Crocodilians have nerves on their faces that are so sensitive, they can detect a change in a pond when a single drop hits the water surface several feet away. Alligators and crocodiles use these “invisible whiskers” to detect prey when hunting. Now, a new study from the University of Missouri has measured the nerves responsible […]
Posts Tagged ‘Russel T Sajeev’
New Measurement of Crocodilian Nerves Could Help Scientists Understand Ancient Animals
April 8th, 2013 
Riffin 
Posted in Featured Post 
Tags: Casey Holliday, Ian George, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, trigeminal nerve, WFS, world fossil society 
No Comments »Dwarf Whale Survived Well Into Ice Age
April 6th, 2013 Riffin Research from New Zealand’s University of Otago detailing the fossil of a dwarf baleen whale from Northern California reveals that it avoided extinction far longer than previously thought. Otago Department of Geology PhD student Robert Boessenecker has found that the fossil of the 4-5 meter long Herpetocetus, thought to be the last survivor of the […]
Estimating Impact Forces of Tail Club Strikes by Ankylosaurid Dinosaurs
April 5th, 2013 Riffin It has been assumed that the unusual tail club of ankylosaurid dinosaurs was used actively as a weapon, but the biological feasibility of this behaviour has not been examined in detail. Ankylosaurid tail clubs are composed of interlocking vertebrae, which form the handle, and large terminal osteoderms, which form the knob. Methodology/Principal Findings Computed […]
New Evidence Ancient Asteroid Caused Global Firestorm On Earth
April 4th, 2013 Riffin A new look at conditions after a Manhattan-sized asteroid slammed into a region of Mexico in the dinosaur days indicates the event could have triggered a global firestorm that would have burned every twig, bush and tree on Earth and led to the extinction of 80 percent of all Earth’s species, says a new University […]
Dusting for prints from a fossil fish to understand evolutionary change
April 3rd, 2013 Riffin In 370 million-year-old red sandstone deposits in a highway roadcut, scientists have discovered a new species of armored fish in north central Pennsylvania. Fossils of armored fishes like this one, a phyllolepid placoderm, are known for the distinctive ornamentation of ridges on their exterior plates. As with many such fossils, scientists often find the […]
Massive Extinction Fueled Rise of Crocodiles
April 2nd, 2013 Riffin A massive extinction between the Triassic and Jurassic eras paved the way for the rise of the crocodiles, new research suggests. The researchers, who detail their work today (March 26) in the journal Biology Letters, found that although nearly all the crocodilelike archosaurs, known as pseudosuchia, died off about 201 million years ago, the one […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: crocodylomorphs, Olja Toljagic, Pseudosuchia, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society 5 Comments »Fossil Hunter :Evangelos Matheau-Raven
April 1st, 2013 Riffin Evangelos Matheau-Raven is a professional palaeontologist and fossil hunter; who has discovered new species himself. He discovered 4 new chimaera (close relatives of sharks) species found in the Peterborough area of Callovian, Jurassic age. This discovery had announced inPalAss conference held in Dublin during December 2012. He took his graduation from the University of Hull. www.fossiliferous.co.uk […]
The placodonts are fellow Europeans
March 31st, 2013 Riffin For around 50 million years, placodonts populated the flat coastal regions of the Tethys Ocean, in modern day Europe and China. The most distinctive feature of these dinosaurs was their teeth: The upper jaw had two rows of flattened teeth – one on the palate and one on the jawbone – while the lower jaw […]
General Patterns of Diversity in Major Marine Microeukaryote Lineages
March 30th, 2013 Riffin Microeukaryotes have vital roles for the functioning of marine ecosystems, but still some general characteristics of their current diversity and phylogeny remain unclear. Here we investigated both aspects in major oceanic microeukaryote lineages using 18S rDNA (V4–V5 hypervariable regions) sequences from public databases that derive from various marine environmental surveys. A very carefully and manually […]
Mass Extinctions And The Evolution Of Dinosaurs
March 29th, 2013 Riffin Dinosaurs survived two mass extinctions and 50 million years before taking over the world and dominating ecosystems, according to new research published this week. Reporting in Biology Letters, Steve Brusatte, Professor Michael Benton, and colleagues at the University of Bristol show that dinosaurs did not proliferate immediately after they originated, but that their rise was […]
