Analysis of ancient DNA of a mysterious extinct monkey named Xenothrix — which displays bizarre body characteristics very different to any living monkey — has revealed that it was in fact most closely related to South America’s titi monkeys (Callicebinae). Having made their way overwater to Jamaica, probably on floating vegetation, their bones reveal they […]
Posts Tagged ‘animals’
Ancient DNA reveals history of extinct Caribbean monkey
November 21st, 2018 
Riffin 
Posted in Featured Post 
Tags: Ancient, animals, Bones, caribbean, DNA, Extinct, history, monkey, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society, xenothrix 
No Comments »evolution of animal ecosystem on islands
November 18th, 2018 Riffin Islands have been vital laboratories for advancing evolutionary theory since the pioneering work of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace in the 19th century. Now, a new paper appearing in PLOS ONE from an international team of investigators describes two new fossil relatives of marsupials that shed light on how a unique island ecosystem evolved […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: animals, ecosystem, Eocene, Evolution, islands, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, WorldFossilSociety No Comments »Earth’s oldest animals formed complex communities
September 19th, 2018 Riffin A new analysis is shedding light on Earth’s first macroscopic animals: the 570-million-year-old, enigmatic Ediacara biota. Ediacaran fossils have a slightly bizarre appearance not shared by any modern animal groups. For decades, researchers believed these enigmatic fossils were ecologically simple. However, borrowing a method from modern ecology — fitting species to relative abundance distributions — […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: animals, biota, communities, complex, Earth, Ediacara, fossils, macroscopic, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, WorldFossilSociety No Comments »Just how old are animals?
May 31st, 2017 Riffin The origin of animals was one of the most important events in the history of Earth. Beautifully preserved fossil embryos suggest that our oldest ancestors might have existed a little more than half a billion years ago.
Posted in Featured Post, General Tags: animals, embryo, fossil, old, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »
