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40+ min ago (540+ words) Learn how a new aging method confirmed Nanotyrannus was a distinct species " not a young Tyrannosaurus rex. The identity of Nanotyrannus has long hinged on one unresolved question: Was it its own small-bodied predator " or simply a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex that hadn't finished growing? Now, researchers say a tiny bone in the throat has delivered an answer. By analyzing the hyoid " located beneath the tongue and used to anchor swallowing muscles " the team found that the Nanotyrannus had already reached, or nearly reached, skeletal maturity when it died. Published in Science, the findings confirm that Nanotyrannus was a distinct species, not a young T. rex " while also revealing a powerful new way to determine a fossil's age at death. "This small-bodied " in relation to the T. rex " meat-eater's hyoid bone showed growth patterns that suggest maturity or approaching maturity," said Ashley Poust,…...

1+ hour, 30+ min ago (72+ words) A Winona State University alumni is using his passion for dinosaurs to offer students a rare experience. Adam Schrader, who graduated from Winona State 12 years ago, has built a career as a paleontologist. A Winona State University alumni is using his passion for dinosaurs to offer students a rare experience. Adam Schrader, who graduated from Winona State 12 years ago, has built a career as a paleontologist. Currently in La Crosse...

2+ hour, 13+ min ago (920+ words) (CNN) " A high-traffic "dinosaur freeway" may have once stretched across a shoreline in what is now Bolivia. Traveling along this busy route were theropods " three-toed, bipedal meat-eating dinosaurs, which left behind thousands of fossil footprints. Paleontologists have now described their tracks for the first time, offering a rare glimpse into dinosaurs" movements through their habitat. Scientists recently counted 16,600 theropod tracks " more than any other trackway site " at the Carreras Pampas tracksite in Bolivia"s Torotoro National Park. There the theropods stamped their feet into the soft, deep mud between 101 million and 66 million years ago, toward the end of the Cretaceous period. This study is the first scientific survey of the footprint-covered areas, which extend roughly 80,570 square feet (7,485 square meters). Some tracks were isolated, but many formed trackways, or multiple impressions left by the same animal, researchers reported Wednesday in the…...

2+ hour, 13+ min ago (920+ words) (CNN) " A high-traffic "dinosaur freeway" may have once stretched across a shoreline in what is now Bolivia. Traveling along this busy route were theropods " three-toed, bipedal meat-eating dinosaurs, which left behind thousands of fossil footprints. Paleontologists have now described their tracks for the first time, offering a rare glimpse into dinosaurs" movements through their habitat. Scientists recently counted 16,600 theropod tracks " more than any other trackway site " at the Carreras Pampas tracksite in Bolivia"s Torotoro National Park. There the theropods stamped their feet into the soft, deep mud between 101 million and 66 million years ago, toward the end of the Cretaceous period. This study is the first scientific survey of the footprint-covered areas, which extend roughly 80,570 square feet (7,485 square meters). Some tracks were isolated, but many formed trackways, or multiple impressions left by the same animal, researchers reported Wednesday in the…...

2+ hour, 23+ min ago (441+ words) WINONA, Minn. (WXOW)" A Winona State University (WSU) alumnus is using his passion for dinosaurs to offer students a rare experience. Adam Schrader, who graduated from Winona State in 2013, has built a career as a paleontologist. "My goal has always been to improve the vertebrate paleontology department of this university," Schrader said. Since graduating, Schrader has partnered with a WSU professor to provide students the opportunity to grow and develop in the field of paleontology. Schrader brings field experiences, typically held hundreds of miles away, directly to the Winona State campus. "We've had lots of Winona State University students actually come out, participate in the dig, do research projects out there," he said. Schrader's work is focused on the Hells Creek Formation in southwest North Dakota, a significant site for dinosaur fossils. In the summer of 2024, Schrader and his team…...

