Paleontology

Tatankacephalus Cooneyorum- New Ankylosaur Dinosaur Species Discovery

A new species of dinosaur, an ankylosaur, that lived 112 million years ago during the early Cretaceous of central Montana has been described by paleontologists writing in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences and the Bulletin of the Buffalo Society of Nat ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2011 - 3:01pm

Earliest Vertebrates To Evolve Powered Flight

Co-ordination of flight requires tremendous brainpower, and co-ordination of active flight, with the constant shift in the shape and location of massive wings, even more so. Nature is extremely parsimonious, not frittering away investment in any organ whe ...

Article - Heidi Henderson - Nov 14 2009 - 1:28am

Tropical Chuckanut

The siltstones, sandstones, mudstones and conglomerates of the Chuckanut Formation were laid down about 40-54 million years ago during the Eocene epoch, a time of luxuriant plant growth in the subtropical flood plain that covered much of the Pacific North ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Nov 15 2009 - 11:20pm

Paleontologists Uncover 100 Million-Year-Old Saharan Super Crocs

 Following up their 2000 discovery of an ancient reptile commonly referred to as SuperCroc,  paleontologists from the University of Chicago and McGill University today unveiled key fossils of five previously unknown or poorly understood crocodile species. ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:58pm

Tawa Hallae--New Theropod Dinosaur Alters Evolutionary Tree

Paleontologists have unearthed a previously unknown Theropod dinosaur from a fossil bone bed in northern New Mexico, settling a debate about early dinosaur evolution, and hinting at how dinosaurs spread across the supercontinent Pangaea.  The description o ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:58pm

128 Million-Year-Old Venomous Raptor Discovered In China

A group of paleontologists has discovered a venomous, birdlike raptor that thrived some 128 million years ago in China, and is the first reported venomous ancestor in the lineage that leads to modern birds. The discovery is documented this week  in the ear ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:59pm

Century-Old 'M.' Uintensis Fossil Reworks Carnivore Evolution

More than a hundred years after its discovery, the limbs and vertebrae of a fossil have been pulled off the shelf at the American Museum of Natural History to revise the view of early carnivore lifestyles. Carnivores—currently a diverse group of mostly mea ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 6:59pm

Eocene Fish, Flowers and other Fauna of the Princeton Area

During the middle Eocene, 45-50 m.y.a., a number of freshwater lakes appeared in an arc extending from Smithers, through the modern Cariboo, to Kamloops, the Nicola Valley, Princeton, and Republic, WA. The lakes likely formed after a period of faulting pr ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jan 6 2012 - 6:34pm

Dawn Redwood: Oregon's State Fossil

Metasequoia, a deciduous conifer, and one of the common fossils found in many of the Eocene sites of the Pacific northwest, flourished in Oregon's forests for millions of years. In honor of this long history, Oregon has named it their official state ...

Blog Post - Heidi Henderson - Jul 13 2011 - 12:30pm

Microraptor Flight Test Reveals Origins Of Bird Flight

Contrary to the claims of most paleontologists, researchers from University of Kansas and Northeastern University in China say that bird flight evolved up in the trees, and  flight tests of a model of the four-winged gliding raptor called microraptor lend ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 8 2010 - 7:01pm