phosphatic concretions / nodules, celestite, and concretionary horizons occur in some intervals. A variety of marine fossils like ammonites, nautiloids, belemnites, worm tubes, pelecypods, gastropods and oysters occur in abundance. Krishnan Ayyasami (1990, 2006) based on the faunal assemblages had inferred that the lithounits of Karai Formation were deposited between Middle Cenomanian and Lower Turonian age. Ramkumar et.al. (2006) observed a gradual reduction in thickness, population of belemnites, phosphatic nodules and frequency of gypsum layers from south to north.

Courtesy To; Rajasree & Russel T sajeev ( World Fossil Society)

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Riffin T Sajeev in Karai formation ** ( World Fossil Society@2011)

Riffin T Sajeev in Karai formation * ( World Fossil Society@2011)

Riffin T Sajeev in Karai formation ( World Fossil Society@2011)

Yi qi: Bat-Winged Dinosaur Discovered in China

December 26th, 2015

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A team of paleontologists, co-led by Dr Xing Xu and Dr Xiaoting Zheng of the Linyi University’s Institute of Geology and Paleontology, has discovered a bizarre new theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Middle-Upper Jurassic period, approximately 160 million years ago.

Artist’s concept of Yi qi. Image credit: Dinostar.

The prehistoric creature, scientifically named Yi qi, represents a new genus and species. It belongs to Scansoriopterygidae, an extinct family of maniraptorans theropod dinosaurs closely related to birdsThe genus and species names are derived from Mandarin Chinese Yi (wing) and qi (strange), respectively, referring to the bizarre wings of this animal. The intended pronunciation of the name is roughly ‘ee chee.’Yi qi had a stubby head, featherless wings (like in bats), long fingers and threadlike feather, which is quite different from the feather of any existing bird.

“Analysis of Yi qi’s flying ability shows it was capable of flying short distance between trees, or flying from tree tops to the ground,” said Dr Xu, who is the lead author of the paper published in the journal Nature.

The only known specimen of Yi qi. Image credit: Xiaoting Zheng

“Living in the mid-period of Jurassic, Yi qi could be a pioneer in the evolution of flying ability,” added Dr Xiaoting, who is the second author on the paper.

“Yi qi proves that the prehistoric life had various attempts in developing flying ability, many went into the dead ends, though the flying mode of existing birds seems to be the only one survived to date.”

The most striking feature of the dinosaur is the presence of an anomalous, slightly curved, distally tapered, rod-like bone, which is morphologically unlike any normal theropod skeletal element.

“Indeed, no equivalent of the rod-like bone is known in any other dinosaur even outside Theropoda, but similar structures are present in a diverse array of extant and extinct flying or gliding tetrapods like bats.”

A partial skeleton of Yi qi was recovered from the Tiaojishan Formation of Hebei Province, China

“The specimen was collected by a local farmer, but its provenance and authenticity have been confirmed by multiple lines of evidence including sedimentology, taphonomy and computed tomography data,” the scientists wrote.

Ref:Article By Editors,Scinews.com

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Balanced Rocks Hint at San Andreas Secret

December 24th, 2015

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A mysterious group of balanced rocks that ought to have been knocked flat centuries ago may have let slip a deep, dark secret about the San Andreas Fault, according to a new study.

For two decades a handful of researchers have been uncovering the power of centuries-old earthquakes by studying how easily it would be to tip the balanced rocks that dot the countryside: If precariously balanced rocks have stood for centuries, then the risk or frequency of large quakes is probably low in that area. But if only very sturdy balanced rocks can be found, then it could be that more frequent strong quakes knocked down everything else.

A group of delicately balanced rocks have been standing for thousands of years close to the active San Andreas and San Jacinto faults. Lisa Grant Ludwig

“So it’s indirect evidence of what has not happened,” explained Lisa Grant Ludwig, the lead author of a paper about the balanced rocks in the latest issue of the journal Seismological Research Letters. And that’s important for drawing up good earthquake hazard maps and establishing adequate building codes.

Then a few years ago researchers found a group of balanced rocks that seem to defy common sense, located in the San Bernadino Mountains, northeast of Los Angeles. These rocks are far too close to the large San Jacinto Fault, right where it edges near the even more notorious San Andreas Fault.

“Based on what we know about the physics of earthquakes and fault ruptures, these shouldn’t be here,” said Ludwig. So Ludwig and her colleagues looked for the possible reasons the rocks have remained. “We kind of had a process of elimination.”

One possibility is that the balanced rocks are much younger than they appear and so they have not been around long enough to experience a less frequent, but strong earthquake. Maybe they are even younger than the great earthquakes of 1812 and 1857, the former of which famously toppled the big church, which still lies in ruins, at San Juan Capistrano.

