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

Kunbarrasaurus ieversi: New Armored Dinosaur Species Discovered

December 12th, 2015

Riffin

An artist impression of Kunbarrasaurus ieversi. Image credit: © Australian Geographic.

This new species is one of a group of four-legged armored herbivorous dinosaurs called ankylosaurs.The near-complete skeleton of the 100 million-year-old (Cretaceous period) beast, including most of the skull and mandible, along with postcranial material, was discovered in 1989 in the Allaru Mudstone on Marathon Station near Richmond, north-western Queensland, by Mr Ian Ievers.

But new research led by University of Queensland paleontologist Lucy Leahey has revealed the specimen is a distinctly different species than previously thought.

CT scan slices through the nasal cavity A, B, C, and braincase D, E, F regions of Kunbarrasaurus ieversi gen. et sp. nov. (formerly Minmi sp.) (QM F18101).
(A, D) Volume rendering of the entire skull showing the positions of the horizontal slices in (B, E) and the axial (vertical) slice in (C, F). Abbreviations: ls, laterosphenoid; ors, orbitospenoid; oto, otoccipital; proo, prootic; rsc, rostral semicircular canal; vest, vestibule. For other abbreviations see Fig. 1. Scale bar equals 2 cm.

“When it was first studied back in the 1990s, the fossil was placed it in the same genus as Australia’s only other named ankylosaur, Minmi, which is based on some bones from Roma in south-western Queensland,” Ms Leahey explained.

The find is one of the best-preserved ankylosaur fossils in the world and the most complete dinosaur so far discovered in Australia.Ms Leahey and her colleagues named the new ankylosaur Kunbarrasaurus ieversi, a reference to the man who first found it.

Reconstruction of the skull of Kunbarrasaurus ieversi gen. et sp. nov. (QM F18101), in (A) left lateral, (B) rostral, (C) caudal, (D) dorsal and (E) ventral aspects.
Abbreviations: a, angular; art, articular; d, dentary; for q, quadrate foramen; nar, nares; pr art, prearticular; rham, rhamphotheca; sa, surangular. Legend: grey, void within skull; dashed line, partially fused suture; dotted line, inferred suture; grey line, bone outline or suture beneath rhamphotheca. Portions not known include rhamphotheca, apex of maxillary rostrum, caudal extent of maxillary secondary palate, ventral edges of jugal, quadratojugal and quadrates. Scale bars equal 10 cm.

“The species name honors Mr Ian Ievers, discoverer of the holotype. The name therefore means Ievers’ shield-lizard,” they explained.

“The generic name combines Kunbarra [kunbara], the Mayi (Wunumara) word for ‘shield’, and souros, the Greek word for ‘lizard’, and is a reference to the animal’s heavily ossified skin.”

Kunbarrasaurus ieversi skeleton. Image credit: Anthony O’Toole / Lucy Leahey.

Ref:Cranial osteology of the ankylosaurian dinosaur formerly known as Minmi sp. (Ornithischia: Thyreophora) from the Lower Cretaceous Allaru Mudstone of Richmond, Queensland, Australia :Lucy G. Leahey, Ralph E. Molnar, Kenneth Carpenter, Lawrence M. Witmer, Steven W. Salisbury (https://peerj.com/articles/1475/)

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

Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans a fossil from Japan

December 10th, 2015

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Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans

An international research partnership is revealing the first mosasaur fossil of its kind to be discovered in Japan. Not only does the 72-million-year-old marine reptile fossil fill a biogeographical gap between the Middle East and the eastern Pacific, but also it holds new revelations because of its superior preservation. This unique swimming lizard, now believed to have hunted on glowing fish and squids at night, is detailed in an article led by Takuya Konishi, a University of Cincinnati assistant professor of biological sciences. The article is published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, a publication of the Natural History Museum in London.

Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans sp. nov., holotype, HMG-1528, three-dimensional restoration. A, dorsal; B, ventral; and C, right lateral views.

