An international research partnership is revealing the first mosasaur fossil of its kind to be discovered in Japan. Not only does the 72-million-year-old marine reptile fossil fill a biogeographical gap between the Middle East and the eastern Pacific, but also it holds new revelations because of its superior preservation. This unique swimming lizard, now believed […]
Posts Tagged ‘WFS’
Extinct 3-horned palaeomerycid ruminant found in Spain
December 8th, 2015 
Riffin The extinct three-horned palaeomerycid ruminant, Xenokeryx amidalae, found in Spain, may be from the same clade as giraffes, according to a study published December 2, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Israel M. Sánchez from the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales-CSIC, Madrid, Spain, and colleagues. Palaeomerycids, now extinct, were strange three-horned Eurasian Miocene […]
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Tags: 3-horned, Extinct, palaeomerycid, Riffin T Sajeev, ruminant, Russel T Sajeev, Spain, WFS, world fossil society 
No Comments »Dinosaur Chase Digitally Reconstructed
December 7th, 2015 Riffin Historical Photogrammetry: Bird’s Paluxy River Dinosaur Chase Sequence Digitally Reconstructed as It Was prior to Excavation 70 Years Ago Peter L. Falkingham ,Karl T. Bates,James O. Farlow ,Published: April 2, 2014,DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0093247 Sixteen of Bird’s original photographs used in the photogrammetric reconstruction of the trackway.Note that the state of excavation (flooded parallel trackways, sandbags, tools […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Dinosaur Chase, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Dinosaur extinction and Volcanic Activity
December 6th, 2015 Riffin The role volcanic activity played in dinosaur extinction events in Earth’s early history is likely to have been much less severe than previously thought, according to a study led by the University of Leeds. Asteroid impacts and long-lasting volcanic eruptions called continental flood basalts — the two most commonly cited possible causes of mass extinction […]
Original blood vessels in hadrosaur fossil
December 3rd, 2015 Riffin Researchers from North Carolina State University have confirmed that blood vessel-like structures found in an 80 million-year-old hadrosaur fossil are original to the animal, and not biofilm or other contaminants. Their findings add to the growing body of evidence that structures like blood vessels and cells can persist over millions of years, and the data […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: blood vessels, fossil, Hadrosaur, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »First fossil peaches discovered in southwest China
December 2nd, 2015 Riffin The sweet, juicy peaches we love today might have been a popular snack long before modern humans arrived on the scene.Scientists have found eight well-preserved fossilized peach endocarps, or pits, in southwest China dating back more than two and a half million years. Despite their age, the fossils appear nearly identical to modern peach pits. […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: fossil peaches, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Sefapanosaurus — SA’s new Sesotho dinosaur
December 1st, 2015 Riffin South African and Argentinian palaeontologists have discovered a new 200-million-year-old dinosaur from South Africa, and named it Sefapanosaurus, from the Sesotho word “sefapano.” The researchers from South Africa’s University of Cape Town (UCT) and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University), and from the Argentinian Museo de La Plata and Museo Paleontológico Egidio Feruglio made […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, Sefapanosaurus, Sesotho dinosaur, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Mystery of how snakes lost their legs solved by reptile fossil
November 30th, 2015 Riffin Fresh analysis of a reptile fossil is helping scientists solve an evolutionary puzzle — how snakes lost their limbs. The 90 million-year-old skull is giving researchers vital clues about how snakes evolved. Comparisons between CT scans of the fossil and modern reptiles indicate that snakes lost their legs when their ancestors evolved to live and […]
Egg Shell porosity and Nesting in Dinosaurs
November 29th, 2015 Riffin Extinct archosaurs’ eggshell porosity may be used as a proxy for predicting covered or exposed nest types, according to a study published November 25, 2015 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Kohei Tanaka from the University of Calgary and colleagues. Knowledge about dinosaur nests may provide insight into the evolution of nesting and reproductive […]
Stretchy slabs found in the deep Earth
November 27th, 2015 Riffin A new study suggests that the common belief that the Earth’s rigid tectonic plates stay strong when they slide under another plate, known as subduction, may not be universal. Typically during subduction, plates slide down at a constant rate into the warmer, less-dense mantle at a fairly steep angle. However, in a process called flat-slab […]
