Tag Archives: Species

Footprints show two extinct human ancestor species lived together

Footprints show two extinct human ancestor species lived together

Water pulls life together. Shorelines turn into busy corridors where birds, hoofed mammals, and different species of human ancestors, or hominins, crossed paths. At Lake Turkana in northern Kenya about 1.5 million years ago, a short-lived window of wet silt captured that traffic with unusual clarity. Scientists have studied those impressions and found a tight, almost real-time record …

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Loss of macroevolutionary species fitness explains the rise and fall of clades

Loss of macroevolutionary species fitness explains the rise and fall of clades

Raup, D. M. Biological extinction in Earth history. Science 231, 1528–1533 (1986). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  Benton, M. J. The Red Queen and the Court Jester: species diversity and the role of biotic and abiotic factors through time. Science 323, 728–732 (2009). Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar  Harmon, L. J. & Harrison, S. Species diversity is dynamic and unbounded …

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A Plant-Eating Croc? Newly Identified Species Demonstrates Crocodilian Versatility

A Plant-Eating Croc? Newly Identified Species Demonstrates Crocodilian Versatility

Illustration by Dane Johnson, Museum of the Rockies – released to the press Measuring no more than 2 feet long from nose to tail, a newly-described crocodilian nicknamed “Elton” likely lived its entire life on land where it lounged in the Cretaceous Montana sunshine, eating plants and insects. Elton was about the size of a big lizard, according to Montana …

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Paleontologists Discover New Species of Triassic Long-Necked Dinosaur

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Triassic Long-Necked Dinosaur

Paleontologists have unearthed a new assemblage of Triassic fossils at the Quebrada Santo Domingo site of the Northern Precordillera Basin in northwestern Argentina. Their discoveries include a nearly complete skeleton of a previously unknown sauropodomorph dinosaur species as well as several cynodonts, rhynchosaurs, and aetosaurs. Huayracursor jaguensis. Image credit: Jorge Blanco. The newly-discovered species lived in what is now Argentina …

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New Species of Triassic Carnivorous Dinosaur Identified in Argentina

New Species of Triassic Carnivorous Dinosaur Identified in Argentina

A new genus and species of theropod dinosaur being named Anteavis crurilongus has been described by a team of paleontologists from the Universidad Nacional de San Juan, the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia,’ the University of Birmingham, CONICET and CIGEOBIO. An artist’s reconstruction of Anteavis crurilongus. Image credit: Jorge Blanco. Anteavis crurilongus roamed Earth during the Carnian age …

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Scientists stunned after discovering new superpower of critical marine species — here’s what they found

Scientists stunned after discovering new superpower of critical marine species — here’s what they found

It has long been understood that tiny Antarctic krill play a vital role in the food chain, providing essential nourishment for everything from fish and sea birds to seals and whales. However, recent research has highlighted another increasingly important job that krill perform for the ecosystem: sequestering carbon, according to Science News. What’s happening? To feed, krill take in ocean …

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New species of Jurassic ‘sword dragon’ could help solve an evolutionary mystery

New species of Jurassic ‘sword dragon’ could help solve an evolutionary mystery

A nearly complete fossil skeleton found on the U.K.’s Jurassic Coast represents a newly identified species of ancient marine reptile that lived alongside dinosaurs. The ichthyosaur, dubbed Xiphodracon goldencapsis, was likely around 10 feet (3 meters) long when it lived, according to a study published Friday (Oct. 10) in the journal Papers in Palaeontology. It had large eye sockets and …

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Fossil found on UK coast is unique ‘sword dragon’ species

Fossil found on UK coast is unique ‘sword dragon’ species

Jonah FisherEnvironment correspondent Dean Lomax Ichthyosaur experts Dr Dean Lomax and Professor Judy Massare with the 185m year old skeleton A near-complete skeleton found on Dorset’s Jurassic coast has been identified as a new species of ichthyosaur, a type of prehistoric marine reptile that once ruled the oceans. The dolphin-sized ichthyosaur has been named Xiphodracon goldencapensis, or the “sword dragon …

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Paleontologists Identify New Species of Flat-Headed Herbivorous Dinosaur

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Flat-Headed Herbivorous Dinosaur

A new genus and species of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period in what is now New Mexico has been identified and named by paleontologists from the United States and Slovak Republic. Life reconstruction of Ahshislesaurus wimani based on the holotype and closely related species. Image credit: Sergey Krasovskiy. “Hadrosauridae, a family of large herbivorous dinosaurs, were among …

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