- 3D Muscle Reconstruction Reveals 3.2 Million-Year-Old “Lucy” Could Stand As Erect as Modern Humans SciTechDaily
- How a 3.2-million-year-old human relative named Lucy walked CNN
- 3.2 million-year-old human ancestor ‘Lucy’ had massive leg muscles to stand up straight and climb trees Livescience.com
- 3D muscle reconstruction shows 3.2 million-year-old “Lucy” walked upright Ars Technica
- 3D muscle reconstruction reveals 3.2 million-year-old ancestor walked upright Interesting Engineering
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: millionyearold
‘Once-in-a-lifetime’: 5 million-year-old ‘elephant graveyard’ found in Florida – msnNOW
- ‘Once-in-a-lifetime’: 5 million-year-old ‘elephant graveyard’ found in Florida msnNOW
- Unearthing the past: Florida scientists find fossils of ancient elephants, sabretooth cats, rhinos WKMG News 6 & ClickOrlando
- Graveyard of Extinct Elephants From 5 Million Years Ago Found in Florida Newsweek
- Florida ‘elephant graveyard’ of gomphotheres found near Gainesville Pensacola News Journal
- Unearthing the Past: Scientists discover fossils of mammoths, sabretooth cats, rhinos that once roamed Florida WJXT News4JAX
- View Full Coverage on Google News
A 120 million-year-old dinosaur fossil with the bones of its final snack still inside of it reveals it enjoyed eating our ancestors
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Paleontologist Hans Larsson found a small mammal foot in the rib of a dinosaur fossil.
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The reptile was carnivorous and bird-like, according to McGill University.
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It’s one of only 21 dinosaur fossils ever found with its food inside of it.
The key to a small, four-winged dinosaur species’ survival was not being fussy about what it ate, the examination of a rare fossil revealed.
Paleontologist Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill University, was the first to notice a small mammal foot lodged in between the bones of a fossilized Microraptor, a carnivorous dino with birdish wings. The discovery shows the dino ate a long list of animals, including mammals, fish, birds, and lizards, the university announced in a December 21 press release.
“These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long-extinct animals – and they are exceptionally rare,” Larsson said in the release. The revelation that the animal was an “opportunistic” eater “puts a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked,” he added.
Only 20 other fossils have been found with the fossilized bones of their meals inside, according to McGill, and this is the first time a fossil has shown that any dinosaur ate mammals, the Economic Times reported.
Microraptor fossils were first discovered in the early 2000s in Liaoning, China, located in the northeast part of the country along the Yellow Sea. Scientists have speculated that the species likely died out because it had four wings, and the two additional wings created drag when it moved.
Its ability to make a snack out of all kinds of animals may not have been enough for make up for two too many wings.
Read the original article on Business Insider
A 120 million-year-old dinosaur fossil with the bones of its final snack still inside of it reveals it enjoyed eating our ancestors
-
Paleontologist Hans Larsson found a small mammal foot in the rib of a dinosaur fossil.
-
The reptile was carnivorous and bird-like, according to McGill University.
-
It’s one of only 21 dinosaur fossils ever found with its food inside of it.
The key to a small, four-winged dinosaur species’ survival was not being fussy about what it ate, the examination of a rare fossil revealed.
Paleontologist Hans Larsson, a professor at McGill University, was the first to notice a small mammal foot lodged in between the bones of a fossilized Microraptor, a carnivorous dino with birdish wings. The discovery shows the dino ate a long list of animals, including mammals, fish, birds, and lizards, the university announced in a December 21 press release.
“These finds are the only solid evidence we have about the food consumption of these long-extinct animals – and they are exceptionally rare,” Larsson said in the release. The revelation that the animal was an “opportunistic” eater “puts a new perspective on how ancient ecosystems may have worked,” he added.
Only 20 other fossils have been found with the fossilized bones of their meals inside, according to McGill, and this is the first time a fossil has shown that any dinosaur ate mammals, the Economic Times reported.
Microraptor fossils were first discovered in the early 2000s in Liaoning, China, located in the northeast part of the country along the Yellow Sea. Scientists have speculated that the species likely died out because it had four wings, and the two additional wings created drag when it moved.
Its ability to make a snack out of all kinds of animals may not have been enough for make up for two too many wings.
Read the original article on Business Insider
120 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Hid a Surprising Meal in Its Stomach
The surprising lunch of a cat-size dinosaur has been discovered in a 120 million-year-old Microraptor fossil. Though the fossil was first described in 2000, it hid an intriguing and historic secret: A re-analysis of the fossil found the foot bones of a mammal within the raptor’s rib cage — the first evidence of a dino dining on a mammal.
The find, described in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology on Tuesday, builds on the previous research of the Microraptor zhaoianus fossil, discovered in the Jiufotang Formation in western China. That fossil is missing the middle portion of its body, but the rib cage is visible and, within, the bones of a tiny right foot, less than half an inch in size, were perfectly preserved.
