Archaeopteryx feather challenge reported in ScienceDaily 4 February 2019 and Scientific Reports, doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37343-7. An isolated fossil feather found in limestone from Solnhofen Germany has long been considered to be from the famous Archaeopteryx, whose fossils are also found in the same rock layer. The original specimen consists of a black film on pale rock, with […]
Jurassic blubber found, according to articles in BBC News, National Geographic and ScienceDaily 5 December 2018, and Nature doi: 10.1038/s41586-018-0775-x. For many years palaeontologists have speculated that ichthyosaurs had a layer of blubber (fatty tissue) under their skin as do living marine mammals such as dolphins and whales. Ichthyosaurs were reptiles, rather than mammals, but […]
Oldest fossil flowers found, according to articles in ScienceDaily 18 December 2018 and Live Science 19 December 2019, and eLife 18 December 2018, doi: 10.7554/eLife.38827.001. An international group of scientists has studied 34 rock slabs containing 198 specimens of a previously unknown fossil flower. The fossils are from the South Xiangshan Formation, an outcrop of […]
Oldest non-stromatolites found, according to Nature News and Views, vol. 563, pp190-191 8 November 2018. In 2016 scientists claim to have identified fossilised algal mats, knowns as stromatolites, in rocks of the Isua Supracrustal Belt, Greenland, dated as 3.7 billion years. This made them the oldest stromatolites ever found, displacing 3.45 billion year dated rocks […]
Oldest sponges found, according to ScienceDaily 15 October 2018 and Nature Ecology & Evolution 15 October 2018; doi: 10.1038/s41559-018-0676-2. Researchers at the University of California have found evidence of sponges in rock and oils from Oman, Siberia, and India, dated as 660-635 million years ago. This is classified the Neoproterozoic Era, and is claimed to […]
John Mackay and Joseph Hubbard have found some great fossils in the Newcastle Coal Measures, on the east coast of Australia. These included fossil thorns on what seems to be a previously unrecorded species of Neuropteris, a seed fern. Regardless of what the classification finally turns out to be it means one challenging thing, so […]
Did dinosaurs stop to smell the flowers? According to articles in ScienceDaily 7 August 2018 and Historical Biology, doi: 10.1080/08912963.2018.1502288 published online 25 July 2018, they could have. Many flowers attract pollinators by producing fragrances. George Poinar, an entomologist at Oregon State University and his son Greg, a perfume collector, have examined fossil flowers found […]
Fossils made in a day, claim scientists in articles in Science (AAAS) News 14 August 2018 and Palaeontology 25 July 2018 doi: 10.1111/pala.12386. Some fossils of animals and birds include outlines of soft tissues, such as skin and feathers, as well as preserved bones. As part of research into the preservation of soft tissues two […]
Lucy’s child’ climbed trees, according to articles in ScienceDaily and National Geographic 4 July 2018 and Cosmos 6 July 2018 and Science Advances 4 July 2018, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aar7723. A team of scientists in the USA have studied a foot fossil found with a partial skeleton in Ethiopia in 2002. The skeleton has been identified as […]
Oldest rainforest frogs found, according to BBC news, National Geographic News, and ScienceDaily, 14 June 2018 and Scientific Reports Scientific Reports, 14 June 2018, doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-26848-w. Scientists from University of Florida and China University of Geosciences in Beijing have found the remains of four tiny frogs embedded in specimens of amber originally collected in Burma. […]