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

Developing Saurolophus dino found at ‘Dragon’s Tomb’

October 16th, 2015

Riffin

Scientists describe a perinatal group of Saurolophus angustirostris, a giant hadrosaur dinosaur, all likely from the same nest, found at “Dragon’s Tomb” in Mongolia, according to a study published October 14, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Leonard Dewaele from Ghent University and the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Belgium and colleagues.

Discovered in an area called the “Dragon’s Tomb,” a famous location for finding Late Cretaceous dinosaur fossils in the Gobi Desert, Mongolia, the authors of this study described three or four perinatal specimens or “babies” and two associated eggshell fragments. The young dinosaurs were likely part of a nest originally located on a river sandbank, and the authors suggest they are likely Saurolophus angustirostris (meaning ‘lizard crest’), a dinosaur that is known from multiple well-preserved complete skeletons.

Perinatal specimens of Saurolophus angustirostris (MPC-D100/764). Bones on the right side of the block show a certain degree of articulation, whereas bones on the left are disarticulated.
Credit: Dewaele et al.. Perinatal Specimens of Saurolophus angustirostris (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae), from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. PLoS ONE, 2015; 10 (10): e0138806

The skull length of these Saurolophus was around 5% that of the largest known S. angustirostris specimens, indicating that these specimens were in the earliest development stages. The perinatal bones already resembled S. angustirostris characteristics, including the upwardly directed snout (the premaxillary bones). The specimens did not yet have the characteristic cranial crest at the top of the head and areas of the skull-the cervical neural arches-were not yet fused, which suggest they may be in the earliest stages of the development of S. angustirostris.

Leonard Dewaele notes, “The poorly developed crest in Saurolophus babies provides evidence of ontogenetic crest growth within the Saurolophini tribe. The Saurolophini are the only Saurolophinae to bear supra cranial crests as adults.”

Scientists can’t tell whether the individuals were still in the eggs or had just hatched when they died, but they were apparently already dead and partly decomposed when they were buried by river sediment during the wet summer season. The fossilized eggshell fragments associated with the perinatal individuals closely resemble those found from S. angustirostris relatives in Mongolia, and scientists suggest these specimens may bridge a gap in our knowledge of the development of S. angustirostris.

Ref: Dewaele L, Tsogtbaatar K, Barsbold R, Garcia G, Stein K, Escuillié F, et al. Perinatal Specimens of Saurolophus angustirostris (Dinosauria: Hadrosauridae), from the Upper Cretaceous of Mongolia. PLoS ONE, 2015; 10 (10): e0138806 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0138806

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

Fossilized eggshells reveal how warm blooded dinosaurs were

October 14th, 2015

Riffin

Scientists have used the fossilized eggshells of dinosaurs to estimate their body temperatures — and have revealed some surprises.

Researchers have long debated whether dinosaurs were warm blooded like their living relatives, modern birds. In recent decades, the idea that dinosaurs — especially later, smaller, more bird-like dinosaurs – were warm blooded and active like birds, rather than more sluggish like cold-blooded lizards, has become more popular among scientists.

Bird-like oviraptors from Mongolia, pictured in an artists’ conception, had body temperatures that averaged 31.9 C, much lower than modern birds’ average of 36 to 43 C. ( Doyle Trankina and Gerald Grellet-Tinner)

The new estimates from an international team of scientists suggests some dinosaurs were quite warm blooded — huge, long-necked plant eaters called titanosaurs that lived in ancient Argentina had average body temperatures of 37.6 C. But more bird-like oviraptors from Mongolia had body temperatures that averaged 31.9 C — much lower than modern birds’ average of 36 to 43 C, but still higher than the temperature of the surrounding environment, which was estimated to be 26.3 C.

“The temperatures we measured suggest that at least some dinosaurs were not fully endotherms [warm-blooded] like modern birds,” said Robert Eagle, a scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who led the research. “They may have been intermediate — somewhere between modern alligators and crocodiles and modern birds.”

The results were published in the journal Nature Communications.

This clutch of fossil Titanosaur eggs was found in Argentina. The shells reveal the body temperature of the mother dinosaur when she produced them. (Luis Chiappe)

The researchers aren’t sure why the titanosaurs, which are generally considered more reptile-like and less bird-like than oviraptors, were warmer, but they suggested two possible explanations.

Titanosaurs could have elaborate systems to regulate their temperature the way modern birds and mammals do.
They might just stay warm more easily due to their large size, as leatherback turtles do.

The researchers estimated dinosaurs’ body temperatures by examining their fossilized eggshells. Eggshells contain small amounts of heavier forms of carbon and oxygen that tend to cluster together more when the temperature is lower.

A technician lies next to the femur of a Titanosaurus nicknamed ‘the giant’ at the Egidio Feruglio Museum in Argentina. Titanosaurs were huge, long-necked plant eaters that could grow up to 40 metres long. (Reuters/Museo Egidio Feruglio)

By looking at the amount of clustering of those isotopes, the researchers were able to estimate the body temperature of the mother dinosaur at the time she produced the eggs.

The researchers found the estimated body temperatures for the titanosaurs was similar to earlier estimates they had made based on their analysis of the dinosaurs’ teeth.

Courtesy: Article in CBC News

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

Tropical ants in Europe

October 13th, 2015

Riffin

Tropical ants in Europe

“Imagine I could send an ecologist to Europe back tens of millions of years ago. Then, ask them to look at the ants and to tell me where they think they have landed… They would say South East Asia,” explains Prof. Evan Economo of the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). His team compared a database of modern ants with a database of fossil ants. The analysis has shown in which locations fossilized ants are more related to the ants now living in the same area of the world. Interestingly, ants which lived in Europe 45 to 10 million years ago were more similar to modern ants now living in South East Asia than their European counterparts. The study has been published in the Journal of Biogeography.

An ant preserved in amber and its modern counterpart.Credit: OIST

The team, including Economo’s former post-doc and now assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong Benoit Guénard and associate professor Vincent Perrichot of the Université de Rennes, is studying why we encounter certain groups of ants, in specific regions on Earth, and how their distribution has changed over time. Understanding the worldwide distribution of biodiversity is one of the biggest challenges for biogeographers and ecologists. “Many biologists tend to perceive biodiversity as a fixed image while in fact it is a very long movie and we don’t understand the full story yet. Getting more snapshots of this movie will help us to reconstruct the teaser trailer of life” Guénard said.

Today’s biodiversity evolved over millions of years and although invertebrates count for two thirds of Earth life, large scale analyses are still scarce. “To understand the present we need to consider history,” suggests Prof Economo. The three biologists combined a fossil ant database with a modern ant database including 1,060 publications, over 4,000 worldwide sites and several fossil deposits to compare the geographical distribution of modern ants with their ancestors. “Until recently scientists were able to talk about the characteristics of ants fossils, but it is only thanks to new informatics tools that we are able to combine and quantify a huge amount of data” continues Economo.

The integration of these two databases shows interesting differences and similarities between the geographical distribution of ancient and modern ants. For example, fossil ants which once lived in Europe were more comparable with modern South East Asian, Indian or even Australian ants, rather than with the ants currently populating Europe or Africa. During most of the Cenozoic era and especially at its earliest period, around 60 to 5 million years ago, the Earth was much warmer. Tropical forests covered most of the globe, including Europe, and even Antarctica was covered with vegetation. In those days Europe was a tropical rainforest with a completely different ecosystem from the one we see today. Then, climate shifts, continent re-arrangements, and ecological variations caused large scale extinctions in some parts of the world. Ants adapted to warm climate were not able to survive in cooler temperatures. The data also showed evidence of continent-wide extinctions. For example, ants that were once globally widespread are now restricted only to Sri Lanka.

These results help scientists to go a step closer into the interpretation of the “tree of life,” that is the network of the relationships between living and extinct organisms across the globe. “If we can get a better understanding of the climate in the past, of the consequences of climate change and of how it shaped communities, then we might be able to interpret the future of biodiversity under the current climate change scenario,” says Guénard.

125-million-year-old bird discovered

October 11th, 2015

Riffin

Birds have an enormously long evolutionary history: The earliest of them, the famed Archaeopteryx, lived 150 million years ago in what is today southern Germany. However, whether these early birds were capable of flying — and if so, how well — has remained shrouded in scientific controversy. A new discovery published in the journal Scientific Reports documents the intricate arrangement of the muscles and ligaments that controlled the main feathers of the wing of an ancient bird, supporting the notion that at least some of the most ancient birds performed aerodynamic feats in a fashion similar to those of many living birds.

A new paper documents the intricate arrangement of the muscles and ligaments that controlled the main feathers of the wing of an ancient bird, supporting the notion that at least some of the most ancient birds performed aerodynamic feats in a fashion similar to those of many living birds.
Credit: Stephanie Abramowicz

An international team of Spanish paleontologists and NHM’s Director of the Dinosaur Institute, Dr. Luis M. Chiappe, studied the exceptionally preserved wing of a 125-million-year-old bird from central Spain. Beyond the bones preserved in the fossil, the tiny wing of this ancient bird reveals details of a complex network of muscles that in modern birds controls the fine adjustments of the wing’s main feathers, allowing birds to master the sky.

“The anatomical match between the muscle network preserved in the fossil and those that characterize the wings of living birds strongly indicates that some of the earliest birds were capable of aerodynamic prowess like many present-day birds,” said Chiappe, the investigation’s senior scientist.

“It is very surprising that despite being skeletally quite different from their modern counterparts, these primitive birds show striking similarities in their soft anatomy,” said Guillermo Navalón, a doctorate candidate at the University of Bristol in the United Kingdom and lead author of the report.

Ancient birds may have flown over the heads of dinosaurs but some aspects of the precise flight modes of these early fliers still remain unclear. “The new fossil provides us with a unique glimpse into the anatomy of the wing of the birds that lived amongst some of the largest dinosaurs,” said Chiappe. “Fossils such as this are allowing scientists to dissect the most intricate aspects of the early evolution of the flight of birds.” Other members of the research team included Dr. Jesús Marugán-Lobón, Dr. José Luis Sanz, and Dr. Ángela D. Buscalioni from Madrid’s Universidad Autónoma in Spain.

Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

48-million-year-old uteroplacenta found

October 8th, 2015

Riffin

A 48 million year-old horse-like equoid fetus has been discovered at the Messel pit near Frankfurt, Germany according to a study published October 7, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jens Lorenz Franzen from Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt, Germany, and Naturhistorisches Museum Basel, Switzerland, and colleagues.

The authors of this study completed their investigation of the fetus from a 48 million year-old horse-like equoid uncovered near Frankfurt, Germany in 2000. They evaluated the bones and anatomy and used scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) and high-resolution micro-x-ray to describe the ~12.5 cm fetus.

Skeleton of a mare of Eurohippus messelensis is shown with fetus (white ellipse). The specimen was discovered and excavated by a team of the Senckenberg Research Institute Frankfurt at the Grube Messel (Germany; inv. no. SMF-ME-11034), shoulder height ca. 30 cm, scale = 10 cm.
Credit: Franzen et al. Photo: Senckenberg Forschungsinstitut Frankfurt, Sven Tränkner; Creative Commons Attribution License

The fetus appears to be well-preserved, with almost all bones present and connected, except for the skull, which appears to have been crushed. The well-preserved condition of the fossil allowed the researchers to reconstruct the original appearance and position of the fetus. They estimate that the mare may have died shortly before birth, but don’t believe the death was related to birth.