Microraptors were three-toed, carnivorous dinosaurs that occupied the trees of ancient Earth and are among the smallest dinosaurs discovered. Fossils of different microraptor species show evidence of long feathers on each limb, which may have used for gliding.
As you might expect, being eaten doesn’t typically result in very well-preserved fossil remains. All that biting and chewing, plus digestion, typically leaves few traces of a meal. However, scientists have a fairly good idea of the microraptor diet thanks to fossils with undigested remains in the stomach.
A bird, a fish and a squamate — the class of animals containing lizards and snakes — have all been previously found, but the new find helps paint a more complete picture of what was going down the gullet during a prehistoric degustation.
“It’s so rare to find examples of food inside dinosaurs so every example is really important as it gives direct evidence of what they were eating,” said David Hone, a paleontologist at Queen Mary University of London and first author on the new study.
While scientists can tell a foot ended up in the microraptor’s stomach, they’re not sure which species it belonged to. The slender digits are similar to tiny, extinct, possum-like mammals known as Sinodelphys or the more mouse-like Eomaia. However, the digits aren’t quite long enough to be either of these species.
Another outstanding question is whether Microraptor preyed on the mammal or if it merely scavenged the foot. That’s impossible to say with this fossil, but some scientists have suggested the microraptor’s feathered limbs may have allowed the species to glide from branches and to the ground to prey on land-dwelling species. The size of the mammal’s foot suggests the creature would have been in the size range expected for microraptor’s prey.
The astounding fossil builds on previous evidence these smaller three-toed dinosaurs would feast on whatever was around — it’s even possible they may have even eaten plants on occasion.
Plesiosaur: Fossil hunters in Australia discover 100 million-year-old skeleton
CNN
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The discovery of a giant 100 million-year-old marine reptile’s skeleton in Australia has been hailed by researchers as a breakthrough that may provide vital clues about prehistoric life.
The remains of the 6-meter (19 feet) tall juvenile long-necked plesiosaur, also known as an elasmosaur, were found by a trio of amateur fossil hunters on a cattle station in the western Queensland outback in August.
Espen Knutsen, senior curator of palaeontology at the Queensland Museum, likened the discovery to that of the Rosetta Stone – the Ancient Egyptian block of granite rediscovered in 1799 that helped experts to decode hieroglyphics.
“We have never found a body and a head together and this could hold the key to future research in this field,” Knutsen said in a statement Wednesday that confirmed the discovery, adding it could give paleontologists greater insight into the origins, evolution and ecology of the cretaceous period in the region.
“Because these plesiosaurs were two-thirds neck, often the head would be separated from the body after death, which makes it very hard to find a fossil preserving both together,” he said.
The discovery was made by amateur paleontologists known as the “Rock Chicks” – Cassandra Prince, her sister Cynthia, and fellow fossil sleuth Sally, who goes only by her first name.
Elasmosaurs, which grew to between 8 and 10 meters long, lived in the Eromanga Sea, which covered large parts of inland Australia with waters 50 meters deep about 150 million years ago.
Knutsen told CNN that when an elasmosaur died, its decomposing body would swell with gas that made it rise to the water’s surface, and often the head would break off when predators scavenged the carcass – making full-body discoveries rare.
He added that because the latest find was a young specimen it would shed light on how the body shape of elasmosaurs changed from youth to adulthood.
“We’re going to look at the chemistry of its teeth and that can tell us something about its ecology in terms of habitat as well, whether it was migrating throughout his life, or whether it was sort of staying in the same habitat, and also into its diet,” he said.
Ancient marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs are not classified as dinosaurs even though they lived around the same time. Plesiosaurs evolved from ancestors who lived on land and therefore didn’t have gills and had to surface occasionally for air. It remains unknown how long they could stay underwater.
It’s the latest big discovery about prehistory to have been made in Australia in recent years.
In June last year, scientists confirmed that the 2007 discovery of a fossilized skeleton in Queensland was the country’s largest dinosaur. The dinosaur, nicknamed “Cooper,” stood about two stories tall, and was as long as a basketball court.
Two months later, scientists discovered that there once was a species of flying “dragon” that soared over Australia 105 million years ago. The pterosaur was described by researchers as a “fearsome beast” that snacked on juvenile dinosaurs.
Scientists discover 439 million-year-old ‘shark’ species
Looks like “Jaws” can get an origin story.
Paleontologists discovered fossils of an ancient “shark” species now known to have swam the Earth hundreds of millions of years ago during the Paleozoic period, EurekAlert reported.
The new species of prehistoric predators — known as acanthodians — was discovered in the Guizhou province of southwest China and was named Fanjingshania after one of the country’s UNESCO world heritage sites.
