@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A newly discovered plant-eating dinosaur may have been a species’ “last gasp” during a period when Earth’s warming climate forced massive changes to global dinosaur populations. The specimen, named Iani smithi after Janus, the two-faced Roman god of change, was an early ornithopod, a group of […]
Posts Tagged ‘WFS NEWS’
WFS News: Petrodactyle wellnhoferi gen. et sp. nov.: A new and large ctenochasmatid pterosaur from the Late Jurassic of Germany
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A new 145-million-year-old pterosaur (extinct flying reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs) was named today by a team of British, American and German researchers. The animal was nicknamed ‘Elvis’ when the fossil was first unearthed in Bavaria, Germany because of the giant pompadour-like bony crest on […]
WFS News: “Achilles Neck” – Fossils Reveal Long-Necked Reptiles Were Decapitated by Predators
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Fossil evidence reveals that the long necks of the ancient marine reptiles, Tanystropheus, made them vulnerable to predators. The study found bite marks on the necks of the fossils, providing the first direct proof of this long-suspected evolutionary disadvantage despite their survival success over a span […]
WFS News: A new fossil katydid of the genus Arethaea Stål (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) with exceptionally preserved internal organs from the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev 50 million years ago in what is now northwestern Colorado, a katydid died, sank to the bottom of a lake and was quickly buried in fine sediments, where it remained until its compressed fossil was recovered in recent years. When researchers examined the fossil under a […]
WFS News: Origin and geographic evolution of cycads clarified
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Paleobotanist Mario Coiro of the Institute of Paleontology at the University of Vienna and colleagues at the University of Montpellier (France) have made an important breakthrough in understanding the origin and geographic distribution of cycads. By combining genetic data with leaf morphological data from both fossil […]
WFS News: Scientists Discover 5.5 Million-Year-Old Elephant Graveyard in Florida
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Approximately five and a half million years ago, a number of gomphotheres, now-extinct relatives of elephants, met their end in or near a river in Northern Florida. Even though their demise probably transpired centuries apart, their remains were all deposited in a single location, entombed alongside […]
WFS News: Newly discovered dinosaur, ‘Iani,’ was face of a changing planet
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev A newly discovered plant-eating dinosaur may have been a species’ “last gasp” during a period when Earth’s warming climate forced massive changes to global dinosaur populations. The specimen, named Iani smithi after Janus, the two-faced Roman god of change, was an early ornithopod, a group of […]
WFS News: Irritator challengeria two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur, a spinosaurid
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev Irritator challengeri was a two-legged, meat-eating dinosaur, or more precisely—a spinosaurid. The knowledge of the species is based on the most complete fossil skull known from this group. With the aid of X-ray computed tomographs usually used in the context of medicine or material science, paleontologists […]
WFS News: What role does anoxia play in exceptional fossil preservation?
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev All that glitters is not gold, or even fool’s gold in the case of fossils. A recent study by scientists at The University of Texas at Austin and collaborators found that many of the fossils from Germany’s Posidonia shale do not get their gleam from pyrite, […]
WFS News:107-million year-old pterosaur bones found in Australia
@WFS,World Fossil Society, Athira, Riffin T Sajeev,Russel T Sajeev 107-million-year-old pterosaur bones, the oldest of their kind, have been confirmed by researchers in Australia, as reported in Historical Biology. The fossils, discovered over three decades ago, belonged to two distinct individuals, one of which was a juvenile — a first for Australia. The findings enhance our […]