Paleontology

Gondwanascorpio Emzantsiensis: Oldest Land-living Animal From Godwana Discovered

A new species called Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis is now the oldest known land-living animal discovered in Gondwana. Dr. Robert Gess, from the Evolutionary Studies Institute at Wits University, discovered the 350 million year old fossilized scorpion from ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 3 2013 - 9:43am

419 Million Year Old Entelognathus Had A Cool Face

The discovery of what may be the earliest known creature with what can be discerned as a face has been reported in Nature. Entelognathus primordialis is an exceptionally well-preserved 419-million-year-old fish from China that is the most primitive vertebr ...

Article - News Staff - Sep 25 2013 - 5:48pm

Pollen Grain Fossils Push The Origin Of Flowering Plants Back 100 Million Years

Because an uninterrupted sequence of fossilized pollen from flowers begins in the Early Cretaceous, approximately 140 million years ago, it is generally assumed that flowering plants first evolved around that time.  A new study documents flowering plant-l ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 1 2013 - 4:16pm

Dmanisi Skull: Homo Habilis, Homo Erectus Belonged To The Same Species- Study

The fifth skull to be discovered in Dmanisi displays a combination of features unknown to researchers before the find- the largest face, the most massively built jaw and teeth and the smallest brain within the Dmanisi group. Previously, four equally well- ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 17 2013 - 5:56pm

Why No Proterozoic Explosion? Oxygen May Be Overstated In The Evolution Of Advanced Life

Oxygen was essential for advanced life to evolve; ancient dinosaurs and modern large-brained mammals needed a lot of oxygen to keep their large and sophisticated organisms running.   Some simple organisms like bacteria can survive without oxygen, but all ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 21 2013 - 7:00am

Teenage Citizen Scientist Discovers Baby Parasaurolophus Dinosaur Skeleton

A high school student is credited with finding the youngest, smallest and most complete fossil skeleton yet known from the iconic tube-crested dinosaur Parasaurolophus, in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah.  The discovery shows ...

Article - News Staff - Oct 22 2013 - 11:15am

Lythronax Argestes: The Dinosaur King Of Gore

A new species of tyrannosaur, Lythronax Argestes, has been unearthed in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. Lythronax translates as "king of gore," and the second part of the name, argestes, refers to its geographic loc ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 6 2013 - 3:55pm

Mammoths: The Misunderstood Giants

As someone who works on Silurian age fossils, I can't help but be jealous every time a new mammoth "fossil" is found in permafrost. I'm using quotation marks here around because these mammoth corpses can barely be considered to be fossi ...

Article - Oliver Knevitt - Nov 13 2013 - 8:34am

Paranthropus Boisei: A Ruggedly Built, Tree-Climbing Human Ancestor

A human ancestor dated to 1.34 million years old and belonging to Paranthropus boisei at the Olduvai Gorge World Heritage fossil site in Tanzania is characterized by a "robust" jaw and skull bones and was a muscular creature with a gorilla-like ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 6 2013 - 5:01am

Eurygnathohippus Woldegabrieli Is A New Species Of Horse, 4.4 Million Years Old

A new species of fossil horse from 4.4 million-year-old fossil-rich deposits in Ethiopia,  Eurygnathohippus woldegabrieli, was about the size of a small zebra, Eurygnathohippus woldegabrieli, had three-toed hooves and grazed the grasslands and shrubby woo ...

Article - News Staff - Dec 12 2013 - 12:14pm