Until now, interpreting flattened fossils was a major challenge. Now, a new approach for the analysis of such fossils has been developed by a team bringing together researchers from the IPANEMA unit (CNRS / French Ministry of Culture and Communication), the Centre de Recherche sur la Paléobiodiversité et les Paléoenvironnements (CNRS / MNHN / UPMC) […]
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New Mid-Cretaceous (Latest Albian) Dinosaurs from Winton, Queensland, Australia
February 1st, 2014 
Riffin Background Australia’s dinosaurian fossil record is exceptionally poor compared to that of other similar-sized continents. Most taxa are known from fragmentary isolated remains with uncertain taxonomic and phylogenetic placement. A better understanding of the Australian dinosaurian record is crucial to understanding the global palaeobiogeography of dinosaurian groups, including groups previously considered to have had Gondwanan […]
“Yongjinglong datangi” The New dinosaur fossil discovered in China
January 31st, 2014 Riffin Scientists have discovered the fossil of a 60-feet long plant-eating dinosaur in China that lived about 100 million years ago. A team led by University of Pennsylvania paleontologists has characterised the new dinosaur based on fossil remains found in northwestern China. The species, a plant-eating sauropod named Yongjinglong datangi, roamed during the Early Cretaceous period, […]
Rare female phytosaur skull found in West Texas more than 200 million years old
January 30th, 2014 Riffin In the dangerous waters of an ancient oxbow lake created by a flooded and unnamed meandering river, the female phytosaur died and sank to the bottom 205 million years ago. About 40 yards away the remains of a larger male also came to rest, and both disappeared in a tomb of soil and sediment. Evidence […]
Old Bird, New World: Did the South American Hoatzins Originate in Europe?
January 23rd, 2014 Riffin The oldest fossil discoveries from France show that hoatzins once existed in Europe. Where did hoatzins come from? These unusual birds, only one species of which exists in South America today, originated in the Old World. Studies of the oldest known fossils of Hoatzin ancestors have now shown that these birds existed around 34 million […]
Iconic Australasian Trees Found as Fossils in South America
January 11th, 2014 Riffin Today in Australia they call it Kauri, in Asia they call it Dammar, and in South America it does not exist at all unless planted there. But 52 million years ago the giant coniferous evergreen tree known to botanists as Agathis thrived in the Patagonian region of Argentina, according to an international team of paleobotanists, […]
Amber Fossil Reveals Ancient Reproduction in Flowering Plants
January 7th, 2014 Riffin A 100-million-year old piece of amber has been discovered which reveals the oldest evidence of sexual reproduction in a flowering plant — a cluster of 18 tiny flowers from the Cretaceous Period — with one of them in the process of making some new seeds for the next generation. The perfectly-preserved scene, in a plant […]
‘Nedoceratops’: An Example of a Transitional Morphology
January 4th, 2014 Riffin The holotype and only specimen of the chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur ‘Nedoceratops hatcheri’ has been the source of considerable taxonomic debate since its initial description. At times it has been referred to its own genus while at others it has been considered synonymous with the contemporaneous chasmosaurine Triceratops. Most recently, the debate has focused on whether […]
Global Map Predicts Locations for Giant Earthquakes
December 31st, 2013 Riffin A team of international researchers, led by Monash University’s Associate Professor Wouter Schellart, have developed a new global map of subduction zones, illustrating which ones are predicted to be capable of generating giant earthquakes and which ones are not. The new research, published in the journal Physics of the Earth and Planetary Interiors, comes nine […]
Fossil Worm Burrows Reveal Very Early Terrestrial Animal Activity and Shed Light on Trophic Resources after the End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction
December 28th, 2013 Riffin The widespread mass extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous caused world-wide disruption of ecosystems, and faunal responses to the one-two punch of severe environmental perturbation and ecosystem collapse are still unclear. Here we report the discovery of in situ terrestrial fossil burrows from just above the impact-defined Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) boundary in southwestern North Dakota. […]