The fossil marine reptile, Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans (a phosphorus lizard from an elegant creek), existed during the Late Cretaceous Period just before the last of the dinosaurs such as Tyrannosaurus and Triceratops. Compared with some of their mosasaur cousins that could grow as large as 40 feet, this species is relatively small, about 3 meters, or 10 feet long. This unique discovery in a creek in the town of Mukawa in northern Japan reveals that they were able to colonize throughout the northern hemisphere.

Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans sp. nov., HMG-1528, maxillae. A, right lateral; B, left lateral; and C, left medial views. Abbreviations: cnV, exit for maxillary branch of trigeminal nerve; coac, common opening for alveolar canal; pl, palatine lamina; rp, resorption pit. Black arrows point to short but distinct posterodorsal process, confirmed for the first time in Halisaurinae.

“Previous discoveries of this particular rare mosasaur have occurred along the East Coast of North America, the Pacific Coast of North America, Europe and North Africa, but this is the first to fill the gap between the Middle East and the Eastern Pacific,” explains Konishi, a member of the research team that also was represented by the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology (Canada), University of Alberta, Brandon University, Hobetsu Museum (Japan), Fukuoka University and the town of Mukawa.

Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans sp. nov., HMG-1528, maxillae. A, right lateral; B, left lateral; and C, left medial views. Abbreviations: cnV, exit for maxillary branch of trigeminal nerve; coac, common opening for alveolar canal; pl, palatine lamina; rp, resorption pit. Black arrows point to short but distinct posterodorsal process, confirmed for the first time in Halisaurinae.

Because the fossil was so well preserved, the creature revealed it had binocular vision — its eyes were on the front of the face, providing depth perception. This was a new discovery for this fossil species. The discovery reveals that the eye structure of these smaller mosasaurs was different from their larger cousins, whose eyes were on either side of their large heads, such as the eye structure of a horse. The eyes and heads of the larger mosasaurs were shaped to enhance streamlined swimming after prey that included fish, turtles and even small mosasaurs.

“The forward-facing eyes on Phosphorosaurus provide depth perception to vision, and it’s common in birds of prey and other predatory mammals that dwell among us today,” says Konishi. “But we knew already that most mosasaurs were pursuit predators based on what we know they preyed upon — swimming animals. Paradoxically, these small mosasaurs like Phosphorosaurus were not as adept swimmers as their larger contemporaries because their flippers and tailfins weren’t as well developed.”

As a result, Konishi says it’s believed these smaller marine reptiles hunted at night, much like the owl does compared with the daytime birds of prey such as eagles. The binocular vision in nocturnal animals doubles the number of photoreceptors to detect light. And, much like owls with their very large eyes to power those light receptors, the smaller mosasaur revealed very large eye sockets.

Also, because fossils of lantern fish and squid-like animals have been found from the Late Cretaceous Period in northern Japan, and because their modern counterparts are bioluminescent, the researchers believe that Phosphorosaurus may have specifically targeted those glowing fish and squids at night while their larger underwater cousins hunted in daytime.

“If this new mosasaur was a sit-and-wait hunter in the darkness of the sea and able to detect the light of these other animals, that would have been the perfect niche to coexist with the more established mosasaurs,” says Konishi.

Painstaking Preservation

The fossil, enclosed in a rock matrix, was first discovered in 2009, in a small creek in northern Japan. Revealing what was inside the matrix while protecting the fossil was a painstaking process that took place at the Hobetsu Museum in Mukawa. The calcareous nodule would be dipped at night in a special acid wash, and then carefully rinsed the next day, as the two-year process freed the bones from the matrix. To further protect the fossil, special casts were made of the bones so that the researchers could piece together the remains without damaging the fossil.

“It’s so unusually well-preserved that, upon separating jumbled skull bones from one another, we were able to build a perfect skull with the exception of the anterior third of the snout,” says Konishi. “This is not a virtual reality reconstruction using computer software. It’s a physical reconstruction that came back to life to show astounding detail and beautiful, undistorted condition.”