The authors also found preserved soft tissue, like the uteroplacenta and one broad uterine ligament, which may represent the earliest fossil record of the uterine system of a placental mammal. Applying SEM, the authors discovered a bacterial lawn replacing the soft tissues, as is common with other specimens found in that area. The observable details correspond largely with living mares, which lead the authors to posit that the reproductive system was already highly developed during the Paleocene, and possibly even earlier.

Key words: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,uteroplacenta,48-Million -Years

molecular analysis clarifying dino color claims

October 6th, 2015

Riffin

The color of dinosaurs is a fascinating topic, and in recent years the discovery of melanosomes — small, pigment-filled sacs — associated with fossilized dinosaur feathers has given rise to all sorts of speculation about our prehistoric pals, from the hue of their plumage to color’s impact on behavior.

It all sounds wonderful — but how do we know that the melanosomes found in the fossils are actually melanosomes and not something else, like leftover impressions from the microbes (some of which also make melanin) that coated the feather during its decay and preservation? And if they are melanosomes, how can we be sure that the melanin they contained was the only color expression mechanism present?

Scientists can identify the shapes and sizes of the melanosomes, and sometimes even the outer texture produced by the grains of pigment within, but images don’t give the full story. Fortunately, advances in molecular analysis are giving paleontologists tools that can help them determine exactly what those shapes mean.
Credit: Mary Schweitzer and Johan Lindgren

With current methods, which rely heavily on electron microscopy, it’s hard to be sure. Scientists can identify the shapes and sizes of the melanosomes, and sometimes even the outer texture produced by the grains of pigment within, but images don’t give the full story. Fortunately, advances in molecular analysis are giving paleontologists tools that can help them determine exactly what those shapes mean.

NC State paleontologist Mary Schweitzer became an expert on molecular paleontology when she found soft tissue preserved in a fossilized T. rex femur. Since then, she’s explored ways to use molecular analytical techniques in order to discover whether tissues, cells and proteins can persist through the fossilization process. Now, in a paper published in BioEssays, Schweitzer, doctoral candidate Alison Moyer and co-author Johan Lindgren from Lund University in Sweden outline the challenges that face researchers who want to determine dinosaur color. They suggest ways that molecular analysis can be brought to bear on color preservation in dinosaur feathers and urge other researchers to go the extra mile before claiming color.

“The primary evidence for melanosomes has been shape — elongate or round,” Schweitzer says. “But microbes can also be elongate or round. And the majority of ‘colored dinosaur’ papers aren’t looking at the microbodies themselves. Instead, they measure round or elongate impressions, or voids, left by the bodies in some unidentified, amorphous material. Other researchers claim these bodies must be the color-imparting melanosomes, because melanin is such a tough, resistant molecule. But what they show is that voids remain when the melanosomes decay. So doesn’t that mean the material holding the ‘voids’ is more resistant than melanin? I’m interested in how we can test that theory.

“One way is by looking for keratin. Feathers contain keratin. Melanosomes are buried deep within the feather tissue, not on the surface, and they are covered with keratin, which is a very tough protein that has been shown to persist through time. If they are melanosomes, then that amorphous material should be keratin. Why not use molecular analysis to confirm the presence of keratin as well as melanin?”

Moyer’s earlier experiments show that microbes grow on top of feathers as they decay, and they are distributed in the same pattern as published “melanosome” images. Schweitzer and Moyer argue that the same types of analysis could be used to show that the melanosomes belonged to the original animal, not to the microbes that colonized it after death. Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) was pioneered by co-author Lindgren to not only identify melanin but also map it to particular areas on a fossil. When ToF-SIMS is used in concert with other technologies, it could cement the argument for either melanosomes or microbes.

