4+ day, 6+ hour ago  (412+ words) Analysis of a 7. 2-million-year-old thigh bone recovered from the Azmaka fossil deposit in Bulgaria suggests that the capacity to walk upright on two legs - a distinctly human trait known as bipedalism - existed in pre-human ancestors at least one million years…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago  (284+ words) The water-to-land transition stands as one of the most significant events in vertebrate evolution, giving rise to the two major groups of living land vertebrates'amniotes and lissamphibians'which occupy markedly different ecological niches. Key hypotheses of vertebrate terrestrialization propose a plausible…...

2+ week, 19+ hour ago  (385+ words) For the first time, we demonstrate that many complex animals, normally only found in the Cambrian, were present in the Ediacaran period, meaning that they evolved much earlier than previously demonstrated by fossil evidence. Lead author Dr Gaorong Li (Museum…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago  (445+ words) Researchers have uncovered new evidence that short-lived spikes in ocean phosphorus may have played a major role in two of the most severe marine extinctions in Earth's history. Dr Matthew Dodd from The University of Western Australia's School of Earth…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago  (200+ words) A study by UNIGE and MHNG shows that 240-million-year-old coelacanths could hear underwater using an ossified lung. These anatomical remnants now provide valuable insight into the evolutionary history of these fish " and perhaps also into that of our own aquatic…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago  (421+ words) The days of an archaeologist studying soil traces with a shovel in hand seem to be numbered. Digital archaeologists will soon launch the first version of software capable of carrying out a virtual excavation. Excavations are time-consuming, expensive, and disruptive....

1+ mon, 4+ day ago  (426+ words) A sweeping new review of five decades of scientific literature finds robust evidence that natural selection operates simultaneously across multiple levels of life, from genes to groups to entire communities, and not just on individual organisms. The study, co-authored by…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (364+ words) Collared Iguana (Oplurus cuvieri) with pineal gland by Daniel Goeleven New research that challenges thinking on the evolution of human brains suggests we descended from a small one-eyed Cyclops creature around 600 million years ago. In a new study, published in…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (434+ words) Wollongong-based online news outlet covering Australia and beyond. If you have anything newsworthy - a story, video or picture to share with us, please email us. A team co-led by University of Minnesota researcher Peter Makovicky and Argentinean colleague Sebastian Apestegu'a…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago  (856+ words) How many fossils does it take to accurately train an image-based AI algorithm? According to a new study co-authored by Bruce Mac Fadden, UF Distinguished Professor Emeritus and retired curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History,…...