Ref: Takuya Konishi, Michael W. Caldwell, Tomohiro Nishimura, Kazuhiko Sakurai and Kyo Tanoue. A new halisaurine mosasaur (Squamata: Halisaurinae) from Japan: the first record in the western Pacific realm and the first documented insights into binocular vision in mosasaurs. Journal of Systematic Palaeontology, 2015 DOI: 10.1080/14772019.2015.1113447

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

Extinct 3-horned palaeomerycid ruminant found in Spain

December 8th, 2015

Riffin

The extinct three-horned palaeomerycid ruminant, Xenokeryx amidalae, found in Spain, may be from the same clade as giraffes, according to a study published December 2, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Israel M. Sánchez from the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Madrid, Spain, and colleagues.

Cranial remains of Xenokeryx amidalae gen. et sp. nov. from La Retama.
A, MNCN-74448 (holotype), occipital appendage in anterior view; B, MNCN-74448 (holotype), occipital appendage in lateral view; C, MNCN-74448 (holotype), occipital appendage in posterior view; D, MNCN-74449, right ossicone and supra-orbital region of a skull in latero-distal view; E, MNCN-74449, right ossicone and supra-orbital region of the skull in medial view; F, MNCN-74446, left juvenile ossicone and supra-orbital region of the skull in lateral view; G, MNCN-74446, left juvenile ossicone and supra-orbital region of the skull in medial view; H, MNCN-74447, left juvenile ossicone in apical view, showing its transversal section; I, MNCN-74449, detail of the ossicone-frontal bone contact showing the suture line (not to scale). Abbreviations: Bp, bumps; Nf, nuchal fossa; Ow, ossicone ‘wing’; Sl, suture line between ossicone and frontal bone.

Upper dentition remains of Xenokeryx amidalae gen. et. sp. nov. from La Retama.
A, MNCN-74495, left maxillar with DP2-M1 in buccal view; B, MNCN-74495, left maxillar with DP2-M1 in occlusal view; C, MNCN-74452, right M3 in lingual view; D, MNCN-74452, right M3 in buccal view; E, MNCN-74452, right M3 in occlusal view; F, MNCN-74450, left P4-M1 in lingual view; G, MNCN-74450, left P4-M1 in buccal view; H, MNCN-74450, left P4-M1 in occlusal view; I, MNCN-74451, right P3 in lingual view; J, MNCN-74451, right P3 in buccal view; K, MNCN-74451, right P3 in occlusal view; L, MNCN-74453, right P2 in buccal view; M, MNCN-74453, right P2 in lingual view; N, MNCN-74453, right P2 in occlusal view.

Palaeomerycids, now extinct, were strange three-horned Eurasian Miocene ruminants known through fossils from Spain to China. In this article, the authors classify the palaeomerycid to their clade based on shared characteristics with the best-known species of the group and reassess their phylogenetic position among ruminants, which is currently disputed. The authors use well-preserved remains of a new palaeomerycid, Xenokeryx amidalae, which included a complete sample of cranial–including both frontal and supra-occipital ‘t-shaped’ cranial appendages–dental, and postcranial remains, from middle Miocene deposits of Spain.

This is a reconstruction of X. amidalae.
Credit: Illustration by Israel M. Sánchez

The authors found that despite their apparent external similarities, Eurasian palaeomerycids are not closely related to North American dromomerycids, distant relatives to deer, as some scientists have thought. Instead, palaeomerycids are in the clade Giraffomorpha, the least inclusive clade containing Giraffa and Triceromeryx. The authors conclude that future ruminant research will benefit from more in-depth analysis, such as phylogenetic analysis combining fossil and living taxa, morphological and molecular datasets, and fossil ages.

Israel Sánchez adds: “Establishing the place of palaeomerycids in the ruminant tree gives us insights into the evolutionary history of the large clade of pecoran ruminants that include giraffes (Giraffa and Okapia) as its only extant survivors, and shows us the amazing diversity of an ancient lineage that inhabited both Eurasia and Africa.”

Citation:PLOS. “Extinct 3-horned palaeomerycid ruminant found in Spain: Extinct new species with ‘t-shaped’ horn may be relative of giraffes.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 2 December 2015.

