Showing 20 articles starting at article 301

< Previous 20 articles        Next 20 articles >

Categories: Paleontology: Climate, Paleontology: Fossils

Return to the site home page

Anthropology: Cultures Anthropology: Early Humans Anthropology: General Archaeology: General Geoscience: Environmental Issues Paleontology: Fossils
Published

New insights into the origin of the Indo-European languages      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international team of linguists and geneticists has achieved a significant breakthrough in our understanding of the origins of Indo-European, a family of languages spoken by nearly half of the world's population.

Archaeology: General Ecology: Invasive Species Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Missing island explains how endemic species on the Miyako Islands emerged      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Miyako Islands are home to various native species of snake and lizards. How these species came to call these islands home has long puzzled scientists. A group of researchers have compiled the latest geological and biological data, proposing that an island once facilitated migration between Okinawa and Miyako Islands.

Ecology: Endangered Species Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Spurge purge: Plant fossils reveal ancient South America-to-Asia 'escape route'      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Newly identified plant fossils found in Argentina suggest that a group of spurges long thought to have Asian origins may have first appeared in Gondwanan South America.

Ecology: Invasive Species Ecology: Trees Environmental: Ecosystems Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Miocene period fossil forest of Wataria found in Japan      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An exquisitely preserved fossil forest from Japan provides missing links and helps reconstruct a whole Eurasia plant from the late Miocene epoch.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Paleontology: Climate
Published

Greenland melted recently: High risk of sea level rise today      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

A large portion of Greenland was an ice-free tundra landscape -- perhaps covered by trees and roaming woolly mammoths -- in the recent geologic past (about 416,000 years ago), a new study shows. The results help overturn a previous view that much of the Greenland ice sheet persisted for most of the last two and a half million years. Instead, moderate warming, from 424,000 to 374,000 years ago, led to dramatic melting. At that time, the melting of Greenland caused at least five feet of sea level rise, despite atmospheric levels of heat-trapping carbon dioxide being far lower than today (280 vs. 420 ppm). This indicates that the ice sheet on Greenland may be more sensitive to human-caused climate change than previously understood -- and will be vulnerable to irreversible, rapid melting in coming centuries.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Offbeat: Plants and Animals Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Paleontologists identify two new species of sabertooth cat      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Sabertooth cats make up a diverse group of long-toothed predators that roamed Africa around 6-7 million years ago, around the time that hominins -- the group that includes modern humans -- began to evolve. By examining one of the largest global Pliocene collections of fossils in Langebaanweg, north of Cape Town in South Africa, researchers present two new sabertooth species and the first family tree of the region's ancient sabertooths. Their results suggest that the distribution of sabertooths throughout ancient Africa might have been different than previously assumed, and the study provides important information about Africa's paleoenvironment.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Unusual fossil shows rare evidence of a mammal attacking a dinosaur      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Scientists have described an unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago in China that shows a dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a larger plant-eating dinosaur. The two animals are locked in mortal combat, and it's among the first evidence to show actual predatory behavior by a mammal on a dinosaur. The fossil's presence challenges the view that dinosaurs had few threats from their mammal contemporaries during the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs were the dominant animals.

Paleontology: Fossils
Published

Life on Earth didn't arise as described in textbooks      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

No, oxygen didn't catalyze the swift blossoming of Earth's first multicellular organisms. The result defies a 70-year-old assumption about what caused an explosion of oceanic fauna hundreds of millions of years ago.

Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

New fossil flying reptile 'Elvis' takes flight      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

In an exciting scientific development, an international team of researchers have officially named a newly discovered 145-million-year-old pterosaur. The animal had enormous 2-meter wingspan and was nicknamed 'Elvis' when the fossil was first unearthed in Bavaria, Germany because of the giant pompadour-like bony crest on its skull. Now the animal has been given a formal scientific name of Petrodactyle wellnhoferi. The name translates as 'Wellnhofer's stone-finger' honouring legendary German palaeontologist Peter Wellnhofer who spent his career working on German pterosaurs. Petrodactyle is a very complete skeleton with nearly every bone preserved and in remarkable detail.

Archaeology: General Paleontology: Fossils
Published

Hidden details of Egyptian paintings revealed by chemical imaging      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Portable chemical imaging technology can reveal hidden details in ancient Egyptian paintings, according to new research.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Ice Age saber-tooth cats and dire wolves suffered from diseased joints      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Ice Age saber-tooth cats and dire wolves experienced a high incidence of bone disease in their joints, according to new research.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: General
Published

Crawford Lake, Canada, chosen as the primary marker to identify the start of the Anthropocene epoch      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An international team of researchers has chosen the location which best represents the beginnings of what could be a new geological epoch, the Anthropocene. The Anthropocene Working Group have put forward Crawford Lake, in Canada, as a Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the Anthropocene. A GSSP is an internationally agreed-upon reference point to show the start of a new geological period or epoch in layers of rock that have built up through the ages.

Ecology: Invasive Species Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Marine fossils are a reliable benchmark for degrading and collapsing ecosystems      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Humans began altering environments long before records were kept of the things that lived in them, making it difficult for scientists to determine what healthy ecosystems should look like. Researchers show the recent fossil record preserves a reliable snapshot of marine environments as they existed before humans.

Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Scientists discover 36-million-year geological cycle that drives biodiversity      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Movement in the Earth's tectonic plates indirectly triggers bursts of biodiversity in 36 million-year cycles by forcing sea levels to rise and fall, new research has shown.

Ecology: Endangered Species Geoscience: Geology Paleontology: Climate Paleontology: General
Published

Global cooling caused diversity of species in orchids, confirms study      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Research shows global cooling of the climate 10 million years ago led to an explosion of diversity in terrestrial orchids.

Ecology: Endangered Species Offbeat: Earth and Climate Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Climate
Published

Why there are no kangaroos in Bali (and no tigers in Australia)      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers are using a new model to clarify why millions of years ago more animal species from Asia made the leap to the Australian continent than vice versa. The climate in which the species evolved played an important role.

Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Discovery of 500-million-year-old fossil reveals astonishing secrets of tunicate origins      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Researchers describe a 500 million-year-old tunicate fossil species. The study suggests that the modern tunicate body plan was already established soon after the Cambrian Explosion.

Environmental: Ecosystems Geoscience: Environmental Issues Paleontology: Climate
Published

Shrinking Arctic glaciers are unearthing a new source of methane      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

As the Arctic warms, shrinking glaciers are exposing bubbling groundwater springs which could provide an underestimated source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, finds new research.

Offbeat: Paleontology and Archeology Paleontology: Dinosaurs Paleontology: Early Mammals and Birds Paleontology: Fossils Paleontology: General
Published

Fossils reveal how ancient birds molted their feathers -- which could help explain why ancestors of modern birds survived when all the other dinosaurs died      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

Birds are the only group of dinosaurs that survived the asteroid-induced mass extinction 66 million years ago. But not all the birds alive at the time made it. Why the ancestors of modern birds lived while so many of their relatives died has been a mystery that paleontologists have been trying to solve for decades. Two new studies point to one possible factor: the differences between how modern birds and their ancient cousins molt their feathers.

Geoscience: Environmental Issues Geoscience: Severe Weather Paleontology: Climate
Published

New study reveals abrupt shift in tropical Pacific climate during Little Ice Age      (via sciencedaily.com)     Original source 

An El Niño event has officially begun. The climate phenomenon, which originates in the tropical Pacific and occurs in intervals of a few years will shape weather across the planet for the next year or more and give rise to various climatic extremes. El Niño-like conditions can also occur on longer time scales of decades or centuries. This has been shown to have occurred in the recent past.