Paleontology

What Are Noeggerathiales? Read This And Find Out

In Mongolia, plants preserved in a volcanic ash fall deposit as part of a so-called "vegetational Pompeii," may have resolved the mystery of the Noeggerathiales. What are Noeggerathiales? Paleontologists have wanted to really know since they firs ...

Article - News Staff - Mar 11 2021 - 5:34pm

Thapunngaka Shawi: The Fearsome Beast Of Wanamara Discovered

A fearsome beast soared above the ancient, vast inland sea once that once covered covering much of outback Queensland. This newly found pterosaur, named Thapunngaka shawi, was discovered in Wanamara Country, near Richmond in North West Queensland. It' ...

Article - News Staff - Aug 9 2021 - 10:45am

Tracking Whale Migration With Barnacles

We can trace the lineage of barnacles back to the Middle Cambrian. That is half a billion years of data to sift through.  If you divide that timeline in half yet again, we begin to understand barnacles and their relationship to other sea-dwelling creature ...

Article - Heidi Henderson - Aug 23 2021 - 2:17pm

Living Fossils: Winning The Slow Race Of Time

Horseshoe crabs are marine and brackish water arthropods of the order Xiphosura — a slowly evolving, conservative taxa. Much like (slow) Water Striders (Aquarius remigis), (relatively sluggish) Coelacanth (Latimeria chalumnae) and (the current winner on t ...

Article - Heidi Henderson - Aug 23 2021 - 2:49pm

Late Cretaceous Fauna: Colinoceras Tarrantense

Previously Calycoceras Tarrantense, this ammonite is now Conlinoceras tarrantense after J.P. Conlin, a famous early 20th-century fossil collector from Texas, USA. Ammonite expert Bill Cobban used this collection to describe many Texas Cretaceous ammonites ...

Article - Heidi Henderson - Aug 23 2021 - 3:13pm

Crinoids: Beauties Of Echinodermata

Crinoids are unusually beautiful and graceful members of the phylum Echinodermata. They resemble an underwater flower swaying in an ocean current. But make no mistake they are marine animals. Picture a flower with a mouth on the top surface that is surrou ...

Article - Heidi Henderson - Aug 23 2021 - 3:24pm

Europe's Ancient Booms And Busts Due To Climage Change Fossilized In Ice

Europe’s past booms and busts, often driven by natural changes in climate, has been revealed using thousand-year-old pollen, spores and charcoal particles fossilized in glacial ice. The analysis of microfossils preserved in European glaciers also revealed ...

Article - News Staff - Nov 3 2021 - 3:50pm

Homo Erectus' From Gongwangling May Have Been First For China

Scientists just published a study of what may prove to be China's most ancient human fossil. The researchers employed microCT, geometric morphometry, and classical morphology techniques to investigate the remains of the maxillary and five teeth from t ...

Article - News Staff - Jun 14 2022 - 9:21am

Ghost Lineage: Jurassic Crocodile One Of The Oldest Of Its Kind

Thalattosuchians are ancient relatives of the ancestors of modern-day crocodiles, a biological aunt if you will, and part of the head, backbone, and limbs of Turnersuchus hingleyae have been found on what paleontologists call the Jurassic Coast, in Dorset ...

Article - News Staff - Feb 11 2023 - 9:48am

Why Does Anyone Still Search For The Loch Ness Monster?

Hugh Gray was taking his usual post-church walk around Loch Ness in Scotland on a November Sunday in 1933. His amble was disrupted when he saw something bobbing above the water two or three feet from him.  He quickly snapped several pictures of what he de ...

Article - The Conversation - Nov 10 2023 - 2:22pm