Tag Archives: fossil

Evolution, Civil War History Entwine in Fossil Find

By Guest PostDecember 14, 2013Sciencebenjamin butler, civil war history, dutch gap, early cretaceous, eudicots, evolution, flowering plant evolution, fossil, fossil beds, fossil leaf fragment, freedmen, geologic deposits, greek word, james river, leo j hickey, nathan jud, North America, oldest flowering plants, paleobotanist, plant evolution, pollen, potomac river region, potomacapnos, potomacapnos apeleutheron, smithsonian institution, steven miller, union army, university of maryland, virginia canal bank

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – A fossil leaf fragment collected decades ago on a Virginia canal bank has been identified by a University of Maryland doctoral student as one of North America’s oldest flowering plants, a 115- to 125-million-year-old species new to science. The fossil find, an ancient relative of today’s bleeding hearts, poses a new puzzle in the study of plant evolution: did Earth’s dominant group of flowering plants evolve along with its distinctive pollen? Or did pollen come later?

The find also unearths a forgotten chapter in Civil War history reminiscent of the film “Twelve Years a Slave,” but with a twist. In 1864, Union Army troops forced a group of freed slaves into involuntary labor, digging a canal along the James River at Dutch Gap, Va. The captive men’s shovels exposed the oldest flowering plant fossil beds in North America, where the new plant species was ultimately found. (more…)

Dogs likely originated in Europe more than 18,000 years ago, UCLA biologists report

By Guest PostNovember 16, 2013Nature, Scienceancient dog fossil, ancient hunter, carnivore, co evolutionary process, coyotes, daniel greenfield, dog, dog like animals, dogs from europe, domestic dogs, druid peak, east asia, Europe, european hunter, european wolves, evolutionary biology, finland, fossil, genetic analysis, genetic data, illinois, klaus koepfli, koster archaeological site, late pleistocene, middle east, middle east origin, migration, mitochondrial dna, modern dogs, North America, olaf thalmann, old world, origin, proximity to humans, robert wayne, species, two wolves, ucla biologist, university of turku, western russia, wolf like animals, yellowstone national park

Wolves likely were domesticated by European hunter–gatherers more than 18,000 years ago and gradually evolved into dogs that became household pets, UCLA life scientists report.

“We found that instead of recent wolves being closest to domestic dogs, ancient European wolves were directly related to them,” said Robert Wayne, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology in UCLA’s College of Letters and Science and senior author of the research. “This brings the genetic record into agreement with the archaeological record. Europe is where the oldest dogs are found.” (more…)

Fossil indicates hairy, squirrel-sized creature was not quite a mammal

By Guest PostAugust 8, 2013Nature, Scienceancient mammalian relative, april isch, armadillo like gait, China, daohugou fossil site, evolutionary adaptations, extinction, feathered dinosaur, fossil, Germany, inner mongolia, jurassic era, jurassic fossil, liaoning, mammal, mammal like reptiles, megaconus mammaliaformis, non mammalian characteristics, northeast of beijing, paleontological museum, placental mammals, pre mammalian fossil, proto mammal, squirrel sized creature, triassic jurassic transition, type of locomotion, tyrannosaurus rex, university of bonn, university of chicago, zhe xi luo

165 million-year-old omnivore may have had armadillo-like gait

A newly discovered fossil reveals the evolutionary adaptations of a 165 million-year-old proto-mammal, providing evidence that traits such as hair and fur originated well before the rise of the first true mammals. UChicago scientists described the biological features of this ancient mammalian relative, named Megaconus mammaliaformis, in the Aug. 8 issue of Nature.

“We finally have a glimpse of what may be the ancestral condition of all mammals, by looking at what is preserved in Megaconus. It allows us to piece together poorly understood details of the critical transition of modern mammals from pre-mammalian ancestors,” said Zhe-Xi Luo, professor of organismal biology and anatomy. (more…)

Deep in Texas, a plant-eating feathered dinosaur reemerges

By Guest PostMay 1, 2013Scienceaguja formation, asia, big bend, bird like caenagnathids, caenagnathus collinsi, carnivorous cousin velociraptor, darwin, deep in texas, dinosaur texacephale, evolutionary history, extinct dinosaurs, feathered dinosaur, fossil, ken barnes, larry millar, leptorhynchos, leptorhynchos elegans, leptorhynchos gaddisi, little jaw, national park, natural history, nicholas r longrich, North America, north american caenagnathids, peabody museum, plant eating, scott clark, species, terlingua, turkey sized herbivore, utah, west texas, western canada, yale university

A recently identified feathered dinosaur found deep in West Texas reinforces an emerging view that creatures like it were more diverse and widespread in North America than previously thought, according to a new study.

The species — a turkey-sized herbivore called Leptorhynchos gaddisi — belongs to a broader group of bird-like dinosaurs characterized by toothless beaks and long, slender claws, said researchers, who analyzed fossils found near Big Bend National Park at a site dating to about 75 million years ago. (more…)

Ancient Fossilized Sea Creatures Yield Oldest Biomolecules Isolated Directly from a Fossil

By Guest PostFebruary 21, 2013Nature, Scienceamerican midwest, analytical tools, ancient, aquatic sea creatures, aromatic compounds, biological signal, biomarkers, calcite crystal, carboniferous period, christina omalley, complex organic molecules, crinoids, crinoids today, DNA, feathery arms, fine grained sediment, fossil, fossilization, fossilized sea creatures, function, gas chromatograph, geochemist, geologic time, geologists, hard calcite shell, Indiana, iowa, layer, living tissue, mass spectrometer, midwest, mountain chains, North America, ohio, ohio state, ohio state geologists, ohio state university, oldest biomolecules, organic matter, organic molecules, pigments, pores, predators, quinines, sand dollars, sea lily, spindly animals, toxins, vast inland seas, volcanism, william ausich, yu ping chin

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Though scientists have long believed that complex organic molecules couldn’t survive fossilization, some 350-million-year-old remains of aquatic sea creatures uncovered in Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa have challenged that assumption.

The spindly animals with feathery arms—called crinoids, but better known today by the plant-like name “sea lily”—appear to have been buried alive in storms during the Carboniferous Period, when North America was covered with vast inland seas. Buried quickly and isolated from the water above by layers of fine-grained sediment, their porous skeletons gradually filled with minerals, but some of the pores containing organic molecules were sealed intact. (more…)

Fossil of Ancient Marine Animal Reveals Softer Side

By Guest PostDecember 21, 2012Scienceanatomical features, ancient marine fossil, Britain, calcified concretions, crabs, crustacean, david j siveter, derek briggs, evolutionary history, fossil, fossil ostracods, lobsters, mark d sutton, ostracod, pauline avibella, sarah c joomun, shells, shrimps, silurian period, soft body parts, yale scientist

A Yale scientist and colleagues in Britain have found a highly unusual ancient marine fossil that retains soft body parts as well as its shell, including limbs, eyes, gills and alimentary system. The fossil represents a new species of ostracod, a tiny crustacean related to crabs, lobsters and shrimps.

“Fossil ostracods often provide evidence of the relative ages of the rocks in which they occur, but it is very difficult to determine their relationship to living forms because only the shell is normally preserved,” said Derek E. G. Briggs, director of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History and a co-author of the research. “This 425-million-year-old new form is remarkable in preserving the limbs and other anatomical features as well.” (more…)

Scientists Find Oldest Dinosaur – or Closest Relative Yet

By Guest PostDecember 7, 2012Nature, Scienceafrica, alan charig, ancestry, Antarctica, archosaurs, australia, bone cells, bone tissues, cape town, dinosaur family tree, dinosaur like characteristic, dinosaur lineage, diversification, earliest dinosaur, earth, eoraptor, evidence, evolution of dinosaurs, familiar dinosaurs, fossil, fossilized bones, fossilized footprints, herrerasaurus, humerus, labrador retriever, late triassic, lizard, london, middle triassic, middle triassic dinosaurs, natural history museum, nyasa, nyasasaurus parringtoni, oldest dinosaur, paleontologist, paleontology, pangaea, paul barrett, period, permian extinction, primitive dinosaurs, royal society, sarah werning, saurus, single bone, south african museum, south america, southern pangaea, sterling nesbitt, Tanzania, taxon, transitional fossil, triassic period, united kingdom, university, upper arm bone, vertebrae, Washington

Researchers have discovered what may be the earliest dinosaur, a creature the size of a Labrador retriever, but with a five foot-long tail, that walked the Earth about 10 million years before more familiar dinosaurs like the small, swift-footed Eoraptor and Herrerasaurus.

The findings mean that the dinosaur lineage appeared 10 million to 15 million years earlier than fossils previously showed, originating in the Middle Triassic rather than in the Late Triassic period. (more…)

Exhaustive Family Tree for Birds Shows Recent, Rapid Diversification

By Guest PostNovember 9, 2012Natureanalysis, arne mooers, avian diversity, basic hypotheses, behavioral innovation, biodiversity expert, bird species, birds, bumblebees, canada, diversification rate, dna data, earth, eurasia, evolution, evolutionary history, extinction, family tree, fossil, g h thomas, geographic context, geographic space, geographical information, global phylogenies, global picture, habitats, islands, j b joy, k hartmann, life, mainlands, north american, simon fraser university, south america, Space, tasmania, time, tropical species, tunafish, walter jetz, western hemisphere, yale, zeitgeist

A Yale-led scientific team has produced the most comprehensive family tree for birds to date, connecting all living bird species — nearly 10,000 in total — and revealing surprising new details about their evolutionary history and its geographic context.

Analysis of the family tree shows when and where birds diversified — and that birds’ diversification rate has increased over the last 50 million years, challenging the conventional wisdom of biodiversity experts.

“It’s the first time that we have — for such a large group of species and with such a high degree of confidence — the full global picture of diversification in time and space,” said biologist Walter Jetz of Yale, lead author of the team’s research paper, published Oct. 31 online in the journal Nature. (more…)