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

Dinosaur Chase Digitally Reconstructed

December 7th, 2015

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Historical Photogrammetry: Bird’s Paluxy River Dinosaur Chase Sequence Digitally Reconstructed as It Was prior to Excavation 70 Years Ago Peter L. Falkingham ,Karl T. Bates,James O. Farlow ,Published: April 2, 2014,DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093247

: Sixteen of Bird’s original photographs used in the photogrammetric reconstruction of the trackway.Note that the state of excavation (flooded parallel trackways, sandbags, tools etc) varies between images, causing complications for the reconstruction.

It is inevitable that some important specimens will become lost or damaged over time, conservation is therefore of vital importance. The Paluxy River dinosaur tracksite is among the most famous in the world. In 1940, Roland T. Bird described and excavated a portion of the site containing associated theropod and sauropod trackways. This excavated trackway was split up and housed in different institutions, and during the process a portion was lost or destroyed. We applied photogrammetric techniques to photographs taken by Bird over 70 years ago, before the trackway was removed, to digitally reconstruct the site as it was prior to excavation. The 3D digital model offers the opportunity to corroborate maps drawn by R.T. Bird when the tracksite was first described. More broadly, this work demonstrates the exciting potential for digitally recreating palaeontological, geological, or archaeological specimens that have been lost to science, but for which photographic documentation exists.

R.T. Bird’s maps of the Paluxy ‘chase sequence.’
a) Bird’s Rye chart, b) the Austin chart, and c) the Austin and Rye charts overlaid. Note that the Austin and Rye charts diverge toward the north.

Photogrammetric reconstruction of Bird’s chase sequence.
Far left, photo-textured and height mapped plan-view of the reconstructed trackway. Track labels according to Farlow et al. (1989). Right, photo-textured and height mapped views, top to bottom; isometric view along trackway, close up of high fidelity southern end, close up of poor quality northern end.

Overlays of Bird’s Rye and Austin charts with photogrammetric and laser scan digital models.
a) The Rye chart, b) portion of the Rye chart reconstructed via photogrammetry with historical photos, c) Close-up of photogrammetric reconstruction, d) location of laser scans of the AMNH and TMM sections in the Rye chart, e) close-up of match between Rye chart and laser scans, f) Austin chart, g) Austin chart and photogrammetric reconstruction, h) Austin chart and laser scans of AMNH and TMM sections.

Ref:Falkingham PL, Bates KT, Farlow JO (2014) Historical Photogrammetry: Bird’s Paluxy River Dinosaur Chase Sequence Digitally Reconstructed as It Was prior to Excavation 70 Years Ago. PLoS ONE 9(4): e93247. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0093247.Editor: Peter Dodson, University of Pennsylvania, United States of America

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

Dinosaur extinction and Volcanic Activity

December 6th, 2015

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The role volcanic activity played in dinosaur extinction events in Earth’s early history is likely to have been much less severe than previously thought, according to a study led by the University of Leeds.

Asteroid impacts and long-lasting volcanic eruptions called continental flood basalts — the two most commonly cited possible causes of mass extinction events — would have propelled gas and dust into the atmosphere and altered climate for years. But, until now, the impact of years of sulphur dioxide emissions from continental flood basalts was unknown.In a study published online in Nature Geoscience, researchers have provided for the first time a quantitative estimate of the degree and nature of the effects that such eruptions had on Earth’s climate, vegetation and oceans.

An artist’s impression of a typical flood basalt eruption, including lava fountaining along a curtain of fire. New research shows that the climatic impacts of such eruptions were less grim than scientists had previously suggested, with most of the volcanic gases and aerosol particles confined to the lowermost atmosphere.Credit: Jonathan Poulter

Study lead author Dr Anja Schmidt, from the University’s School of Earth and Environment, said: “At the time when the dinosaurs reigned, numerous long-lasting eruptions took place over the course of about a million years. These eruptions, called ‘continental flood basalts’ were not like volcanic activity we often see today, with lava gushing from the ground like a curtain of fire.

“Each eruption is likely to have lasted years, even decades, and eruptions were separated by periods without volcanic activity. The lava produced by an eruption of average intensity would have filled 150 Olympic-size swimming pools per minute.”