But even if all of these technologies show definitively that the structures are melanosomes, it is still questionable how much light they shed on the color of the whole organism. What we can’t tell from these studies is whether dinosaurs, like modern birds, used other pigments besides melanins. In birds these other pigments make feathers green and blue and yellow, but they are not as tough as melanin, and so may not survive.

“We have all these new technologies available to us, and paleontologists are in a unique position now to get answers to questions that were previously out of reach,” Schweitzer says. “It’s a brave new world, which is why we need to be careful and diligent as we lay the groundwork by classifying, measuring and identifying what can and cannot preserve. No one is saying that melanosomes can’t survive in the fossil record, just that we need to use the tools we have to make sure that we’re truly looking at melanosomes, not microbes.”

Key words: WFS,Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev,World Fossil Society,Dino color

Mammoth fossil unearthed

October 5th, 2015

Riffin

While digging in his field on Monday, Michigan farmer James Bristle found what he thought was ordinary debris in his field. After digging further, he discovered that what he had found wasn’t a fence post, but bones from a Woolly Mammoth.

After the discovery, Bristle contacted the University of Michigan, who arrived to excavate the skeleton, according to Ann Arbor News. According to Daniel Fisher, the director of the Museum of Paleontology at the University, the animal was “an adult male, probably in its forties at the time of its death, probably lived between 10,000 and 15,000 years ago.”

Mammoth fossil unearthed

He went on to say that the animal skeleton was incomplete and discovered in what had been a pond: their hypothesis is the mammoth was partially eaten and stored for later. There’s evidence of human activity: stone tools were found on the site, the way the animal’s bones were discovered, and three boulders found next to each other, which they think was used to anchor the remains in place.

This was also a rare find: According to the University of Michigan, over 300 mastodons have been uncovered over the years in the state, but in the same time, only 30 woolly mammoths have been recovered. Moreover, this one was particularly complete, even as it was missing some pieces.

Bristle discovered the fossil while excavating the land for a lift station for a natural gas line, and gave the excavation team a day to complete their work. The fossil has since been recovered and will now undergo further study.

Odaraia alata: 500 Million Old

October 3rd, 2015

Riffin

A 500-million-year-old fossilized arthropod found in the Burgess Shale, a fossil field in the Canadian Rockies, may provide clues to how heads evolved in early animals. The fossil is a submarine-shaped arthropod, Odaraia alata, of the Middle Cambrian Period. A paper in Current Biology reports that both Odaraia alata, originally found about 100 years ago, and another ancient arthropod have a hard plate, known as the anterior sclerite, and eye-like features that were connected by nerves to their brains. They may have controlled their vision in much the same way that modern insects, crustaceans and spiders do.

The fossil of a submarine-shaped arthropod was found in the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rockies. Credit Jean Bernard Caron/Royal Ontario Museum

More oxygen in the core of Earth

September 30th, 2015

Riffin

There is more oxygen in the core of Earth than originally thought. Lawrence Livermore geologist Rick Ryerson and international colleagues discovered some new findings about Earth’s core and mantle by considering their geophysical and geochemical signatures together. This research provides insight into the origins of Earth’s formation.

Based on the higher oxygen concentration of the core, Ryerson’s team concludes that Earth must have accreted material that is more oxidized than the present-day mantle, similar to that of planetesimals such as asteroidal bodies. A planetesimal is an object formed from dust, rock and other materials and can be can be anywhere in size from several meters to hundreds of kilometers.

This model shows planetesimals (objects formed from dust, rock and other materials that can be anywhere in size from several meters to hundreds of kilometers) accreting to a growing Earth 4.56 billion years ago. The cutaway reveals the simultaneous formation of the Earth’s core as dense, iron-rich metallic material descending through a planetary magma ocean.
Credit: Antoine Pitrou/Institut de Physique du Globe de Parise Physique

Earth formed about 4.56 billion years ago over a period of several tens of millions of years through the accretion of planetary embryos and planetesimals. The energy delivered by progressively larger impacts maintained Earth’s outer layer and an extensively molten magma ocean. Gravitational separation of metal and silicate within the magma ocean results in the planet characterized by a metallic core and a silicate mantle.