“This is the oldest jawed fish with known anatomy,” said professor Zhu Min from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Fanjingshania was found to predate the previously believed oldest acanthodian by 15 million years.
“The new data allowed us to place Fanjingshania in the phylogenetic tree of early vertebrates and gain much needed information about the evolutionary steps leading to the origin of important vertebrate adaptations such as jaws, sensory systems and paired appendages,” Min added.
Their anatomy differs from the modern sharks of today. The “bizarre” Fanjingshania is comprised of a bony “armor” and multiple fin spines that are distinctly different than modern sharks and other marine life, according to the outlet.
Discovering Fanjingshania also leads researchers to believe that there were many groupings of vertebrate creatures swimming the world’s waters prior to the so-called “age of fishes” that began around 420 million years ago.
“This level of hard tissue modification is unprecedented in chondrichthyans, a group that includes modern cartilaginous fish and their extinct ancestors,” said lead author Dr. Plamen Andreev, a researcher at Qujing Normal University.
“It speaks about greater than currently understood developmental plasticity of the mineralized skeleton at the onset of jawed fish diversification.”
Scientists Discover 380 Million-Year-Old Heart, Stunningly Preserved
A 380 million-year-old fish heart found embedded in a chunk of Australian sediment has scientists’ pulses racing. Not only is the organ in remarkable condition, but it could also yield clues about the evolution of jawed vertebrates, which include you and me.
The heart belonged to an extinct class of armored, jawed fish called arthrodires that thrived in the Devonian period between 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago — and the ticker’s a good 250 million years older than the jawed-fish heart that currently holds the “oldest” title. But despite the fish being so archaic, the positioning of its S-shaped heart with two chambers led researchers to observe surprising anatomical similarities between the ancient swimmer and modern sharks.
“Evolution is often thought of as a series of small steps, but these ancient fossils suggest there was a larger leap between jawless and jawed vertebrates,” said professor Kate Trinajstic, a vertebrate paleontologist at Australia’s Curtin University and co-author of a new study on the findings. “These fish literally have their hearts in their mouths and under their gills — just like sharks today,” Trinajstic said.
The study appeared in the journal Science on Wednesday.
Scientists got an extra good look at the organ’s exact location because they were able to observe it in relation to the fish’s fossilized stomach, intestine and liver, a rare happening.
“I can’t tell you how truly amazed I was to find a 3D and beautifully preserved heart and other organs in this ancient fossil,” Trinajstic said.
The white ring shows the spiral valves of the intestine, but the heart isn’t visible here. “I was totally blown away by the fact we could actually see the soft tissues preserved in such an ancient fish,” says John Long, a professor of paleontology at Flinders University in Australia and co-author of a new study on the finding. “I knew immediately it was a very significant find.”
John Long/Flinders University
Paleontologists encountered the fossil during a 2008 expedition at the GoGo Formation, and it adds to a trove of information gleaned from the site, including the origins of teeth and insights into the fin-to-limb transition. The GoGo Formation, a sedimentary deposit in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is known for its rich fossil record preserving reef life from the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era, including relics of tissues as delicate as nerves and embryos with umbilical cords.
Anatomy of an arthrodire.
“Most cases of soft-tissue preservation are found in flattened fossils, where the soft anatomy is little more than a stain on the rock,” said study co-author professor Per Ahlberg of Sweden’s Uppsala University. “We are also very fortunate in that modern scanning techniques allow us to study these fragile soft tissues without destroying them. A couple of decades ago, the project would have been impossible.”
Those techniques include neutron beams and X-ray microtomography, which creates cross sections of physical objects that can then be used to re-create virtual 3D models.
Recent fish fossil finds have illuminated how “dinosaur fish,” a critically endangered species, stand on their heads and how much the prehistoric fish lizard looked like Flipper the dolphin.
But for those who might not consider such discoveries significant, study co-author Ahlberg has a reminder: that life is, at its most fundamental level, an evolving system.
“That we ourselves and all the other living organisms with which we share the planet have developed from a common ancestry through a process of evolution is not an incidental fact,” Ahlberg said. “It is the most profound truth of our existence. We are all related, in the most literal sense.”
Scientists Discover 380 Million-Year-Old Heart, Stunningly Preserved
A 380 million-year-old fish heart found embedded in a chunk of Australian sediment has scientists’ pulses racing. Not only is this organ in remarkable condition, but it could also yield clues about the evolution of jawed vertebrates, which include you and me.
The heart belonged to an extinct class of armored, jawed fish called arthrodires that thrived in the Devonian period between 419.2 million and 358.9 million years ago — and it’s a good 250 million years older than the jawed-fish heart that currently holds the “oldest” title. But despite the fish being so archaic, the positioning of its S-shaped ticker with two chambers led researchers to observe surprising anatomical similarities between the ancient swimmer and modern sharks.
