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Scientists have discovered a fossil of  a new species of Coelacanth fish in the Swiss Alps. A team of paleontologists found it on a pass near the mountain resort of Davos in southeastern Switzerland in 2014 and 2015.

The fish skeletons from the Middle Triassic, which are on display at the Natural History Museum of Geneva, are around 240 million years old, according to the museum.

Lionel Cavin, curator specialist of fossil fish, said it had taken some time to establish what kind of species it is. Scientists named it after a fellow scientist and patron, Foreyia maxkuhni.

A detailed description was published in the online Scientific Reports journal on Friday.

It is believed that the fossil find could open up new pathways to study the evolutionary process, notably about vertebrates.

Chinese researchers have found a fossilized nest containing a new type of dinosaur egg, according to Anhui Geological Museum Friday.

The new egg species, Umbellaoolithus xiuningensis, was named after Xiuning county in China’s eastern Anhui Province, where it was discovered. They can be distinguished from all other known dinosaur eggs, so researchers have classed them as a new dinosaur egg family.

The fossils date back to the late Cretaceous period, about 145 to 66 million years ago.

The discovery was detailed in an article in Chinese Science Bulletin by a team led by Huang Jiandong, a doctor with the museum, and Wang Qiang, an associate researcher from the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Researchers said the new discovery could shed light on the study of prehistoric life in the region.

Source: news.xinhuanet.com

Researchers are amazed to find nearly complete skeleton with many bones in life position

A remarkable new fossilized skeleton of a tyrannosaur discovered in the Bureau of Land Management’s Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument (GSENM) in southern Utah was airlifted by helicopter Sunday, Oct 15, from a remote field site, and delivered to the Natural History Museum of Utah where it will be uncovered, prepared, and studied. The fossil is approximately 76 million years old and is most likely an individual of the species Teratophoneus curriei, one of Utah’s ferocious tyrannosaurs that walked western North America between 66 and 90 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous Period.

“With at least 75 percent of its bones preserved, this is the most complete skeleton of a tyrannosaur ever discovered in the southwestern US,” said Dr. Randall Irmis, curator of paleontology at the Museum and associate professor in the Department of Geology and Geophysics at the University of Utah. “We are eager to get a closer look at this fossil to learn more about the southern tyrannosaur’s anatomy, biology, and evolution.”

 

 

GSENM Paleontologist Dr. Alan Titus discovered the fossil in July 2015 in the Kaiparowits Formation, part of the central plateau region of the monument. Particularly notable is that the fossil includes a nearly complete skull.  Scientists hypothesize that this tyrannosaur was buried either in a river channel or by a flooding event on the floodplain, keeping the skeleton intact.

“The monument is a complex mix of topography–from high desert to badlands–and most of the surface area is exposed rock, making it rich grounds for new discoveries, said Titus.  “And we’re not just finding dinosaurs, but also crocodiles, turtles, mammals, amphibians, fish, invertebrates, and plant fossils–remains of a unique ecosystem not found anywhere else in the world,” said Titus.

Although many tyrannosaur fossils have been found over the last one hundred years in the northern Great Plains region of the northern US and Canada, until relatively recently, little was known about them in the southern US.  This discovery, and the resulting research, will continue to cement the monument as a key place for understanding the group’s southern history, which appears to have followed a different path than that of their northern counterparts.

This southern tyrannosaur fossil is thought to be a sub-adult individual, 12-15 years old, 17-20 feet long, and with a relatively short head, unlike the typically longer-snouted look of northern tyrannosaurs.

Collecting such fossils from the monument can be unusually challenging.  “Many areas are so remote that often we need to have supplies dropped in and the crew hikes in,” said Irmis. For this particular field site, Museum and monument crews back-packed in, carrying all of the supplies they needed to excavate the fossil, such as plaster, water and tools to work at the site for several weeks. The crews conducted a three-week excavation in early May 2017, and continued work during the past two weeks until the specimen was ready to be airlifted out.

