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Old January 15th, 2015 #41
Alex Linder
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New species of ancient reptile found in Prince Edward Island
January 14th, 2015

A 304-million-year-old fossil of a lizard-like animal found by a boy years ago while on vacation in western Prince Edward Island is a species new to science, new research says.

The fossil, coined Erpetonyx arsenaultorum, was named after Michael Arsenault, who found the specimen on a beach and eventually sold it for at least five figures to Toronto's Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in 2004, said Sean Modesto, a biology professor at Cape Breton University.

The fossil is the only known reptile from the Gzhelian time period, said Modesto, the lead author of research published Wednesday in the journal Royal Society Proceedings B.

All of the other reptile fossils that have been found are 299 million years old at most.

This newly discovered reptile had sharp teeth, claws and a tail as long as its hamster-sized body. Modesto said it probably fed on bugs and other small animals.

The creature, which predates dinosaurs by nearly 80 million years, likely lived in a tropical-like forest.

Modesto said Arsenault kept the fossil safe underneath his bed until a buyer could be found and the proceeds funded his post-secondary education.

The fossil will be displayed at the ROM in Toronto this year.

http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews...14-145321.html
 
Old January 31st, 2015 #42
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Long-necked Jurassic 'dragon' discovered in China

Dinosaur fossils discovered in China may have given rise to legends of dragons



A new dinosaur which had an extraordinarily long neck has been discovered in China and named the ‘Dragon of Qijiang.’

Qijianglong (pronounced "CHI-jyang-lon") is about 15 metres in length and lived about 160 million years ago in the Late Jurassic.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/scie...-in-China.html
 
Old February 4th, 2015 #43
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A Bacteria That Hasn't Had To Evolve In More Than Two Billion Years


Scientists from UCLA have discovered a deep-sea microorganism that's the same today as it was two billion years ago. It's an observation that actually bolsters Darwin's theory of natural selection, while offering the most extreme example of evolution's "null hypothesis."

http://io9.com/a-bacteria-that-hasnt...-bi-1683453594
 
Old February 4th, 2015 #44
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Biggest rodent 'fought with teeth' like tusks


Scientists say the largest ever rodent probably used its huge front teeth like tusks, defending itself and digging with them instead of just biting food.

The bull-sized cousin to the guinea pig died out around two million years ago.

Based on a CT scan of its skull and subsequent computer simulations, its bite was as strong as a tiger - but its front teeth were built to withstand forces nearly three times larger.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31111843
 
Old February 9th, 2015 #45
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Default 2012 Russian find turns out to be a marine reptile:

http://www.inform.kz/eng/article/2743596

Quote:
...Scientists also found fossils of ancient crocodiles, presumably turtles and first mammals. This is a particularly diverse and plentiful discovery of Late Cretaceous flora and fauna, its integrity can be called unique, Galina explained...
The fossil is named after a scientist researching the fossil and not the children who found it, as the English-language source claims:

http://www.n24.de/n24/Nachrichten/Wi...-entdeckt.html

Quote:
...2012 entdecken Kinder in Russland die fossilen Überreste eines Meerestieres. Drei Jahre und etliche Untersuchungen später steht fest: Die Kinder haben eine ganz neue Spezies entdeckt...
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Old February 10th, 2015 #46
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The creature in the picture really does resemble a plesiosaur, the supposedly-extinct marine reptile many people speculate is the Loch Ness Monster. Actually, in the article below scientists have found the fossils of an ancient marine predator on the island of Skye, off the coast of Scotland:

http://cbsnews.com/news/fossils-of-m...-ness-monster/
 
Old February 10th, 2015 #47
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The Lochness Monster's existence is doubted, because there is no way such a large creature can be fed in so small a lake.
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Old February 10th, 2015 #48
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I don't believe Nessie exists, mostly for that reason. Probably a large fish, eel or shark.

By the way Sam, I'm getting good laughs from all your entries in the repulsive tapir gallery.
 
Old February 11th, 2015 #49
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Uh oh. That proves I'm not trying hard enough Proof they were here before the White man:

https://www.google.nl/search?q=tapir...2F%3B236%3B198

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Old March 25th, 2015 #50
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New Species of Human-Sized Salamander Found in Portugal



Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of an enormous salamander-like creature that lived between 220 and 230 million years ago in the tropical regions of the supercontinent Pangaea. The bones of Metoposaurus algarvensis were discovered in (and named after) the Algarve region of Portugal. The remains suggest the creature was more than six feet long and may have weighed over 200 pounds. It likely had a broad, round head and thin legs that would barely have carried its weight when out of water.

These are the first metoposaur bones to be found on the Iberian peninsula, but others (though different species) have appeared in North America, India and Africa, as well as elsewhere in Europe. This suggests the creature was fairly widespread before the continents split apart about 200 million years ago. Metoposaur remains have often been found in large groups, a telltale sign of mass death — something that might happen if, for instance, the lake system forming their habitat were to dry up or drain.

