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+19 +1
What Sparked the Cambrian Explosion?
An evolutionary burst 540 million years ago filled the seas with an astonishing diversity of animals. The trigger behind that revolution is finally coming into focus. By Douglas Fox.
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+25 +1
Paleo Profile: The Purgatoire River’s Whale Fish
This big fish ate tiny meals.
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+24 +1
5 Times Evolution Ran in ‘Reverse’
Hagfish, penguins, and aphids are just some of the creatures that have been shaped by what’s known as regressive evolution.
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+18 +1
Between a T. Rex’s Powerful Jaws, Bones of Its Prey Exploded
Paleontologists calculated the bite force of the fearsome prehistoric predators and provided more evidence that they were opportunistic scavengers. By Nicholas St. Fleur.
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+34 +1
New species of bus-sized fossil marine reptile unearthed in Russia
A new species of a fossil pliosaur (large predatory marine reptile from the ‘age of dinosaur’) has been found in Russia and profoundly change how we understand the evolution of the group, says an international team of scientists.
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How did dinosaurs evolve beaks and become birds? Scientists think they have the answer
Once you know that many dinosaurs had feathers, it seems much more obvious that they probably evolved into birds. But there's still a big question. By Michael J. Benton.
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+20 +1
New dinosaur looks like odd mix of duck, croc, ostrich, swan
With a bill like a duck but teeth like a croc’s, a swanlike neck and killer claws, a new dinosaur species uncovered by scientists looks like something Dr. Seuss could have dreamed up. By Seth Borenstein.
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+22 +1
Fossil of school bus-sized dinosaur dug up in Egyptian desert
Scientists have unearthed in a Sahara Desert oasis in Egypt fossils of a long-necked, four-legged, school bus-sized dinosaur that lived roughly 80 million years ago, a discovery that sheds light on a mysterious time period in the history of dinosaurs in Africa. By Will Dunham.
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+27 +1
Sauropod Footprint
A sauropod footprint discovered at Brothers' Point on the Isle of Skye in Scotland.
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+3 +1
Why Antarctica's Prehistoric Forests Might Foreshadow Its Future
Hidden on the frozen continent are clues to its greener past. By Sarah Laskow.
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+21 +1
How birds got their beaks
Scientists piece together the skull of an ancient bird, which had a primitive beak lined with teeth.
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+14 +1
Earth’s Orbital Changes Have Influenced Climate, Life Forms For at Least 215 Million Years
Every 405,000 years, gravitational tugs from Jupiter and Venus slightly elongate Earth’s orbit, an amazingly consistent pattern that has influenced our planet’s climate for at least 215 million years and allows scientists to more precisely date geological events like the spread of dinosaurs, according to a Rutgers-led study.
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+37 +1
Birds had to relearn flight after meteor wiped out dinosaurs
Fossil records suggest only flightless birds survived when T rex was wiped off the Earth
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+5 +1
T. Rex Couldn't Stick Out Its Tongue
With its tongue attached to the bottom of its mouth, the dinosaur probably ate like modern crocodiles
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+1 +1
Mysterious, Plant-Like Fossil May Have Been One of the Earliest Animals
New research suggests that soft-bodied organisms called Ediacarans may have been related to an animal of the Cambrian era
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+6 +1
Before the dinosaurs, a million-year long volcanic eruption destroyed the ozone layer
It's known as the "Great Dying," an extinction event even more powerful than the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. It's called the Permian-Triassic extinction event, and it took place 250 million years ago, before dinosaurs ruled the Earth. Scientists previously believed the Permian-Triassic extinction event happened because of a volcanic eruption. And not just any volcanic eruption... the volcanic eruption. Called the "Siberian Flood Basalts," this million-year-long volcanic eruption potentially caused the extinction of up to 96 percent of marine life, along with 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrate species.
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+8 +1
Earliest piranha-like fish found
Scientists have unearthed the fossilised remains of a piranha-like species that they say is the earliest known example of a flesh-eating fish. This bony creature, found in South Germany, lived about 150 million years ago and had the distinctive sharp teeth of modern-day piranhas. These Jurassic marauders used their razor teeth to tear chunks of flesh and fins off other fish.
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+26 +1
Scientists Are Excited Over These 'Weird' Feathers Preserved in 100-Million-Year-Old Amber
Feathers found in Burmese amber dating back 100 million years are so exquisitely preserved that palaeontologists have been able to make a detailed study of their structure - and they're like nothing seen in living birds today.
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+10 +1
Dinosaurs' noses may have air-conditioned their brains
The earth was a much hotter place in prehistoric times, so it follows that large heavily-armored dinosaurs likely retained a lot of heat in their bodies. A new study suggests that their brains were protected from overheating, however, thanks to a heat exchanging system in their noses.
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+7 +1
A New Species of Tiny Tyrannosaur Helps Explain the Rise of T. rex
Scientists have discovered a new species of tiny tyrannosaur that lived some 95 million years ago in what’s now Utah. The find helps fill a frustrating gap in the fossil record at a critical time when tyrannosaurs were evolving from small, speedy hunters, into the bone-crushing apex predators we know so well. The new dinosaur has been dubbed Moros intrepidus, and its name means “harbinger of doom.” The creature, known only from a leg bone and some various teeth, weighed under 200 pounds as a fully-grown adult. It was a specialist predator and scientists say it was fast enough to easily run down prey while avoiding other meat-eaters.
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