Fossils

Researchers unveiled 1.63-billion-year-old multicellular fossils from North China, marking the oldest record of multicellular eukaryotes and pushing back the timeline for the emergence of multicellularity in eukaryotes by about 70 million years. This discovery highlights the complexity of early life forms and supports the early appearance of the last eukaryotic common ancestor (LECA) in the evolutionary history. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.comResearchers have discovered the oldest multicellular eukaryotic…

Light microscope images of euglenoid cysts from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary (approx. 200 million years old) in the Schandelah-1 core in Germany (left) and from Triassic sediments in Winterswijk, the Netherlands (right). The specimens are between 20 and 30 micrometers in diameter. Credit: Bas van de Schootbrugge, Utrecht UniversityA 400-million-year evolutionary history.Euglenoids, a unique group of single-celled protists, occupy a mysterious niche, being neither fully plant nor animal. Unlike plants that solely rely on…

Enter the fossil gallery of a natural history museum, and you're likely to encounter spectacular skeletons of some of the most manifestly awesome creatures ever to have walked our planet: dinosaurs. From towering sauropods and fearsome tyrannosaurs to tanklike ankylosaurs and horned ceratopsians, dinosaurs dominate our conceptions of the past. But to understand these animals and their world, scientists must look beyond the dazzling remains of Apatosaurus, Tyrannosaurus, and other icons to tiny fossils that appear, at…

The Wakayama Soryu, a mosasaur discovered in Japan and comparable in size to a great white shark, lived 72 million years ago with unique features like elongated rear flippers and a shark-like dorsal fin. This significant find, named Megapterygius wakayamaensis, challenges previous assumptions about mosasaur swimming and hunting behaviors (Artist’s concept). Credit: SciTechDaily.comThe Wakayama Soryu, a newly described mosasaur known as the “blue dragon,” possessed a shark-like dorsal fin.Researchers have detailed a…

If you ever find yourself playing a game of twenty questions, there's a little-known life form you can pick that is sure to leave your opponent stumped.It is neither animal, vegetable, nor mineral. It's not even a bacterium or fungi.It's called a Euglenid – and it's a weird fusion of a bunch of different living things.Euglenids are a group of unicellular eukaryotes that gain energy through both photosynthesis, like a plant, and through consuming other beings, like an animal.These aquatic organisms split off from other…

January 18, 20244 min readSometime between C.E. 1100 and 1700, a Massospondylus dinosaur bone was found and carried to a rock shelter in Lesotho, marking the earliest known human discovery of a dinosaur fossilBy Julien Benoit, Cameron Penn-Clarke, Charles Helm & The Conversation USMassospondylus carinatus neotype specimen. Credit: Kimberley E. J. ChapelleThe following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research.Credit for discovering the first dinosaur…

Researchers have precisely dated ancient multicellular fossils to 565 million years ago, using volcanic ash layers as time markers. These findings, based on fossils from Wales and similar sites worldwide, shed light on a significant period in Earth’s history, when complex life began flourishing after a global ice age. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.comA new study precisely dates ancient multicellular fossils, uncovering key moments in Earth’s history and the evolution of complex life after a global ice…

Modern computing techniques are transforming historical research by enabling the analysis of cultural artifacts to uncover societal mindsets and psychological trends. However, these methods, mainly validated with contemporary content, face challenges in accurately representing the diverse strata of historical societies. Juvenility in baby faces and in historical artwork. Credit: Trends in Cognitive Sciences/Baumard et al.No two civilizations throughout history have identical thought patterns. The way a society thinks at…

A reconstruction of the pelagic ecosystem and the organisms fossilized in Sirius Passet, revealing how Timorebestia was one of the largest predators in the water column more than 518 million years ago. Credit: Artwork by Bob Nicholls/@BobNichollsArtNewly discovered fossils of Timorebestia, large predatory worms from over 518 million years ago, have been found in Greenland, shedding light on early ocean predators and their complex ecosystems. This find offers vital clues about the evolution of jawed predators and the role…

Not far from the bank of Wapiti River, just 11 kilometres from Grande Prairie, there's a paleontological goldmine: an ancient riverbed that contains fragments of skeletons of hundreds, possibly thousands, of animals from the late Cretaceous period, some 70 million years ago. Discovered in 2014,  the bonebed is known as a DC site, or, more formally, Wapiti Unit 3.It yields a wide range of fossils and teeth from many species of prehistoric vertebrates, said Corwin Sullivan, a University of Alberta paleontologist who does…