To find out, the rocks were dated using cosmogenic dating techniques. These allow researchers to determine how long a rock surface has been exposed to the sky. That showed the rocks were in place for up to 18,000 years — plenty of time to have experienced lots of San Andreas and San Jacinto quakes.

Another possibility is that the rocks really aren’t as fragile as they look. There are a few ways to estimate the fragility of the rocks, including directly pushing to see if they move and modeling the rocks and working out their center of gravity, to see how they might respond to shaking. But that was a dead end as well.

“They look fragile and the data came back that they’re fragile too,” Ludwig said. “Finally it occurred to us that the San Andreas and San Jacinto faults are very close together — just 2 to 2 1/2 kilometers apart there. We began to wonder if it was a step over.”

A step over is when one fault ruptures and then the rupture ends and jumps over to a nearby fault, no more than about 2 1/2 miles (4 kilometers) away. These have been known to happen, and usually suggest that the two faults are really connected deep underground.

Modeling of the faults by Ph.D. student Julian Lozos, a coauthor on the paper, showed that just such a thing could happen between the San Jacinto and the San Andreas, and that it could create a region of less shaking where the balanced rocks are found.

“The modeling shows that … near the nucleation point (of a quake in that area) you can have rather low shaking,” said seismic hazard scientist Mark Stirling at GNS Science in New Zealand. “She might actually be identifying an area of relatively low shaking.”

“It’s potentially quite important,” Stirling said, and underscores how simplistic ground movement models are and how localized shaking can actually be quite variable.

“We can’t know for sure,” said Ludwig of their conclusions, but as more and more pieces of the puzzle come together, step over of ruptures and a deeper connection between the two big faults is looking more and more like the answer.

Ref: Article by by Larry O’Hanlon

Key: WFS, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,Balanced Rocks , San Andreas

Dreadnoughtus schrani : Heavyweight Dino of the World

December 23rd, 2015

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Dreadnoughtus schrani‘s tail alone measures an impressive 30 feet.

After four years of excavation and five years of study, Dreadnoughtus schrani debuted in September as a top contender for the largest land animal ever: 65 tons and 85 feet long, with a 37-foot neck and muscle-bound 30-foot tail.

Dreadnaughtus schrani Jennifer Hall

Paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara first spotted just a small patch of exposed bone one morning in February 2005 in Argentine Patagonia. Lacovara and fellow Drexel University researchers quickly returned, and by nightfall they had uncovered a 6-foot-long femur. “We knew immediately that we were looking at one of the largest known dinosaurs,” says Lacovara.

Dreadnoughtus lumbered through fern-filled forests between 66 million and 85 million years ago, and it left an astonishingly complete fossil: Almost half of the bones, 145, were recovered. Argentinosaurus, presumed to be the largest titanosaur, is known based on just 13 bones.

A reconstruction of the skeleton shows, in white, which bones were found. LaCovara, et. al.

“Until Dreadnoughtus, we could only guess at the body proportions of supermassive dinosaurs,” says Lacovara, author of the study, which was published in Scientific Reports. Scars indicate where tendons attached to the “exquisitely preserved” bones and will allow analysis of its musculature.

The Drexel team has released 3-D image files of Dreadnoughtus, making it the first new species presented along with its open-access virtual skeleton. “Any scientist or kid in the world can, to a substantial degree, see just what we were seeing,” Lacovara says.

Ref:Discover Magazine

Key: WFS, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,Dreadnoughtus schrani , Heavyweight Dino

plesiosaur fossil mystery resolved

December 21st, 2015

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Scientists have reconstructed how an ancient reptile swam in the oceans at the time of the dinosaurs.

Computer simulations suggest the plesiosaur moved through the water like a penguin, using its front limbs as paddles and back limbs for steering.The creature’s swimming gait has been a mystery since bones of the first known specimen were dug out of a Dorset cliff 200 years ago.The plesiosaur was discovered by the fossil hunter Mary Anning in 1821.At the time even the name dinosaur had not been invented.

A virtual model of the reptile was constructed from a German plesiosaur known as Meyerasaurus

A scientific paper unveiling Anning’s find a few years later raised the question of how the marine creature swam, given its unusual pairs of wing-like flippers.The debate has continued until today, with a computer simulation based on a Jurassic fossil specimen providing evidence in favour of penguin-like motion.

Dr Adam Smith of Nottingham Natural History Museum, Wollaton Hall, worked on the study.He explained that palaeontologists were divided on whether the marine creature used its four limbs in a rowing action like the oars of a boat; a flight stroke similar to modern penguins and turtles; or some sort of combination of the two.

How the plesiosaur might have looked

“Our study shows the up-and-down movement is more likely,” he told BBC News.

“That’s how turtles and penguins swim today.

