Search fossil research and resources

33+ min ago (447+ words) Previous research linked disappearance of small-brained species to arrival of modern humans Archaeologists have found compelling evidence that the early humans who inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores were wiped out by climate change. Homo floresiensis, dubbed the "hobbits" for their short stature, were first discovered in 2003 at the Liang Bua cave site on Flores. The small-brained, small-statured species, just about 3.5ft tall, likely lived on the island as recently as 50,000 years ago, but then mysteriously vanished. Previous research suggested their disappearance coincided with the arrival of modern humans in Southeast Asia and Australia. Now, an international team of archaeologists has uncovered key evidence challenging this theory, finding that the hobbits were likely wiped out by a severe drought on their island. Their study reveals the hobbits abandoned the Liang Bua cave, which they had occupied for around 140,000 years, during a…...

49+ min ago (585+ words) TORO TORO, Bolivia -- Legend once had it that the huge, three-toed footprints scattered across the central highlands of Bolivia came from supernaturally strong monsters " capable of sinking their claws even into solid stone. Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here,…...

57+ min ago (554+ words) Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the study, scratching at what was squishy lake-bottom sediment to leave another 1,378 traces. They pressed their claws into the mud just before water levels rose and sealed their tracks, protecting them…...

57+ min ago (551+ words) Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the study, scratching at what was squishy lake-bottom sediment to leave another 1,378 traces. They pressed their claws into the mud just before water levels rose and sealed their tracks, protecting them…...

1+ hour, 52+ min ago (999+ words) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of the Burtele foot, a set of 3.4 million-year-old bones found in Ethiopia in 2009. The fossils, along with others unearthed more recently, have now been linked to a little-known species that was a contemporary of the celebrated Australopithecus afarensis skeleton Lucy. The foot bones and a jawbone with teeth still attached belonged to an ancient human relative called Australopithecus deyiremeda, a more primitive species than Lucy, according to a study published Nov. 26 in the journal Nature. Should they hold up to further scrutiny, the findings could knock Lucy, one of the most recognizable names in human evolution, from her important spot in the family tree. In 2009, a team led by paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a professor at Arizona State University and the study's lead author, found the eight foot bones within 3.4 million-year-old sediments at the…...

4+ hour, 27+ min ago (315+ words) Eight meter-long "megapredator" sharks patrolled Australian seas 115 million years ago Eight-meter-long sharks (illustrated here) patrolled the sea that later became Darwin, Australia. The predators shared their ecosystem with huge reptilian marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Some 115 million years ago, a veritable fleet of giant predators prowled the waters near Australia. There were long-necked plesiosaurs, snaggletoothed pliosaurs with massive heads, dolphinlike ichthyosaurs, and now " suggests new fossil findings " 8-meter-long sharks." The findings, published October 25 in Communications Biology, push back the age of the earliest giant lamniform sharks " kin to great whites and Otodus megalodon " by 15 million years." "These sharks were serious contenders, playing the role of apex predators alongside dominant megafauna such as marine reptiles," says Mohamad Bazzi, an evolutionary biologist at Stanford University.Such reptilian leviathans were previously considered the "sole sovereigns" of their aquatic domains, Bazzi says....

5+ hour, 57+ min ago (582+ words) Legend once had it that the huge, three-toed footprints scattered across the central highlands of Bolivia came from supernaturally strong monsters " capable of sinking their claws even into solid stone. Then scientists came here in the 1960s and dispelled children's fears, determining that the strange footprints in fact belonged to gigantic, two-legged dinosaurs that stomped and splashed over 60 million years ago, in the ancient waterways of what is now Toro Toro, a village and popular national park in the Bolivian Andes. "There's no place in the world where you have such a big abundance of (theropod) footprints," said Roberto Biaggi, a co-author of the study led by Spanish paleontologist Ra'l Esperante. "We have all these world records at this particular site." The dinosaurs that ruled the earth and roamed this region also made awkward attempts to swim here, according to the…...

5+ hour, 59+ min ago (367+ words) Scientists say they may have discovered evidence of a prehistoric turtle stampede on a remote Italian cliff. The story begins in 2019, when rock climbers, venturing into a dangerous, off-limits section of limestone cliffs above the Adriatic near Ancona, Italy, found thousands of odd, crescent-shaped impressions in the rock'remnants... Fossils in Ancient Seabed Show Signs of Turtle Stampede Scientists say they may have discovered evidence of a prehistoric turtle stampede on a remote Italian cliff. The story begins in 2019, when rock climbers, venturing into a dangerous, off-limits section of limestone cliffs above the Adriatic near Ancona, Italy, found thousands of odd, crescent-shaped impressions in the rock'remnants of an ancient seabed'appearing in pairs alongside round divots. Geologist Alessandro Montanari concluded that the marks were left by fins moving along the seafloor, which narrowed it down to three types of reptiles'mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, and…...

6+ hour, 52+ min ago (999+ words) Scientists say they have solved the mystery of the Burtele foot, a set of 3.4 million-year-old bones found in Ethiopia in 2009. The fossils, along with others unearthed more recently, have now been linked to a little-known species that was a contemporary of the celebrated Australopithecus afarensis skeleton Lucy. The foot bones and a jawbone with teeth still attached belonged to an ancient human relative called Australopithecus deyiremeda, a more primitive species than Lucy, according to a study published Nov. 26 in the journal Nature. Should they hold up to further scrutiny, the findings could knock Lucy, one of the most recognizable names in human evolution, from her important spot in the family tree. In 2009, a team led by paleoanthropologist Yohannes Haile-Selassie, a professor at Arizona State University and the study's lead author, found the eight foot bones within 3.4 million-year-old sediments at the…...

7+ hour, 3+ min ago (481+ words) Nanotyrannus lancensis " long thought by many to be a teenage Tyrannosaurus rex " was in fact a fully mature, distinct species of smaller tyrannosaurid, according to a team of U.S. paleontologists who analyzed the ceratobranchial (hyoid bone) of Nanotyrannus lancensis and revealed a record of development. A Late Cretaceous face-off between an adult Nanotyrannus lancensis (left) and two juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex, with a sub-adult Tyrannosaurus rex watching from a distance. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez. Nanotyrannus lancensis stood 5.5 m (18 feet) tall, diminutive compared to a length of more than 12 m (40 feet) for Tyrannosaurus rex. Discovered in 1942, the holotype of Nanotyrannus lancensis was originally classified as Gorgosaurus but was reidentified as a distinct species in 1988 after further scientific work. This decades-long debate has persisted largely because the holotype exists as an isolated skull, and traditional maturity assessments are often based on limb bones. Until…...