The formation of Earth’s core left behind geophysical and geochemical signatures in the core and mantle that remain to this day. In the past, core formation models have only attempted to address the evolution of core and mantel compositional signatures separately rather than looking for a joint solution.

By combining experimental petrology, geochemistry, mineral physics and seismology, the team found that core formation occurred in a hot (liquid) moderately deep magma ocean not exceeding 1,800-kilometer depth, under conditions more oxidized than present-day Earth.

“This new model is at odds with the current belief that core formation occurred under reduction conditions,” Ryerson said. “Instead we found that Earth’s magma ocean started out oxidized and has become reduced through time by oxygen incorporation into the core.”

They found the oxygen concentrations in the core are higher than previously thought and silicon concentrations are lower than previous estimates.

Marrellomorph redefine evolutionary timelines

September 27th, 2015

Riffin

Some of the oldest marine animals on the planet, including armoured worm-like forms and giant, lobster like sea creatures, survived millions of years longer than previously thought, according to a spectacularly preserved fossil formation from southeastern Morocco.

The Lower Fezouata formation has been revealing exciting discoveries about life in the Ordovician — around 485 — 444 million years ago — since its discovery just five years ago.

‘The Fezouata is extraordinarily significant’ says Professor Derek Briggs of Yale University, co-author of a study published today in the Journal of the Geological Society. ‘Animals typical of the Cambrian are still present in rocks 20 million years younger, which means there must be a cryptic record in between, which is not preserved.’

A marrellomorph arthropod, probably belonging to the genus Furca. c.
Credit: Peter Van Roy

Over 160 genera have already been documented from the Fezouata, with much more expected to be found. They include animals which would have looked perfectly at home during the Cambrian: armoured lobopodians — worm like creatures with spines on their backs and short, stubby legs, and anomalocaridids — huge segmented animals with remarkable feeding limbs, which are some of the largest marine creatures of the time.

As well as demonstrating the longevity of fauna thought to have been extinct millions of years previously, the Fezouata proves that other creatures evolved far earlier than previously thought.

‘Horseshoe crabs, for example, turn out to be at least 20 million years older than we thought. The formation demonstrates how important exceptionally preserved fossils are to our understanding of major evolutionary events in deep time’ says Peter Van Roy, also of Yale, who first recognised the scientific importance of the Fezouata fauna and is lead author of the study, part of a project funded by the National Science Foundation.The spectacular preservation, which includes detailed soft parts and organisms over 2 metres in length, is thanks to the fine grained, muddy sediments in which the organisms were preserved.

‘These are special rocks’ says Professor Briggs. ‘Some of the organisms are enormous — several metres in length. With such exceptional preservation, in a fully marine exposure, we can develop a reasonably full picture of what marine life looked like in the Ordovician.’

The discoveries suggest the ‘Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event’ — an explosion in diversity throughout the earlier part of the Ordovician period — may have been a continuation of the Cambrian explosion.

‘There is much more to learn from the Fezouata’ says Professor Briggs. ‘Why do we not see more assemblages like this in the Ordovician? What ecological changes happened at the Cambro-Ordovician interval? Are the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event separate, or phases of the same event?’

The paper, published online today, marks the start of a themed series of ‘Review focus’ articles for the Journal of the Geological Society, centring on sites of exceptional fossil preservation spanning Earth’s history. All papers in the series will be available for free download, and further ‘Review focus’ themes are planned.

‘The purpose of these articles is to present a distilled, forward looking review of a topic’, says the series editor Professor Philip Donoghue. ‘We decided to start with a thematic series on fossil Lagerstätten since these deposits are fundamental archives of evolutionary history.’

‘By making the papers freely available, it is hoped they will interest a wide range of readers, from undergraduates, to specialists in the field, to members of the public.’