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 […]
Giant fossil parrot found in NZ, according to reports in ScienceDaily and ABC News 7 August 2019 and Biology Letters 7 August 2019, doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2019.0467. Scientists from Australia and New Zealand have studied “two incomplete tibiotarsi,” (leg bones with bits missing) found in a fossil site near St Bathans in Central Otago, New Zealand, and […]
Giant snake swam Sahara seaway, according to reports in a Press Release from American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) in Eurekalert and PhysOrg 8 July 2019, Gizmodo 8 July 2019 and Bulletin of American Museum of Natural History No. 436. 28 June 2019. An international team of scientists have conducted a survey of rock layers […]
Tree amber contains sea shells, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and Science Alert 13 May 2019, and PNAS 13 May doi: 10.1073/pnas.1821292116. An international team of scientists has used CT scanning to identify a large number of fossilised creatures trapped in a piece of Burmese amber. Amber is fossilised tree resin and often […]
Fossil school of fish found and described in Science Alert and Live Science 30 May 2019, and Proceedings of the Royal Society B 29 May 2019 doi: 10.1098/rspb.2019.0891. Researchers from Arizona State University and Mizuta Memorial Museum have studied a 57cm x 37.5cm (22.4 x 14.8 inches) slab of “greyish limestone shale” containing the fossils […]
“Ancient four-legged whale” found, claim ScienceDaily 4 April 2019, BBC News 5 April 2019, about a fossil described in Current Biology 4 April 2019 doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.050. An international team of palaeontologists from Peru, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and Belgium who were exploring in Peru have found a jaw bone, forelimb and hind limb bones, the […]