Oldest cephalopods may have been found, claim scientists via reports in ScienceDaily 23 March 2021, Science Alert 25 March2021 and Communications Biology 23 March 2021, doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-01885-w. Scientists at the University of Heidelberg have studied fossils from the Avalon Peninsula, Newfoundland, Canada, and identified them as fossil cephalopods. Living cephalopods include octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and […]
Category: Fossils
Dino Frills for Flirting
Dino frills for flirting, claim scientists in reports in Natural History Museum news and Science Focus 3 February 2021, Live Science 5 February 2021, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B 3 February 2021 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2020.2938. Dinosaurs known as Ceratopsians have distinctive bony frills projecting from the backs of their skulls. This has been thought […]
Giant Fish Fossil Found With Pterodactyl
Giant fish fossil found with pterodactyl, reported by University of Portsmouth news and PhysOrg 15 February 2021, ScienceDaily 16 February 2021, and Cretaceous Research published online 23 January 2021 doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104768. Scientists from University of Portsmouth were asked to identify a fossil bony structure found with a group of wing bones from a pterosaur. The […]
Buried Alive in Morocco
Morocco is one of the best places in the world for fossils, and one of the best places in Morocco is the Kem Kem Basin, Khouribga, especially for aquatic fossils. The Kem Kem basin is a massive bone bed made up of mineral phosphates (usually derived from bone) and it is the largest known phosphorite […]
Human Thumbs Are Two Million Years Old
Human thumbs are two million years old, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and SciTech Daily 28 January and Current Biology 28 January 2021 doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.12.041. Scientists at the University of Tübingen made computer models of thumb bones from “a variety of ancient hominins” along with those of modern humans and chimpanzees, and used […]
Why Crocodiles Haven’t Evolved
Why crocodiles haven’t evolved, according to University of Bristol press release and ScienceDaily 7 January 2021, and Communications Biology, 7 January 2021 doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-01561-5. Living crocodiles are very similar to fossil crocodiles found in Jurassic rocks dated at over 200 million years old. There are only 25 species living today, but in the past there […]
Oldest Fossil Eucalyptus Flower With Pollen
Oldest fossil Eucalyptus flower with pollen found, according to Botany One 20 January 2021 and American Journal of Botany 3 December 2020 doi:10.1002/ajb2.1569. Usually regarded as an Aussie Icon, the Gum Trees or Eucalypt family have produced several fossil surprises from other countries. Scientists have now studied the preserved pollen of a new species of […]
Oldest Rapid-Fire Tongue
Oldest rapid-fire tongue found, according to reports in. ScienceDaily 5 November 2020, BBC Science Focus and Science Perspectives 6 November 2020, and Science 6 November 2020, doi: 10.1126/science.abb6005. An international team of scientists have studied a small amphibian preserved in amber and were surprised to find it had an entoglossal bone – a bone found […]
Feather Flop 1 – Archaeopteryx Feather
Feather Flop 1 – Archaeopteryx feather, according to reports in ScienceDaily and SciTech Daily 30 September 2020 and Scientific Reports 30 September, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-65336-y. In 2019 a group of scientists from University of Hong Kong used a new laser scanning technique to study an isolated feather fossil found in the Jurassic rocks of Solnhofen, Germany. […]
Feather Flop 2 – Pterosaur “Protofeather”
Feather Flop 2 – Pterosaur “protofeather” according to reports in ScienceDaily 28 September 2020 and Nature Ecology and Evolution, 28 September 2020; doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-01308-9. In 2018 a group of scientists led by Zixiao Yang of Nanjing University claimed they had found evidence that pterosaurs (flying reptiles) had proto-feathers. Their claim was based on fine filaments, […]