Researchers have discovered an 8.6-meter long reptile with a massive skull and sharp teeth that lived 244 million years ago, during the Triassic Period. It’s been described as an early ichthyosaur, a four-footed reptile that turned seafarer.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
A new study indicates that a group of bipedal dinosaurs, known as oviraptors, shook their feather-adorned tails to gain attention during their courtship rituals.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
Entombed within the 9 to 10 million year old rocks at Cerro de los Batallones in Spain’s Madrid Basin are at least nine different assemblages of large fossil mammals. Two of these deposits are rich in carnivore bones, and provide an interesting snapshot at how these apex predators coexisted.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
Soft tissues, like skin and feathers, aren’t usually part of the fossil record, but a new technique has found a way to bring some of them back into the record. The technique was used to resurrect the teeth and recognize the carcass of a 50-million-year-old fossil of a lizard, long thought to be merely preserved remnants of skin shed from the reptile.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
Megapiranha is an extinct genus of serrasalmid characin fish that lived 8 to 10 million years ago, in the Late Miocene. It’s estimated to have reached lengths of up to 1.3 meters, which is about four times the size of piranha alive today. These estimates are based upon fossil specimens that have been discovered.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
A new species of mosasaur was discovered in Hungry, providing the first evidence that mosasaurs lived in both freshwater and marine environments.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
The strongest and biggest bird of prey that ever existed was the Haast’s Eagle (Harpagornis moorei) of New Zealand, and it became extinct around the 1400s soon after the Maori settled the South Island of New Zealand.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
A new study shows that fossils that have been regarded as ancient sea creatures may have actually been land-dwelling lichen, suggesting life on land began 65 million years earlier than current estimates.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
The fossil record gives clues about how limbs grew from fish fins in a series of stages, but scientists are still trying to fill in the details and determine what genetic changes might have allowed limbs to grow.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
A team of scientists from Princeton University and the University of Bristol, UK, have discovered traces of dairy fat in ancient ceramic fragments, indicating that humans have been making cheese in Europe for up to 7,500 years. Early dairy farmers probably devised cheese-making as a way to preserve milk.
Read more @ SciTechDaily