In the new study, the researchers used a sophisticated computer simulation of the spread of the gas and aerosol particles, which showed that the climatic impacts of flood basalts was less grim than scientists had previously suggested. They found that only if such flood basalts oozed for hundreds of years, without interruption, may the climatic impacts have had a severe effect on plants and animals.The researchers used information on the duration and intensity of continental flood basalt eruptions, such as the Deccan Traps eruptions 65 million years ago, which covered one-third of what is now India, to estimate the climatic and environmental effects of the huge quantities of sulphur dioxide gas emitted by these eruptions.

Their computer simulation showed that temperatures on Earth were indeed cooler as a result of the eruptions — by as much as 4.5 degrees Celsius — but that the temperature would return to normal within 50 years after an eruption ceased.

Dr Schmidt noted that the conclusions are based on the assumption that climate feedbacks were very similar to those today.

“Perhaps most intriguingly, we found that the effects of acid rain on vegetation were rather selective. Vegetation in some but not all parts of the world would have died off, whereas in other areas the effects would have been negligible,” said Dr Schmidt.

The new findings will challenge the Earth sciences community as a whole to re-examine the causes of mass extinctions and the role of volcanism. “We now need to better understand how long both the individual eruptions and the periods without volcanic activity lasted,” concludes Dr Schmidt.

Ref: Anja Schmidt, Richard A. Skeffington, Thorvaldur Thordarson, Stephen Self, Piers M. Forster, Alexandru Rap, Andy Ridgwell, David Fowler, Marjorie Wilson, Graham W. Mann, Paul B. Wignall, Kenneth S. Carslaw. Selective environmental stress from sulphur emitted by continental flood basalt eruptions. Nature Geoscience, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2588

Key: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,Dinosaur extinction,Volcanic Activity

Original blood vessels in hadrosaur fossil

December 3rd, 2015

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Researchers from North Carolina State University have confirmed that blood vessel-like structures found in an 80 million-year-old hadrosaur fossil are original to the animal, and not biofilm or other contaminants. Their findings add to the growing body of evidence that structures like blood vessels and cells can persist over millions of years, and the data not only confirm earlier reports of protein sequences in dinosaurs, they represent a significant advance in methodology.

Original blood vessels in 80 million-year-old fossil.

Molecular paleontologist Tim Cleland, currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Texas at Austin, began the work while a graduate student at NC State. He demineralized a piece of leg bone from a Brachylophosaurus canadensis, a 30-foot-long hadrosaur that roamed what is now Montana around 80 million years ago. Cleland analyzed the demineralized bone with high resolution mass spectroscopy and found several distinct proteins from the cellular components of the blood vessels. One of these proteins, myosin, is found in the smooth muscles associated with the walls of blood vessels.

The researchers confirmed their results by performing the same process with bones from modern archosaurs, such as chicken and ostrich, which are living relatives of the dinosaurs. In both the modern and ancient samples, peptide sequences matched those found in blood vessels. Their methodology also allowed the researchers to validate previously reported sequences and recover additional sequences because only the vessels were extracted, which increased the observance of cellular proteins.

Blood vessels from deminineralized bone of Brachylophosaurus canadensis are shown.Credit: M. Schweitzer, NC State University

“This study is the first direct analysis of blood vessels from an extinct organism, and provides us with an opportunity to understand what kinds of proteins and tissues can persist and how they change during fossilization,” Cleland says. “This will provide new avenues for pursuing questions regarding the evolutionary relationships of extinct organisms, and will identify significant protein modifications and when they might have arisen in these lineages.”

Elena Schroeter, a postdoctoral researcher at NC State, is a co-author who worked on the analysis of the mass spectrometry data. “Paleoproteomics is a challenging pursuit. It requires us to think about how to support our conclusions from different angles,” says Schroeter. “This project is significant because it shows the power of using multiple experimental methods–as well as multiple ways to analyze the results of those methods–to address a scientific question.”

“Part of the value of this research is that it gives us insight into how proteins can modify and change over 80 million years,” says Mary Schweitzer, a molecular paleontologist at NC State and co-author of the paper describing the research. “It tells us not only about how tissues preserve over time, but gives us the possibility of looking at how these animals adapted to their environment while they were alive.”