The study, led by Stephen Brusatte at the University of Edinburgh, appeared this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

http://www.nbcnews.com/science/weird...angaea-n328811
 
Old January 11th, 2016 #51
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Jurassic 10-Armed Squids Were Swift Swimmers, Researchers Say


Three extremely rare fossils of a 10-armed squid-like creature from the Jurassic period were recently unearthed in Germany. Researchers say these ancient sea creatures – scientifically known as Acanthoteuthis, a genus of squid ancestors – were likely swift swimmers.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/artic...esearchers.htm
 
Old January 11th, 2016 #52
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Monster-Sized Marine Crocodile Discovered

A fossil found in the African desert is the biggest of its kind.


The biggest sea-dwelling crocodile ever found has turned up in the Tunisian desert. The whopper of a prehistoric predator grew to over 30 feet long (nearly ten meters) and weighed three tons.

Paleontologists have dubbed the new species Machimosaurus rex and describe it Monday in the journal Cretaceous Research.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...-paleontology/
 
Old January 11th, 2016 #53
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100,000-Year Old Fossil Of Straight-Tusked Elephant Found Protruding From Sand


A straight-tusked elephant fossil that is about 100,000 years old was found protruding from the sands of Isle of Wight in England.

A local resident named Paul Hollingshead was the one who unearthed the shoulder bone fossil, which experts said belonged to an extinct elephant called Palaeoloxodon antiquus and most probably dates back to the Ipswichian period.

http://www.techtimes.com/articles/12...-from-sand.htm
 
Old January 11th, 2016 #54
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A Fossilized Ancient Ant Queen Emerges From a 46-Million-Year-Old Rock


This fossil of an ancient winged ant queen was recently discovered along the banks of the Flathead River in Montana. It’s the first of its kind ever discovered, and it’s forcing scientists to rethink when these creatures first appeared on Earth.

Called Crematogaster aurora, it’s a species of ant that lived in Montana 46 million years ago during the Eocene. As Smithsonian Science reports, paleontologist Dale Greenwalt of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History found the ant buried in the Kishenehn Formation shale.

http://gizmodo.com/a-fossilized-anci...lio-1751894746
 
Old January 13th, 2016 #55
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Scientists weigh in on 'giraffe relative' fossil


A prehistoric giraffe that died out 10,000 years ago might have been the largest ruminant that walked the Earth.

Victorian scientists believed the creature was a giraffe with a trunk and a "missing link" between mammals.

Digital reconstructions of the bones show that while the giraffe was gigantic, the theory that it was as big as an elephant was not true.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35292660
 
Old February 4th, 2016 #56
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Daddy Longlegs Fossil Keeps Erection for 99 Million Years


If you think an erection lasting more than 4 hours is a problem, try one lasting more than 99 million years.

That's how long the penis of a newly discovered arachnid fossil has been standing at attention. The harvestman, a spider relative also known as a daddy longlegs, was encased in amber during the Cretaceous in what is now Myanmar. Its distinctive penis, with a heart-shaped tip and a bit of a twist at the end, was erect at the time

http://www.livescience.com/53583-dad...ect-penis.html
 
Old February 16th, 2016 #57
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Trapped in amber: Flower identified as new species


Lena Struwe, professor of botany in the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences, has discovered that two flowers found encased amber for at least 15 million years belong to none of the known 200 species of the genus Strychnos. Therefore, they represent a newly discovered species, Strychnos electri. Struwe coined the species name in honor of its amber origin, since elektron is the Greek word for amber.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-amber-species.html#jCp
 
Old February 16th, 2016 #58
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Scientists Discover 1.1-Million-Year-Old Stegodon Tusk


Researchers have discovered a 1.1 million-year-old stegodon tusk in the province of Punjab in Pakistan, which is shedding new light on the animal's evolution. The discovery was made by researchers from the zoology department at the University of Punjab, according to a news release. The tusk is about 8 feet in length and 8 inches in diameter, which is largest that has ever been discovered in the country.

http://www.scienceworldreport.com/ar...godon-tusk.htm
 
Old February 29th, 2016 #59
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This Stunning 520-Million-Year-Old Fossil Is So Detailed, It Shows Single Nerves


Our planet has been teeming with life since the Cambrian explosion over half a billion years ago, but the vast majority of these bygone Earthlings have long since vanished without a trace. Indeed, even when species are entombed in the fossil record, scientists are typically bequeathed only their bare bones, stripped of finer details like internal organs and soft tissues.

But despite this overall miserly attitude, the fossil record sometimes does us all a solid by setting aside an extraordinary gem. The remains of Chengjiangocaris kunmingensis, a crustacean-like animal that lived 520 million years ago in what is now Xiaoshiba, China, fits that bill perfectly.

http://motherboard.vice.com/read/thi...-single-nerves
 
Old March 30th, 2016 #60
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Ancient fossil was 'nearly a spider'


Scientists say a 305 million-year-old fossil is the closest relative to "true spiders" ever discovered - but is not itself a spider.

Easily pre-dating the dinosaurs, the 1.5cm creature lived alongside the oldest known ancestors of modern spiders but its lineage is now extinct.

The specimen was dug up decades ago in France but never identified, because its front half was encased in rock.

Now, researchers have made a detailed reconstruction using CT scans.

Their findings are reported in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-35918234
 
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