Trilobite “hyper-eyes” found according to ScienceDaily 30 September 2021, Science Alert 3 October 2021 and Scientific Reports 30 September 2021 doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-98740-z. Trilobite eyes have long been known for precision optics, and now one kind of trilobite has been found to have more complex eyes than previously thought. Trilobites of the suborder Phacopina have two […]
Fossil fancy tail feathers found, according to reports in ScienceDaily and Field Museum of Natural History Chicago 16 September 2021 and Current Biology 16 September 2021 doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.08.044. Chinese and American scientists have studied the fossil of an extinct bird found in the Jehol Biota in northeastern China. The fossil has been named Yuanchuavis kompsosoura […]
Dino skin found, but no feathers, according to University of New England News 10 September 2021, also reported in Science Alert and SciTech Daily 13 September 2021, and Cretaceous Research, published online 13 August 2021 doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2021.104994. Palaeontologists Phil Bell of University of New England (UNE) Australia, and Christophe Hendrickx of Unidad Ejecutora Lillo in San […]
“Dino fight clubs” reported in Live Science and Science (AAAS) News 10 September 2021 and Paleobiology 6 September 2021, doi: 10.1017/pab.2021.29. Scientists at Royal Tyrell Museum and University of Alberta, Canada, have studied 528 skull bones of theropod dinosaurs and found 122 had bite scars from other dinosaurs. Overall, about 60% of the adult tyrannosaurids […]
Stone tools show lush green Arabia, according to Science (AAAS) News 1 September 2021 and Science Alert 2 September 2021 and Nature 1 September 2021, 10.1038/s41586-021-03863-y. An international team of researchers have studied two sites in the Nefud Desert in northern Saudi Arabia and found thousands of stone tools, along with many animal fossils. The […]
Did you fry in July? It “was Earth’s hottest month on record” according to a report from National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) 13 August 2021. Similar alarmist headlines were also published on ScienceDaily 13 August 2021, BBC News and ABC News 14 August 2021, and Science Alert 16 August 2021 (and numerous other news […]
Horseshoe crab brains haven’t changed, according to a report in Science Alert 28 July 2021, Natural History Museum (NHM) Science News 5 August 2021, and Geology, doi: 10.1130/G49193.1, published online 26 July 2021. An international group of scientists from Australia, UK and USA have studied an “exceptionally preserved” fossil horseshoe crab named Euproops danae, found […]
“Jurassic Pompeii” found by amateur rock sleuth Neville Hollingworth, who scoured old maps and records looking for ‘lost’ UK fossil sites. The huge number of sea creatures and land plants in the rocks reminded him of Pompei according to BBC News 22 July 2021. Enter palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London who are […]
Mass baby burial of 1400 juvenile animals, according to reports in ScienceDaily and Penn State News 28 June 2021 and Nature Ecology and Evolution 28 June 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01490-4. Palaeontologists have found an exceptionally preserved trove of soft bodied invertebrate fossils from a rock formation named the Haiyan Lagerstätte located in Haiyan, China. The term […]
Giant croc roamed South-East Queensland, according to reports in ABC News and ScienceDaily 14 June 2021 and Scientific Reports 9 June 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-91717-y. A group of scientists led by Jorgo Ristevski of University of Queensland have studied a piece of skull from an extinct crocodile, originally found in the nineteenth century, and stored in […]