“Evolution is often thought of as a series of small steps, but these ancient fossils suggest there was a larger leap between jawless and jawed vertebrates,” said professor Kate Trinajstic, a vertebrate paleontologist at Australia’s Curtin University and co-author of a new study on the findings. “These fish literally have their hearts in their mouths and under their gills — just like sharks today,” Trinajstic said.
The study appeared in the journal Science on Wednesday.
Scientists got an extra good look at the organ’s exact location because they were able to observe it in relation to the fish’s fossilized stomach, intestine and liver, a rare happening.
“I can’t tell you how truly amazed I was to find a 3D and beautifully preserved heart and other organs in this ancient fossil,” Trinajstic said.
The white ring shows the spiral valves of the intestine, but the heart isn’t visible here. “I was totally blown away by the fact we could actually see the soft tissues preserved in such an ancient fish,” says John Long, a professor of paleontology at Flinders University in Australia and co-author of a new study on the finding. “I knew immediately it was a very significant find.”
John Long/Flinders University
Paleontologists encountered the fossil during a 2008 expedition at Western Australia’s GoGo Formation, and it adds to a trove of information gleaned from the site, including the origins of teeth and insights into the fin-to-limb transition. The GoGo Formation, a sedimentary deposit in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, is known for its rich fossil record preserving reef life from the Devonian period of the Paleozoic era, including relics of tissues as delicate as nerves and embryos with umbilical cords.
Anatomy of an arthrodire.
“Most cases of soft-tissue preservation are found in flattened fossils, where the soft anatomy is little more than a stain on the rock,” said study co-author professor Per Ahlberg of Sweden’s Uppsala University. “We are also very fortunate in that modern scanning techniques allow us to study these fragile soft tissues without destroying them. A couple of decades ago, the project would have been impossible.”
Those techniques include neutron beams and X-ray microtomography, which creates cross sections of physical objects that can then be used to re-create virtual 3D models.
Recent fish fossil finds have illuminated how “dinosaur fish,” a critically endangered species, stand on their heads and how much the prehistoric fish lizard looked like Flipper the dolphin.
And study co-author Ahlberg has a reminder for those who might not consider such finds significant: that life is, at its most fundamental level, an evolving system.
“That we ourselves and all the other living organisms with which we share the planet have developed from a common ancestry through a process of evolution is not an incidental fact,” Ahlberg said. “It is the most profound truth of our existence. We are all related, in the most literal sense.”
A 225 million-year-old mammal is the oldest ever identified
Brasilodon quadrangularis was a small shrew-like creature, around 20 centimeters (8 inches) long, that walked the earth 225 million years ago at the same time as some of the oldest dinosaurs and sheds light on the evolution of modern mammals, according to a team of Brazilian and British scientists.
The discovery was made by researchers from the Natural History Museum in London, King’s College London and the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul in Porto Alegre.
Scientists relied on clues provided by fossils of hard tissues such as bones and teeth. This is because mammalian glands, which produce milk, have not been preserved in any fossils found to date.
Until now, the Morganucodon had been considered the first mammal, with isolated teeth showing that it dated back around 205 million years. The Morganucodon had a small gerbil-like body and a long face similar to those of shrews or civets.
The dental records in the study published Tuesday in the Journal of Anatomy date Brasilodon quadrangularis to 225 million years ago — 25 million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event — the third and biggest mass extinction, when more than 90% of species in the ocean disappeared and 70% of land animals died out.
Mistaken identity
Martha Richter, a scientific associate at the museum and senior author on the paper, told CNN that the Brasilodon quadrangularis was previously believed to be an “advanced reptile,” but examination of its teeth show “definitively” that it was a mammal.
“If you think about reptiles, they have many, many different replacement teeth throughout their lives but we mammals only have two. Firstly, the milk teeth and then the second dentition which replaces the original set. This is what defines mammals,” Richter said.
Brasilodon is the oldest extinct vertebrate with two successive sets of teeth — baby teeth and one permanent set — also known as a diphyodonty, the news release said.
The first set starts developing during the embryonic stage and the second set develops after birth.
Richter and her colleagues examined three lower jaws of the species, which lived in the region covered today by the southern-most section of Brazil. Under the microscope they discovered “the type of replacement teeth that are only present in mammals,” she said.
Richter added: “This was a very, very small mammal that was probably a burrowing animal living in the shadows of the oldest dinosaurs that we know from that period.”
She said the team had been working on the project for more than five years and described their discovery as “very significant.”
In the news release, Richter said the findings contributed “to our understanding of the ecological landscape of this period and the evolution of modern mammals.”
Moya Meredith Smith, contributing author and professor of evolutionary dentoskeletal biology at King’s College London, said in the release: “Our paper raises the level of debate about what defines a mammal and shows that it was a much earlier time of origin in the fossil record than previously known.”