Oldest mahogany found, according to ScienceDaily and University of Kansas News 15 April 2020, and American Journal of Botany 5 January 2020 doi: 10.1002/ajb2.1416. Brian Atkinson of University of Kansa has studied a fossilised fruit found in a rock collected on Shelter Point on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada, and identified it as belonging to […]
Antarctic rainforest found, according to BBC News and ScienceDaily 1 April 2020, and Nature 2 April 2020, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2148-5. A team of scientists from Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), Germany and the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) have examined a core of rock from West Antarctica, approximately 900km from the South Pole and found it contained fossilised […]
Biggest giant turtle found, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 12 February 2020, and Science Advances 12 February 2020, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aay4593. Palaeontologists in South America have studied fossilised shells and jaws of a huge extinct turtle with the splendid name Stupendemys geographicus. The largest shell is 2.4 metres (7.9ft) long, making it […]
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 […]
Oldest fossil scorpions show transition to land, claim scientists in reports in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 16 January 2020 and Scientific Reports, 16 January 2020 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-019-56010-z. Palaeontologists have studied two “exceptionally preserved” scorpion fossils from the Waukesha Biota, a fossil deposit in Wisconsin, USA. Scorpions are arachnids, the class of invertebrates that also […]
Insect pollination extended by 50 million years, claim scientists in Science (AAAS) News and ScienceDaily 11 November 2019, and PNAS 11 November 2019 doi: 10.1073/pnas.1916186116. Scientists from China, Germany and USA have studied a beetle preserved in Burmese amber and found it was carrying pollen grains from a flowering plant. The beetle belongs to a […]
Antarctic Notable Quotable from the Director of the British Antarctic Survey, Dame Jane Elizabeth Francis, broadcast on BBC 29 November 2019. Interviewer Martha Kearney asked: “Now your own work on ancient climates shows such a different world in Antarctica. Well we go back 100 million years to the age of the dinosaurs as you showed […]
South polar dinosaur feathers found, claim scientists, as reported by ScienceDaily 12 November 2019 and National Geographic 18 November 2019, and Gondwana Research, published online 11 November 2019; doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.10.004. An international group of scientists has studied 10 tiny fossil feathers found in the Koonwarra fossil formation in Victoria Australia. The specimens examined by the […]
Trilobite processions found, according to CNRS Press Release, National Geographic Science (AAAS) News, National Geographic 17 October 2019, and Scientific Reports 17 October 2019 doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51012-3. Scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) along with other French and Swiss colleagues have studied fossils containing multiple specimens of trilobites named Ampyx priscus dated […]
Fossil suction feeding surprise reported ScienceDaily 11 September 2019 and Science Advances 11 September 2019, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aax2742. Bony ray-finned fishes, such as bass, perch and carp, feed by using a method called suction feeding, where they are able to catch prey by sucking water into their mouths and then funnelling the water out through their […]