Ref:Mass Spectrometry and Antibody-Based Characterization of Blood Vessels from Brachylophosaurus canadensis

Timothy P. Cleland^{et al.}

North Carolina State University. “Original blood vessels in 80 million-year-old fossil.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 December 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151201130459.htm>.

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

First fossil peaches discovered in southwest China

December 2nd, 2015

Riffin

The sweet, juicy peaches we love today might have been a popular snack long before modern humans arrived on the scene.Scientists have found eight well-preserved fossilized peach endocarps, or pits, in southwest China dating back more than two and a half million years. Despite their age, the fossils appear nearly identical to modern peach pits.

(a) Geologic map, modified from Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources of Yunnan Province, 199030 with the software Adobe Illustrator CS4. (b) Stratigraphic section, arrow showing the fossil-bearing layer; inset shows fossil peach endocarp in situ.

The findings, reported last week in Scientific Reports, suggest that peaches evolved through natural selection well before humans domesticated the fruit. It’s the first discovery of fossilized peaches, and it sheds new light on the evolutionary history of the fruit, which has not been well understood.

“The peach is an important part of human history, and it’s important to understand how it became what it is today,” said Peter Wilf, a professor of paleobotany at Penn State and co-author of the article. “If we know the origins of our resources we can make better use of them.”

(a–e) KUN PC2015001-KUN PC2015005. (f) CT scan showing longitudinal section and seed (KUN PC2015001). Scale bar = 1 cm. See the three dimensional reconstruction in Animation S1.

Tao Su, lead author on the paper and associate professor at Xishuangbanna Tropical Garden, discovered the fossils near his home in Kunming in southwest China when some road construction exposed a rock outcrop from the late Pliocene.

“We found these peach endocarp fossils just exposed in the strata,” Su said. “It’s really a fantastic finding.”

Su said the discovery provides important new evidence for the origins and evolution of the modern fruit. Peaches are widely thought to have originated in China, but the oldest evidence had been archeological records dating back roughly 8,000 years. No wild population has ever been found, and its long trade history makes tracing its beginnings difficult.

Morphological comparison of endocarps between Prunus kunmingensis (a,c,e) and modern peach (b,d,f). (a,b) Gross morphology. (c,d) Endocarp interior surface with linear striations. (e,f) Diagenetically altered fossil sclereids (e) and modern sclereids (f) along a transverse section of the endocarp. Scale bars: a–b = 1 cm; c–d = 30 μm; e–f = 15 μm.

Animals, perhaps even primates and, eventually, early hominids, snacked on and dispersed the sweet, wild fruit and played a key role in its evolution. Only much later, after modern humans arrived, was the peach domesticated and bred. Humans have created new varieties and larger sizes ever since and spread the fruit across what is now China, and far beyond.

“Is the peach we see today something that resulted from artificial breeding under agriculture since prehistory, or did it evolve under natural selection? The answer is really both,” said Wilf, an associate in Penn State’s Earth and Environmental Systems Institute.

The researchers say the discovery supports China being the home of the peach. The fruit remains culturally significant in the country, where it carries multiple meanings — from immortality in Taoist mythology to good fortune and beauty, Su said.

“The peach was a witness to the human colonization of China,” Wilf said. “It was there before humans, and through history we adapted to it and it to us.”

Su brought the fossils to Penn State and analyzed them while working there as a visiting scholar and collaborating with Wilf. Several tests confirmed that the fossils are indeed more than 2.5 million years old and not from recent contamination. In addition to their having been found in the Pliocene rocks along with many other plant fossils, the seeds inside the pits are replaced by iron, and the walls of the pits are recrystallized. A modern peach pit would have a recent radiocarbon date, but radiocarbon analysis of the fossil peaches showed them to be older than the limit of radiocarbon dating, which is about 50,000 years.

Researchers compared the correlation between modern peach and pit size, and used that to estimate the size of the fruit during the late Pliocene as approximately 5 cm in diameter.

