Researchers from North Carolina State University and the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences have studied a deformed tooth from the extinct giant shark Otodus megalodon (used to be Carcharodon megalodon)and compared it with similarly deformed teeth from a shark named Carcharhinus leucas, which still lives today. The teeth all show a “double tooth pathology” […]
Oldest horned dinosaur found, according to reports in ScienceDaily 11 May 2021 and SciTech Daily 14 May 2021 and PalZ, 10 May 2021, doi: 10.1007/s12542-021-00555-w. Scientists in from the University of Pennsylvania and New Mexico Museum of Natural History have studied the fossil of a horned dinosaur originally found in 1966 in the Menefee Formation […]
Blood parasites in dino bones found, according Smithsonian Magazine 18 November 2020 and Cretaceous Research 15 October 2020, doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104672. A group of scientists in Brazil were studying a deformity in a leg bone of a titanosaur, which they thought could be a bone tumour. When they examined it under a microscope they found microscopic […]
Editorial by Joseph Hubbard Violence Goes Viral in UK From Joseph Hubbard, at the time he was flying from Chicago to UK before total lockdown. My asthmatic mumhas been under isolation with Coronavirus during the past month. She has just finished quarantine and went shopping for goods desperately needed for my grandparents who are in […]
Diseased dino tail bones found, according to reports in ScienceDaily 11 February 2020, Live Science 20 February 2020, and Scientific Reports 10 February 2020, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-59192-z. An international team of researchers led by two scientists at Tel Aviv University have studied two dinosaur tail bones from a hadrosaur, and found evidence of a bone disease […]
Containing the coronavirus is proving to be difficult in spite of efforts by some governments and health authorities. This newly found virus, officially designated “2019-nCoV” is similar to two previously known deadly coronaviruses – SARS and MERS. Here is the testimony of one of our colleagues from a SARS outbreak. “All passengers from the affected […]
Biggest T. rex found, according to reports in ScienceDaily 22 March 2019 and National Geographic 26 March 2019 and The Anatomical Record, 21 March 2019; doi: 10.1002/ar.24118. Palaeontologists at the University of Alberta have found the largest Tyrannosaurus rex known. The 65% complete skeleton includes the skull and hips along with some ribs, leg and […]
Rabbit evolution in three countries, claim scientists in articles in Science (AAAS) News 14 February 2019, and Science 14 February 2019, doi: 10.1126/science.aau7285. European rabbits were introduced into Australia in the mid 1800s and over the following decades they multiplied and spread, eventually reaching plague proportions, and devastated crops and pasturelands. In 1950 the myxoma […]
Triassic cancer found according to articles in National Geographic and Science (AAAS) News 7 February 2019, ABC News 8 February 2019, and JAMA Oncology, published online 7 February 2019, doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2018.6766. Most cancers form in soft tissues and are therefore rarely preserved in fossils. However, bone tumours can be partly preserved because many contain hard mineralised […]
Why don’t whales get the bends, ask scientists in articles in ScienceDaily 25 April 2018 and Proceedings of the Royal Society B 25 April 2018 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0482. Ever since decompression sickness was known about in human divers scientists have been intrigued as to why diving animals such as whales, dolphins and sea turtles seem to […]