The coelacanth, an elusive deep-sea dweller long thought extinct, had another item added Tuesday to an already-long list of unusual physical traits: an obsolete lung lurking in its abdomen.Similar to the human appendix, the organ was likely rendered defunct by evolution, researchers noted in the journal Nature Communications.Like all fish, today’s coelacanths — referred to […]
Posts Tagged ‘WFS’
Coelacanths :Living Fossils
September 17th, 2015 
Riffin 
Posted in Featured Post 
Tags: Coelacanths, Living Fossils, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society 
No Comments »‘Lightning Claw’ Dinosaur Fossil
September 14th, 2015 Riffin The remains of a “lightning claw” dinosaur was discovered by opal miners in Lightning Ridge, New South Wales. The giant dinosaur was said to have existed during the mid-Cretaceous period in the supercontinent called Gondwana, according to Australian Geographic. The dinosaur belonged to the megaraptorid group of dinosaurs known primarily in Argentina. It is believed […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Dinosaur Fossil, Lightning Claw’, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Ariyalur Fossils : Belemnites
September 10th, 2015 Riffin Belemnites (Belemnitida) were squid-like animals belonging to the cephalopod class of the mollusc phylum, and therefore related to the ammonites of old as well as to the modern squids, octopuses and nautiluses. Now extinct, their fossils are found in rocks of Jurassic and Cretaceous ages, with a few species hanging on into the early part […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Ariyalur Fossils, Belemnites, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Desmatochelys padillai : Giant fossil turtle
September 8th, 2015 Riffin Scientists at the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt have described the world’s oldest fossil sea turtle known to date. The fossilized reptile is at least 120 million years old — which makes it about 25 million years older than the previously known oldest specimen. The almost completely preserved skeleton from the Cretaceous, with a length […]
mantle plumes with volcanic hotspots
September 7th, 2015 Riffin University of California, Berkeley, seismologists have produced for the first time a sharp, three-dimensional scan of Earth’s interior that conclusively connects plumes of hot rock rising through the mantle with surface hotspots that generate volcanic island chains like Hawaii, Samoa and Iceland. Essentially a computed tomography, or CT scan, of Earth’s interior, the picture emerged […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Mantle plumes, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, volcanic hotspots, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Ariyalur Fossils:Rastellum carinatum
September 6th, 2015 Riffin This is a Cretaceous aged fossil oyster of the species Rastellum carinatum from Dalmiapuram (Kallakkudi formation). It has wide, angled ribs that have led to it being called the ‘denture clam’. The zig-zag join between the two shells stopped coarse dirt and debris entering the shell and damaging its soft body. Like modern oysters it […]
CT scanning in fossil study
September 6th, 2015 Riffin A sophisticated imaging technique has allowed scientists to virtually peer inside a 10-million-year-old sea urchin, uncovering a treasure trove of hidden fossils. The international team of researchers from the United Kingdom, Spain and Germany, including Dr Imran Rahman from the University of Bristol, studied the exceptional specimen with the aid of state-of-the-art X-ray computed tomography […]
pentecopterus, a giant sea scorpion
September 2nd, 2015 Riffin Journal reference: James C. Lamsdell, Derek E. G. Briggs, Huaibao P. Liu, Brian J. Witzke, Robert M. McKay. The oldest described eurypterid: a giant Middle Ordovician (Darriwilian) megalograptid from the Winneshiek Lagerstätte of Iowa. BMC Evolutionary Biology, 2015; 15 (1) DOI: 10.1186/s12862-015-0443-9 Eurypterids are a diverse group of chelicerates known from ~250 species with a […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: giant sea scorpion, pentecopterus, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »just how good is the fossil record?
August 31st, 2015 Riffin Everyone is excited by discoveries of new dinosaurs – or indeed any new fossil species. But a key question for palaeontologists is ‘just how good is the fossil record?’ Do we know fifty per cent of the species of dinosaurs that ever existed, or ninety per cent or even less than one per cent? And […]
Posted in Featured Post Tags: Fossil record, Riffin T Sajeev, Russel T Sajeev, WFS, world fossil society No Comments »Pigments in fossil feathers
August 29th, 2015 Riffin A study provides multiple lines of new evidence that pigments and the microbodies that produce them can remain evident in a dinosaur fossil. In the journal Scientific Reports, an international team of paleontologists correlates the distinct chemical signature of animal pigment with physical evidence of melanosome organelles in the fossilized feathers of Anchiornis huxleyi, a […]