“Penguins are literally flying through the water.”‘Weak thrust’

The study, published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE, is based on a computer simulation of a Jurassic fossil from Germany.

The fossil is unusual in being an almost complete skeleton with all four limbs preserved.It is smaller than many other members of the plesiosaur family, at about 3m long.The computer model shows the animal’s hind limbs provided “relatively weak thrust”, say Dr Smith and co-researchers at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta, US.

“We conclude that plesiosaurs were forelimb-dominated swimmers that used their hind limbs mainly for manoeuvrability and stability,” they report.

The plesiosaurs were predatory marine reptiles that lived at the time of the dinosaurs.They are unique in the animal kingdom for having two pairs of large wing-like flippers.Palaeobiology expert Dr David Martill of the University of Portsmouth said the new work suggested that in the small plesiosaur at least, the forelimbs did all the work.He said it remained to be seen if the same was true of the largest plesiosaurs, which were ferocious marine predators.

“These beasts probably fed by twist feeding like the large crocodiles of today,” he said.

“If this were the case, then the hind limbs may have been used to spin the animal on its long axis.”

Ref: article By Helen Briggs BBC News

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Morelladon beltrani: New Sail-Backed Dinosaur Species Discovered in Spain

December 19th, 2015

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A new species of ornithopod dinosaur has been discovered in Spain dating back 125 million years to the Barremian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch.At roughly 20 feet (6 m) in length and 8 feet (2.5 m) high, the new species – scientifically named Morelladon beltrani – was a relatively large dinosaur.The dinosaur’s incomplete skeleton was collected in the Mas de Sabaté site within the Mas de la Parreta Quarry at Morella, Spain.

Life reconstruction of Morelladon beltrani. Image credit: Carlos de Miguel Chaves.

It was analyzed by a team of Spanish paleontologists from the National Distance Education University (NDEU) in Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid (AUM).The paleontologists said Morelladon beltrani is so unique that it represents a new genus.

The beast, according to the team, was a relative of Mantellisaurus atherfieldensis and the famous duckbilled, plant-eating Iguanodon.

“An analysis of the evolutionary relationships of Morelladon shows that it is most closely related to Iguanodon and Mantelliaurus species also from the same location in Spain,” said Dr José Miguel Gasulla of the AUM’s Department of Paleontology and his colleagues.

“This suggests that in the Early Cretaceous of Europe, which would have been an island archipelago at the time, we had endemic pockets of dinosaurs living and evolving alongside one another.”

The Morelladon beltrani’s most distinctive feature is the presence of tall neural spines on dorsal vertebrae, which was possibly a ‘sail’ used for thermoregulation, or as a storage place for fat to be used during periods of low food supply.

“We knew the dinosaur fauna from Morella was similar to those of other contemporary European sites,” said Dr Fernando Escaso of the NDEU’s Group of Evolutionary Biology. “However, this discovery shows an interesting rise of the iguanodontoid diversity in southern Europe 125 million years ago.”

“The discovery of Morelladon beltrani, combined with other recently named taxa (Delapparentia turolensis, Proa valdearinnoensis, Iguanodon galvensis), recognizes the Iberian Peninsula as a highly diverse Early Cretaceous medium-large bodied styracosternan assemblage worldwide,” the scientists said.The discovery is reported December 16 in the online edition of the journal PLoS ONE.

Courtesy: article by Enrico de Lazaro in Scinews.com

Key: WFS, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society

Chilesaurus : New Herbivorous Dinosaur Discovered in Chile

December 17th, 2015

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An international team of paleontologists led by Dr Fernando Novas of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires has described a new genus and species of plant-eating dinosaur that roamed what is now Chile during the Upper Jurassic, roughly 145 million years ago.

Chilesaurus diegosuarezi was up to 3 meters long; the different parts of its body were adapted to a particular diet and way of life, which was similar to other groups of dinosaurs. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.

The new dinosaur, named Chilesaurus diegosuarezi, belongs to Tetanurae, a taxonomically and ecologically diverse group of theropod dinosaurs.The genus name, Chilesaurus, honors the country in which the ancient species was discovered.The species name, diegosuarezi, honors Diego Suárez, the 7-y-old boy who discovered the type specimen at the Toqui Formation in Aysén, south of Chilean Patagonia. Since Diego’s find, more than ten specimens have been excavated, including four complete skeletons.

“Chilesaurus diegosuarezi is the first complete dinosaur from the Jurassic Period found in Chile and represents one of the most complete and anatomically correct documented theropod dinosaurs from the southern hemisphere,” said Dr Novas, lead author on the study published in the journal Nature.

Skeletal anatomy of Chilesaurus diegosuarezi. Image credit: Fernando E. Nova et al.

“Although plant-eating theropods have been recorded in North America and Asia, this is the first time a theropod with this characteristic has been found in a southern landmass.”

