Researchers in Alaska have uncovered the bones of a prehistoric marine reptile dating back 70 million years. This is the first time an elasmosaur has ever been unearthed in this state. Its vertebrae were discovered embedded in an eroding cliff. Elasmosaurs had extremely long necks, small heads and paddle-shaped limbs for swimming. There are many theories […]
Posts Tagged ‘Russel T Sajeev’
fastest mammal evolution in Jurassic period
August 4th, 2015
Riffin Mammals were evolving up to ten times faster in the middle of the Jurassic than they were at the end of the period, coinciding with an explosion of new adaptations, new research shows. Early mammals lived alongside the dinosaurs during the Mesozoic era (252-66 million years ago). They were once thought to be exclusively small […]
Trajectory of Nepal earthquake
August 2nd, 2015
Riffin Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego have accurately mapped out the movement of the devastating 7.8-magnitude Nepal earthquake that killed over 9,000 and injured over 23,000 people. Scientists have determined that the earthquake was a rupture consisting of three different stages. The study could help a rapidly growing region understand its […]
Most ancient pinworm yet found ?
July 30th, 2015
Riffin An egg much smaller than a common grain of sand and found in a tiny piece of fossilized dung has helped scientists identify a pinworm that lived 240 million years ago.It is believed to be the most ancient pinworm yet found in the fossil record. The discovery confirms that herbivorous cynodonts — the ancestors of […]
Ancient marine ecosystem uncovered
July 29th, 2015
Riffin Hidden secrets about life in Somerset 190 million years ago have been revealed by researchers at the University of Bristol and the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) in a new study of some remarkable fossils. Thanks to exceptional conditions of preservation, a whole marine ecosystem has been uncovered — and yet it was […]
Tetrapodophis :Four-legged snake fossil ?
July 24th, 2015
Riffin Scientists have described what they say is the first known fossil of a four-legged snake. The limbs of the 120-or-so-million-year-old, 20-centimeter-long creature are remarkably well preserved and end with five slender digits that appear to have been functional. Thought to have come from Brazil, the fossil would be one of the earliest snakes found, suggesting […]
Radiocarbon Dating may Inaccurate Due To Fossil Fuel Emissions
July 22nd, 2015
Riffin Fossil fuel emissions could soon start to cause headaches for archaeologists and paleontologists using radiocarbon dating to study artifacts. New research suggests the release of carbon-based gases into the atmosphere by vehicles and factories could alter radiocarbon measurements of ancient material. Radiocarbon dating measures levels of carbon-14, a naturally radioactive form of the atom. This […]
Velociraptor ancestor was ‘winged dragon’ ?
July 19th, 2015
Riffin Scientists have discovered a winged dinosaur – an ancestor of the velociraptor – that they say was on the cusp of becoming a bird.The 6ft 6in (2m) creature was almost perfectly preserved in limestone, thanks to a volcanic eruption that had buried it in north-east China and the 125-million year-old fossil suggests many other dinosaurs, […]
A vanished history of skeletonization in Cambrian comb jellies
July 12th, 2015
Riffin Ctenophores are traditionally regarded as “lower” metazoans, sharing with cnidarians a diploblastic grade of organization. Unlike cnidarians, where skeletonization (biomineralization and sclerotization) evolved repeatedly among ecologically important taxa (for example, scleractinians and octocorals), living ctenophores are characteristically soft-bodied animals. We report six sclerotized and armored ctenophores from the early Cambrian period. They have diagnostic ctenophore […]
Wendiceratops: Horned Dinosaur Evolutionary Tale
July 9th, 2015
Riffin Paleontologists say a dinosaur from 79 million years ago, known as Wendiceratops pinhornensis, could help them hook into the mysteries of how horned dinosaurs evolved. The species’ somewhat whimsical name is inspired by the place where its fossilized bones were found (the Pinhorn Provincial Grazing Reserve in Alberta) and the person who found them (Canadian […]



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