New process by Temple grad student can place loose fossils back into the strata or determine fakes
...tists have a new tool to aid them in placing loose fossils back into the earths strata or determining the fossils legitimacy. Paleontologists need to know where a fossil goes in the strata in order to understand t...Rare fossilized tube feet suggest functional shift through time
... often destroyed the delicate details preserved in fossils in the Hunsrueck Slate, X-ray techniques that peer into the rock have long been employed. But X-rays, especially older ones, can yield controversial images, Glass said. Some paleontologists have argued that what appear to be soft tissues preserved i...April GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights
...lly. But why? Thimble-sized, spring-shaped, 400 Ma fossils of extinct ocean-going animals called spiraliform ... 363-366. This paper describes articulated sponge fossils from an exceptionally preserved biota in the Lower Cambrian--the Hetang biota from southern Anhui Pr...Scientists push back primate origins from 65 million to 85 million years ago
...ord challenges traditional methods of interpreting fossils and constructing evolutionary trees. Applying a ne...in fossil record The earliest unequivocal primate fossils date from 55 Mya. Most paleontologists interpret this to mean that primates originated no earlier th...UMass anthropologist investigates dental development and body size in primates
...dfrey has spent nearly three decades investigating fossils in Madagascar and has specialized in studying lemurs. Madagascar is a large island off the east coast of Africa which is believed to have separated from the main continent millions of years ago. Because it was isolated, its animals have evolved on pa...UF expert: ancient fossil suggests flowers may be underwater gift
...flowers watery existence comes in the form of fish fossils found together mixed in with the fossil plants, he...vered, Dilcher said. Whats spectacular about these fossils is that all parts of the plant are present, including the roots, leaves and reproductive organs. The...Researchers discover clues to whale evolution
...nto swimmers. Over the last decade many new whale fossils have been found which show how this dramatic change happened. Skeletons of the transitional species (whales with limbs) demonstrate that they were adept, otter-like swimmers. Just last year, Thewissens discovery of two early whaleancestors show...Study of fossils found in arctic shows plants more developed at earlier time
...h Carolina at Chapel Hill scientist has discovered fossils of plants dating back some 420 million years. The ...st information on ancient plants has been based on fossils from Wales, Venezuela and China. A report about the findings appears in the June issue of the Americ...Large brains not required? Third and smallest skull of 'first Eurasians' reported in Science
...first hominid species to leave Africa. The Dmanisi fossils most closely resemble the African version of Homo ...people out of Africa," Lordkipanidze said. The new fossils also offer a rare glimpse into the diversity of a primitive human species. While we take it for gran...The prehistory of neotropical lowland forests
...he University of Florida, has re-examined a mammal fossils of mid-Miocene age (18-16 million years ago) collected in central Panama in the 1960s, but not previously described in detail. At the time a deep oceanic channel across eastern Panama separated North and South America. Although the species are closel...Scientists confirm age of the oldest meteorite collision on Earth
...sil record, noting that the oldest known microbial fossils have been found in rocks 3.4 to 3.5 billion years old roughly the same age as the ancient meteorite collision documented in the Science study. Could the meteorite somehow have contributed to origin of bacterial life on Earth? Lowe has his doubts: ...University of California, Riverside study dates our ancestors
...ublished their findings in a paper entitled "Trace fossils and substrates of the terminal Proterozoic-Cambria...ade close to this sediment-water interface. Trace fossils can shed light on an organism's behavioral activity. "The timing of the appearance of bilaterian ani...Science picks leads, feeds and story seeds (October 2002 edition)
...eys, and evidence of shocked quartz, tektites, and fossils will also be featured. For more information on the Chesapeake Bay Impact Crater and electronic field trip, visit http://www.usgs.gov/features/bolide.html . Heather Friesen ( hfriesen@usgs.gov ) 703-648-4460 World Disaster Reduction Day October 9...November GEOLOGY and GSA TODAY media highlights
...hemistry and physiology can be directly studied in fossils hundreds of millions of years old. Highlights are ... are preserved in individual cell walls from plant fossils as old as 400 million years (the oldest known anatomically preserved land plants) even though all of...Study shows fossil records remain stable in storm beds
...ps studied are Ordovician in age. At the time the fossils in those outcrops were deposited approximately 450...le--but that doesn't appear to have happened. "The fossils were preserved in a series of stacked or amalgamated horizons of rock totaling approximately one foo...Is being big clam on the block a factor in species success?
...s of years. "Obviously we can't go out and collect fossils from each age and area," says Krause. So they are using photographs that accompany published research. This way they can look at and measure shells from many different time periods all over the world. The research is already yielding some promising ...Evolution upset: Oxygen-making microbes came last, not first
... explain the puzzling lack of actual cyanobacteria fossils in the earliest days of the banded iron formations. It could also resolve an apparent contradiction regarding the biochemistry of Cyanobacteria, says Blank. The contradiction is that cyanobacteria have a surprisingly advanced biochemistry that was th...Paleontological data better than expected
...arding sturdy and fragile marine fossils. "Not all fossils are created equal," Kowalewski says. "Some are stu...he Paleobiology Database has revealed that fragile fossils occur as frequently as durable fossils. "That's good news. It means that this intuitively obvious bi...Impact of geography on species challenges paleontologists
...pecies. After all, the scientists are working with fossils of organisms dead for millions of years, so who knows if they were able to breed or had evolved to a point where that was not possible. A study by Virginia Tech geological sciences doctoral student Jennifer Stempien may provide some evidence of wheth...Field Museum plays key role in massive project to map Tree of Life
... oldest and most diverse groups of organisms, with fossils dating back 380 million years and a current diversity of more than 37,500 described species. Without spiders, insect pest populations would soar, and humans would be greatly affected. "We'll sequence the DNA of representative samples of at least 50...