2+ hour, 33+ min ago (962+ words) Ancient DNA from 28 people shows southern Africa hosted a long-isolated branch of humans for hundreds of thousands of years. (CREDIT: Mikael Wallerstedt) Researchers sequenced genomes from bones and teeth, then dated them with radiocarbon tests and traced diets with chemical clues in the remains. The result is the largest set of ancient DNA from Africa to date. It opens a clear window onto a population that stayed apart for an astonishing length of time. "This group seems to have been genetically separate for at least 200,000 years," said Mattias Jakobsson, a geneticist at Uppsala University who led the project. "It's only relatively late, around 1,400 years ago, that we see clear traces of gene flow." The findings upend the idea that early modern humans appeared in East Africa and only later drifted south. The evidence now says modern humans lived in southern…...

2+ hour, 38+ min ago (694+ words) WASHINGTON, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Paleontologists for decades debated whether meat-eating dinosaur Nanotyrannus was actually just a juvenile Tyrannosaurus. But within a span of five weeks, the matter seems to have been definitively resolved by two new studies showing that Nanotyrannus was clearly distinct from T. rex. The latest study, published on "Thursday, focused on a throat bone called the hyoid from the first Nanotyrannus fossil ever discovered, a skull unearthed in Montana in 1942. Researchers detected a record "of growth in the hyoid - akin to a tree's annual growth rings - showing that this individual was around 15-18 years old, so either fully grown or nearly so. This finding follows a study published on October 30 by different "researchers that used other bones to establish a growth record and identified anatomical differences in fossils of Nanotyrannus and Tyrannosaurus, also contradicting the notion they were the same…...

4+ hour, 18+ min ago (411+ words) The Carreras Pampa site in the Torotoro National Park, Bolivia, records 1,321 trackways and 289 solitary tracks, totaling 16,600 theropod dinosaur tracks; 280 swim trackways, totaling 1,378 swim tracks; and several trackways with tail traces. Dinosaur footprints at the Carreras Pampa tracksite in the Torotoro National Park, Bolivia. Image credit: Esperante et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0335973. Bolivia has one of the most extensive and diverse records of dinosaur tracksites in the world, spanning the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous periods. However, despite the abundance of tracksites, very few scientific studies have been published. In a new study, Geoscience Research Institute paleontologist Ra'l Esperante and his colleagues documented an unprecedented variety of dinosaur tracks at the Carreras Pampas tracksite in Torotoro National Park. Across nine study localities, they found 16,600 tracks left by three-toed theropod dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. These tracks range in size…...

6+ hour, 1+ min ago (597+ words) New Amazonian species has been crowned world's biggest snake. The emerald wonder of the Amazon rainforest just yielded a monstrous find: an 8-meter-long, 200-kilogram (26-foot-long, 440-pound) northern green anaconda, previously unknown to science. This behemoth is the largest snake ever discovered. It's not only bigger but also very genetically distinct from its southern cousin, raising questions about biodiversity and the Amazon's fragile ecosystem. "The size of these magnificent creatures was incredible " one female anaconda we encountered measured an astounding 6.3 meters long," said study co-author Bryan Fry from the University of Queensland. "There are anecdotal reports from the Waorani people of other anacondas in the area measuring more than 7.5 meters long and weighing around 500 kilograms," Dr. Fry said, hinting that other much larger anacondas could exist. Imagine a snake longer than a school bus and weighing as much as a grand…...

6+ hour, 31+ min ago (413+ words) Researchers have counted 16,600 fossilized dinosaur footprints and 1,378 swim tracks at a site in Bolivia that showcase a variety of behaviors and different theropods from the Cretaceous period. Scientists have discovered a record-breaking number of fossilized dinosaur footprints and swim tracks in a national park in central Bolivia. "This is the highest number of dinosaur footprints ever found for a single tracksite thus far," study co-author Jeremy McLarty, a paleontologist and associate professor at the Southwestern Adventist University in Texas, told Live Science in an email. "In addition to preserving the most dinosaur tracks worldwide, it also preserves the highest number of swim trackways in the world." In total, McLarty and his colleagues counted 16,600 theropod footprints and 1,378 swim tracks. These were found in Bolivia's Carreras Pampa tracksite, which was already known but hadn't been properly studied or documented. Carreras Pampa extends…...