“If you imagine the smallest commercial peach today, that’s what these would look like, ” Wilf said. “It’s something that would have had a fleshy, edible fruit around it. It must have been delicious.”

Ref: www.nature.com/articles/srep16794 and Penn State. “Eat a paleo peach: First fossil peaches discovered in southwest China.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 1 December 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/12/151201141242.htm>.

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

Sefapanosaurus — SA’s new Sesotho dinosaur

December 1st, 2015

Riffin

South African and Argentinian palaeontologists have discovered a new 200-million-year-old dinosaur from South Africa, and named it Sefapanosaurus, from the Sesotho word “sefapano.”

The researchers from South Africa’s University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), and from the Argentinian Museo de La Plata and Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio made the announcement in the scientific journal Zoological Journal of the Linnaean Society. The paper, titled: “A new basal sauropodiform from South Africa and the phylogenetic relationships of basal sauropodomorphs,” was published online on Tuesday, 23 June 2015.

The specimen was found in the late 1930s in the Zastron area of South Africa’s Free State province, about 30km from the Lesotho border. For many years it remained hidden among the largest fossil collection in South Africa at the Evolutionary Studies Institute (ESI) at Wits University.

A few years ago it was studied and considered to represent the remains of another South African dinosaur, Aardonyx. However, upon further study, close scrutiny of the fossilised bones has revealed that it is a completely new dinosaur.

One of the most distinctive features is that one of its ankle bones, the astragalus, is shaped like a cross. Considering the area where the fossil was discovered, the researchers aptly named the new dinosaur, Sefapanosaurus, after the Sesotho word “sefapano,” meaning “cross.”

Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan, co-author and Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at UCT, says: “The discovery of Sefapanosaurus shows that there were several of these transitional early sauropodomorph dinosaurs roaming around southern Africa about 200 million years ago.”

Sefapanosaurus — SA’s new Sesotho dinosaur. Credit: Image courtesy of University of the Witwatersrand

Dr Alejandro Otero, Argentinian palaeontologist and lead author, says Sefapanosaurus helps to fill the gap between the earliest sauropodomorphs and the gigantic sauropods. “Sefapanosaurus constitutes a member of the growing list of transitional sauropodomorph dinosaurs from Argentina and South Africa that are increasingly telling us about how they diversified.”

Says Dr Jonah Choiniere, co-author and Senior Researcher in Dinosaur Palaeobiology at the ESI at Wits University: “This new animal shines a spotlight on southern Africa and shows us just how much more we have to learn about the ecosystems of the past, even here in our own ‘backyard’. And it also gives us hope that this is the start of many such collaborative palaeo-research projects between South Africa and Argentina that could yield more such remarkable discoveries.”

Sefapanosaurus — SA’s new Sesotho dinosaur

Argentinian co-author, Dr Diego Pol, says Sefapanosaurus and other recent dinosaur discoveries in the two countries reveal that the diversity of herbivorous dinosaurs in Africa and South America was remarkably high back in the Jurassic, about 190 million years ago when the southern hemisphere continents were a single supercontinent known as Gondwana.

Finding a new dinosaur among old bones

Otero and Emil Krupandan, PhD-student from UCT, were visiting the ESI collections to look at early sauropodomorph dinosaurs when they noticed bones that were distinctive from the other dinosaurs they were studying.

Krupandan was working on a dinosaur from Lesotho as part of his studies when he realised the material he was looking at was different to Aardonyx. “This find indicates the importance of relooking at old material that has only been cursorily studied in the past, in order to re-evaluate past preconceptions about sauropodomorph diversity in light of new data.”

The remains of the Sefapanosaurus include limb bones, foot bones, and several vertebrae. Sefapanosaurus is represented by the remains of at least four individuals in the ESI collections at Wits University. It is considered to be a medium-sized sauropodomorph dinosaur — among the early members of the group that gave rise to the later long necked giants of the Mesozoic.

Citation:University of the Witwatersrand. “New Sesotho-named dinosaur from South Africa: Palaeontologists name 200-million-year-old dinosaur, Sefapanosaurus.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 24 June 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150624105940.htm>.