Dr Novas and co-authors are referring to Chilesaurus diegosuarezi as a ‘platypus’ dinosaur because of its enigmatic combination of characters that include a proportionally small skull and feet more akin to primitive long-necked dinosaurs.

The presence of herbivorous theropods was up until now only known in close relatives of birds, but the new dinosaur shows that an herbivorous diet was acquired much earlier than thought.

“Chilesaurus diegosuarezi can be considered a ‘platypus’ dinosaur because different parts of its body resemble those of other dinosaur groups due to mosaic convergent evolution. In this process, a region or regions of an organism resemble others of unrelated species because of a similar mode of life and evolutionary pressures,” said co-author Dr Martín Ezcurra of the University of Birmingham, UK.

“Chilesaurus diegosuarezi shows how much data is still completely unknown about the early diversification of major dinosaur groups.”

According to the team, the dinosaur represents one of the most extreme cases of mosaic convergent evolution recorded in the history of life.

Ref: Fernando E. Nova et al. An enigmatic plant-eating theropod from the Late Jurassic period of Chile. Nature, published online April 27, 2015; doi: 10.1038/nature14307 and http://www.sci-news.com.

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Stegoceras validum : A Radiator-nosed dinosaur?

December 15th, 2015

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A bipedal, German shepherd–sized dinosaur may have had soft tissues in its nasal cavity that cooled the blood flowing to its brain, a new study suggests. The plant-eating Stegoceras validum belongs to a group called pachycephalosaurs (which in Greek means “thick-headed lizards”). CT scans of one particularly well preserved skull revealed delicate scrolls of bones in a chamber at the rear of the creature’s nasal cavity—bones that would have been covered with soft tissue containing smell receptors (purplish pink in reconstruction at lower right), researchers say. A new study modeling fluid dynamics suggested something strange: that air breathed in through Stegoceras’s nasal cavity would have largely bypassed its smell receptors. The mystery was solved after the researchers noticed a small bony ridge in the front part of the creature’s nasal cavity. When the team added soft tissues to that bony ridge—structures called turbinates (in green), similar to those in many modern creatures—they found that inhaled air was diverted back to the olfactory chamber, allowing the dinosaur to better exercise its sense of smell, the researchers reported online this week in The Anatomical Record. The turbinates might have offered other benefits as well. As in today’s ostriches and alligators, hot blood flowing through the soft tissues of Stegoceras’s turbinates would have been cooled before streaming onward to the dinosaur’s brain—possibly helping prevent excess body heat absorbed from a warm environment or generated by vigorous activity from frying the creature’s gray matter.

Stegoceras validum . WitmerLab/Ohio University

Ref: Article http://news.sciencemag.org/author/sid-perkins

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Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis: New Species of Ceratopsian Dinosaur Discovered in China

December 13th, 2015

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An international team of paleontologists has discovered a new species of hornless ceratopsian dinosaur, called Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis, in China.

This new dinosaur was a distant cousin of the famed ceratopsian dinosaur Triceratops and lived early in the Late Jurassic period, roughly 160 million years ago.

Life restoration of Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis. Image credit: Portia Sloan Rollings.

According to a study published this week in the journal PLoS ONE, the find is one of the oldest known of ceratopsians.

The remains of Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis – a partial skull and foot – were collected from the Shishugou Formation of the Junggar Basin, northwestern China.

Like Triceratops, the new species was a plant-eater. But it didn’t have horns and was about the size of a spaniel.

Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis walked on two legs and had ornamental texture on nearly all parts of the skull.

This is the reconstructed skull of Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis; abbreviations: an – angular; d – dentary; j – jugal; ma – maxilla; pd – predentary; po – postorbital; q – quadrate; sa – surangular; sq – squamosal. Image credit: Han F. et al.

The team, led by Prof. Xu Xing from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in China and Dr James Clark from the George Washington University, discovered this dinosaur in the same part of the Shishugou Formation as Yinlong downsi, the oldest-known ceratopsian dinosaur.

“Finding these two species in the same fossil beds reveals there was more diversity there than we previously recognized,” said team member Prof. Catherine Forster, of the George Washington University.

Additionally, the paleontologists studied the relationship between the newly discovered species and other ceratopsians through phylogenetic analysis.

“The phylogeny and the earliest Late Jurassic age of Yinlong and Hualianceratops imply that at least five ceratopsian lineages (Yinlong, Hualianceratops, Chaoyangsaurus and Xuanhuaceratops, Psittacosaurus, Neoceratopsia) were present at the beginning of the Late Jurassic,” they said.

Ref: Han F. et al. 2015. A New Taxon of Basal Ceratopsian from China and the Early Evolution of Ceratopsia. PLoS ONE 10 (12): e0143369; doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0143369 & Sci-News.com

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