A 17-million-year-old whale fossil is helping scientists pinpoint when the East African Plateau started to rise. Determining when the uplift happened has implications for understanding human evolution, scientists say. Shifts in the Earth’s mantle pushed the East African Plateau upward sometime between 17 million and 13.5 million years ago, researchers report March 16 in the […]
Posts Tagged ‘Russel T Sajeev’
A Microrapter fossil from South Korea
March 15th, 2015 
Riffin A tiny dinosaur about the size of a house cat was recently discovered in South Korea.The dinosaur’s fossilized remains span about 11 inches, but scientists told Korea JoongAng Daily that it was likely about 20 inches long when it was alive. “Based on the findings so far, we assume that the dinosaur is something close […]
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Tags: fossil, Microrapter, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, South Korea, WFS, world fossil society 
No Comments »Aegirocassis benmoulae : A Giant paleo sea creature
March 13th, 2015 Riffin Newly discovered fossils of a giant, extinct sea creature show it had modified legs, gills on its back, and a filter system for feeding — providing key evidence about the early evolution of arthropods. The new animal, named Aegirocassis benmoulae in honor of its discoverer, Mohamed Ben Moula, attained a size of at least seven […]
Pockmarks :Linking Geology and Microbiology
March 8th, 2015 Riffin Linking Geology and Microbiology: Inactive Pockmarks Affect Sediment Microbial Community Structure Pockmarks are geological features that are found on the bottom of lakes and oceans all over the globe. Some are active, seeping oil or methane, while others are inactive. Active pockmarks are well studied since they harbor specialized microbial communities that proliferate on the […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Geology, Microbiology, Pockmarks, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Foraminifera reveal ancient temperatures
March 7th, 2015 Riffin New research in Nature Communications showing how tiny creatures drifted across the ocean before falling to the seafloor and being fossilised has the potential to improve our understanding of past climates. The research published in Nature Communications has identified which planktic foraminifera gathered up in core samples from the ocean floor, drifted thousands of kilometres […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: ancient temperatures, Foraminifera, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Plants survive better through mass extinctions than animals
March 5th, 2015 Riffin At least 5 mass extinction events have profoundly changed the history of life on Earth. But a new study led by researchers at the University of Gothenburg shows that plants have been very resilient to those events. For over 400 million years, plants have played an essential role in almost all terrestrial environments and covered […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: mass extinctions World Fossil Society, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS No Comments »Penn-Dixie events in March 2015
March 4th, 2015 Riffin March 14, 2015 –8:30 AM, Penn Dixie Volunteer Training Program in the auditorium of the GatewayExecutive office, 3556 Lake Shore Road, Blasdell. Call (716) 627-4560 to make reservation. $30/person, Penn Dixie members are FREE. March 14, 2015 9 AM-2PM, Penn Dixie presentations at 10thAnniversary of Tech Savvy girls STEM Program March 18, 2015–7 PM, “Four […]
How were fossil tracks so well preserved?
March 1st, 2015 Riffin A type of vertebrate trace fossil gaining recognition in the field of paleontology is that made by various tetrapods (four-footed land-living vertebrates) as they traveled through water under buoyant or semibuoyant conditions. Called fossil “swim tracks,” they occur in high numbers in deposits from the Early Triassic, the Triassic being a geologic period (250 to […]
Kenyan fossils show evolution of hippos
February 26th, 2015 Riffin A French-Kenyan research team has just described a new fossil ancestor of today’s hippo family. This discovery bridges a gap in the fossil record separating these animals from their closest modern-day cousins, the cetaceans. It also shows that some 35 million years ago, the ancestors of hippos were among the first large mammals to colonize […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: evolution of hippos, Kenyan fossils, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Were dinosaurs destined to be big? Testing Cope’s rule
February 24th, 2015 Riffin In the evolutionary long run, small critters tend to evolve into bigger beasts — at least according to the idea attributed to paleontologist Edward Cope, now known as Cope’s Rule. Using the latest advanced statistical modeling methods, a new test of this rule as it applies dinosaurs shows that Cope was right — sometimes. “For […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Cope's rule, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »