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

Mystery of how snakes lost their legs solved by reptile fossil

November 30th, 2015

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Fresh analysis of a reptile fossil is helping scientists solve an evolutionary puzzle — how snakes lost their limbs.

The 90 million-year-old skull is giving researchers vital clues about how snakes evolved.

Comparisons between CT scans of the fossil and modern reptiles indicate that snakes lost their legs when their ancestors evolved to live and hunt in burrows, which many snakes still do today.The findings show snakes did not lose their limbs in order to live in the sea, as was previously suggested.

Scientists used CT scans to examine the bony inner ear of Dinilysia patagonica, a 2-metre long reptile closely linked to modern snakes. These bony canals and cavities, like those in the ears of modern burrowing snakes, controlled its hearing and balance.

They built 3D virtual models to compare the inner ears of the fossils with those of modern lizards and snakes. Researchers found a distinctive structure within the inner ear of animals that actively burrow, which may help them detect prey and predators. This shape was not present in modern snakes that live in water or above ground.

Modern snake skull, with inner ear shown in orange. Credit: Hongyu Yi

The findings help scientists fill gaps in the story of snake evolution, and confirm Dinilysia patagonica as the largest burrowing snake ever known. They also offer clues about a hypothetical ancestral species from which all modern snakes descended, which was likely a burrower.The study, published in Science Advances, was supported by the Royal Society.

Dr Hongyu Yi, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, who led the research, said: “How snakes lost their legs has long been a mystery to scientists, but it seems that this happened when their ancestors became adept at burrowing. The inner ears of fossils can reveal a remarkable amount of information, and are very useful when the exterior of fossils are too damaged or fragile to examine.”

Mark Norell, of the American Museum of Natural History, who took part in the study, said: “This discovery would not have been possible a decade ago — CT scanning has revolutionised how we can study ancient animals. We hope similar studies can shed light on the evolution of more species, including lizards, crocodiles and turtles.”

Ref:University of Edinburgh. “Mystery of how snakes lost their legs solved by reptile fossil.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 27 November 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/11/151127195113.htm>.

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

Egg Shell porosity and Nesting in Dinosaurs

November 29th, 2015

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Extinct archosaurs’ eggshell porosity may be used as a proxy for predicting covered or exposed nest types, according to a study published November 25, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kohei Tanaka from the University of Calgary and colleagues.

Inferred nest types for extinct archosaurs based on the linear discriminant analysis.

Knowledge about dinosaur nests may provide insight into the evolution of nesting and reproductive behaviors among archosaurs, a group that includes living birds and crocodilians, as well as extinct dinosaurs. Unfortunately, little remains of prehistoric nests, and most information on extinct archosaurs is only gleaned indirectly through comparison with living relatives. Among extant archosaurs, two general types of nests are observed: open nests, where the eggs are uncovered and built by species that brood their eggs; and covered nests, built by species that incubate their eggs using external heat sources. Scientists try to infer the type of nest by looking at different characteristics of the eggs and the nest setting. The authors of this particular study proposed a statistically rigorous approach to infer nest type based on large datasets of eggshell porosity and egg mass compiled for over 120 extant archosaur species and 29 extinct archosaur taxa.

a dinosaur nest.Credit: Kohei Tanaka

The researchers found a strong correlation between eggshell porosity and covered or exposed nest types among extant archosaurs, which indicates that eggshell porosity may be used as a proxy for nest type, which may help predict nest type in extinct taxa. Their results show that covered nests were likely used by more primitive dinosaurs, and the transition of theropods from covered to uncovered nests may have allowed the exploitation of alternate nesting locations. These changes in nesting styles may have lessened the odds of nesting failure due to predation, flooding, or torrential rainfall, and may have played a role in the evolutionary success of maniraptorans, including birds.

Citation: Tanaka K, Zelenitsky DK, Therrien F (2015) Eggshell Porosity Provides Insight on Evolution of Nesting in Dinosaurs. PLoS ONE 10(11): e0142829. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0142829

Editor: Matthew Shawkey, University of Akron, UNITED STATES

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