fossils

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10 Dinosaur Mysteries That Still Linger

Who was biggest and how they mated are still unknown

(Newser) - Dinosaur articles, movies, and museum displays are common enough that you might consider all dino-mysteries solved, but the Smithsonian reports that major ones still remain. Among them:
  • Who was first? Nobody knows which dinosaur species came first, partly because fossil records provide fragmentary insights rather than "the entire reel,
...

Ice Age Fossils Found in Wyoming Cave

Analysis of specimens underway, and some might date back 100K years

(Newser) - It's called the Natural Trap Cave for a reason: The 15-foot-wide hole in the Bighorn Mountains of Wyoming is all but impossible to see until it's too late, and animals have been falling to their deaths there for eons. But what was bad news for them is great...

Moon May Hold Clues to Earth's Ancient Past

Study says fossils from Earth could survive the trip via meteor

(Newser) - Might the moon be able to shed some light on the origins of life on Earth? A new study out of the University of Kent opens the possibility that the moon could be littered with ancient fossils from our planet, reports New Scientist . No such fossil has been found to...

Scientists Find World's Oldest Sperm

Shrimp-like creatures were preserved nearly in mid-act 17M years ago

(Newser) - About 17 million years ago, a shrimp-like creature had sex in a cave in Australia, but instead of an afterglow, she got hit almost immediately with what one scientist thinks was a "torrential rain of bat droppings," reports Australia's ABC News . Her misfortune then is scientists' delight...

How an Ancient Whale Graveyard Appeared in Chile

2011 find mystified experts

(Newser) - Researchers were left scratching their heads in 2011 when they came upon a trove of whale fossils between 6 million and 9 million years old, of all places in Chile's Atacama Desert. It featured dozens of specimens, accounting for "at least 10 different kinds of marine animals, recurring...

New Fossil Find One of History's Greatest

3K fossils, 55 species found in Canada's Kootenay National Park

(Newser) - Researchers in Canada have made an "extraordinary" find: a vast collection of fossils that offer an in-depth look at prehistoric life. The site in Kootenay National Park is being compared to what experts call one of history's greatest fossil finds, a 1909 discovery about 26 miles away in...

Saudi Arabia Milestone: Dinosaur Fossils

Scientists find first that can be identified in Arabian Peninsula

(Newser) - A new fossil discovery confirms that dinosaurs roamed present-day Saudi Arabia. Researchers report in PLoS One that they found bone fragments of two different dinosaurs that lived about 72 million years ago. One is a distant cousin of T-Rex, a meat-eating theropod. The other is a plant-eating titanosaur, reports LiveScience...

240M-Year-Old Toilet Found in Argentina

Large mammals pooped there in early Triassic period

(Newser) - Curious about the world's oldest public bathroom? It's in Argentina and it's impressive, covering nearly 3,000 feet and dating back to a time when giant rhino-like creatures roamed the region, the BBC reports. Appropriately, the 240-million-year-old latrine is full of big fossilized feces, some up to...

Teen Makes 'Spectacular' Dino Fossil Find

Youngest, smallest, most complete Parasaurolophus skeleton

(Newser) - A California high school student made a find LiveScience calls "amazing": While doing paleontology fieldwork for school in Utah in 2009, Kevin Terris helped to discover an almost complete baby Parasaurolophus skeleton—in fact, the most complete one ever found. Nicknamed "Joe," it also turned out to...

Scientists Unearth World's Largest Fish

The Leedsichthys grew to up to 50 feet in length

(Newser) - As far as discoveries go, this one is pretty astounding on three counts: It came about by chance, expanded our knowledge of "gigantism," and revealed the world's largest fish. As the Observer reports, two geology students spotted pieces of bone amid the rocks in a quarry in...

Extinct 'Lizard King' Named After Doors Singer

Jim Morrison honored with 'Barbaturex morrisoni'

(Newser) - Scientists recently found that a 6-foot, 60-pound lizard that lived 36 million to 40 million years ago was the largest plant-eating lizard ever to have walked the Earth, so they gave it a fitting moniker: Barbaturex morrisoni, a play on Jim Morrison's "Lizard King" alter ego. The lizard...

Maybe First Creatures Were on Land, Not in Sea

Paper in 'Nature' refutes long-held theory

(Newser) - Play whatever scene you have in your head of the first creature to emerge from the sea and move onto land. Now hit pause and play it in reverse. A new paper in Nature refutes the long-held theory that life began in the water and evolved onto land, reports NPR...

Scientists Say They Found Earth's Oldest Dinosaur

Nyasasaurus parringtoni lived in the Middle Triassic period

(Newser) - Scientists studying fossilized bones originally discovered in Tanzania in the 1930s may have revealed Earth's oldest known dinosaur, LiveScience reports. Nyasasaurus parringtoni lived between 240 million and 245 million years ago, some 10 million to 15 million years earlier than any other dinosaurs previously discovered. Researchers stopped short of...

New Fossils Reveal More Human Species

Early human evolution was more crowded than we thought: Leakeys

(Newser) - The discovery of three new fossils, unveiled today, illuminate and confirm a line of human evolution that is more complicated than scientists once thought. The groundbreaking bones, about 2 million years old and unearthed in Kenya, prove that there were at least two Homo species—in addition to Homo erectus—...

Ancient Relatives of Humans Ate Wood

Scientists analyzed dental tartar in fossils

(Newser) - Did our ancestors eat trees? New fossil evidence shows that a 2 million-year-old relative of humans nibbled on bark and leaves, reports BBC . Scientists analyzed the teeth of two members of the "southern ape" species, or Australopithecus sediba, and found evidence that they included wood in their diet.

Feds Seizing Illegal $1M Dino Skeleton

Tyrannosaurus belongs to Mongolia, court decides

(Newser) - The Department of Homeland Security has been ordered to detain a dead, 70 million-year-old, 24-foot-long illegal immigrant. The skeleton of the Tyrannosaurus Bataar—T. Rex's Mongolian cousin—was sold for $1 million at an auction in New York last month despite objections from the Mongolian government, which bans the...

World's Oldest Fish Trap Found Near Sweden

Fish-catching baskets are thought to be 9K years old

(Newser) - Marine archaeologists have discovered fishing traps they think were constructed around 9,000 years ago. "This is the world's oldest find when it comes to fishing," says one expert. The researchers found the remnants of seven wooden traps on the Baltic Sea bed off Sweden, reports the...

Man Digs Up Mammoth Skeleton in Back Yard

He keeps the bones in his living room

(Newser) - Have you ever checked—really checked—your back yard for the remains of ancient prehistoric beasts? Because that's what an Iowa man found on his property two years ago, ABC 5 reports. "I got down on my hands and knees on the bank and I could see a...

Early Humans Found Unique Way to Get Woolly Mammoth

Fossil suggests they stole prey from lions, say scientists

(Newser) - Prehistoric humans may have sliced up woolly mammoths for dinner after stealing them from lions. Markings on a mammoth fossil show evidence of both human and lion involvement, reports the BBC . Researchers examined an "exquisitely preserved" carcass of a young woolly mammoth that still has its teeth, tusks, and...

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