Irmis said with the help of dedicated volunteers, it took approximately 2,000-3,000 people hours to excavate the site and estimates at least 10,000 hours of work remain to prepare the specimen for research.  “Without our volunteer team members, we wouldn’t be able to accomplish this work. We absolutely rely on them throughout the entire process,” said Irmis.

Irmis says that this new fossil find is extremely significant. Whether it is a new species or an individual of Teratophoneus, the new research will provide important context as to how this animal lived.  “We’ll look at the size of this new fossil, it’s growth pattern, biology, reconstruct muscles to see how the animal moved, how fast could it run, and how it fed with its jaws.  The possibilities are endless and exciting,” said Irmis.

During the past 20 years, crews from the Natural History Museum of Utah and GSENM have unearthed more than a dozen new species of dinosaurs in GSENM, with several additional species awaiting formal scientific description.  Some of the finds include another tyrannosaur named Lythronax, and a variety of other plant-eating dinosaurs–among them duck-billed hadrosaurs, armored ankylosaurs, dome-headed pachycephalosaurs, and a number of horned dinosaurs, such as Utahceratops, Kosmoceratops, Nasutoceratops, and Machairoceratops.   Other fossil discoveries include fossil plants, insect traces, snails, clams, fishes, amphibians, lizards, turtles, crocodiles, and mammals. Together, this diverse bounty of fossils is offering one of the most comprehensive glimpses into a Mesozoic ecosystem.  Remarkably, virtually all of the dinosaur species found in GSENM appear to be unique to this area, and are not found anywhere else on Earth

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Find more photos and videos from the airlift here.

Fieldwork was conducted under permits issued by the Bureau of Land Management. Funding was provided by the BLM National Conservation Lands Scientific Studies Support Program, Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, and University of Utah.

How big was the biggest dinosaur?

Previously, three different species had claim to the biggest dinosaur. The Supersaurus vivianae was the longest at 111 feet. The Sauroposeidon proteles was the tallest at 55 feet, and the Argentinosaurus was the heaviest at 60 tons. A recently discovered dinosaur beats all of these records and holds the title for all three categories!

This dinosaur, the Patagotitan mayorum, was discovered by a farmer in Argentina when he stumbled upon the fossils in 2014. After excavating and studying the fossils of seven individuals, the paleontologists published their results this summer.

They estimated that the Patagotitan weighed between 65-77 tons. That’s heavier than a Boeing 737 airplane and about as much as 12 African elephants. It also beats the height and length records, standing 65 feet tall and over 120 feet from head to tail. One of the fossils found, a femur, was eight feet long, which is taller than a man!

The fossils found for the Patagotitan are more complete than any other titanosaur, a group of massive dinosaurs. This allowed the palaeontologists to make more accurate predictions about the size of the dinosaur.

Fun fact: The Patagotitan was an herbivore and possibly ate up to 2,000 pounds of food daily because it was so large!

Source: columbiatribune.com

With the wings open, its total length is around 2 meters and 50 centimeters and because it had stronger claws than the current condor, paleontologists estimate that it could hunt its prey. The fossil was found in Marcos Paz, just 34 kilometers from the capital city of Buenos Aires.

The researcher of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences (MACN-CONICET) Federico Agnolin commented to the Agencia CTyS-UNLaM that “this discovery is unique for Argentina, because it is the first time that a well preserved specimen of an extinct condor has been found and, until now, its existence was unknown.”

This new type of condor was baptized as Pampagyps imperator. “His name means something like emperor vulture of the Pampas”, said Agnolin, lead author of the study that is going to be published in the Journal of the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences. After that, he added: “It was a large condor, which may have reached up to three meters wide with open wings”.

If someone travels 30 thousand years to the past, when this bird prevailed in the skies of the Pampean region and the man had not reached these latitudes, he would find a mega terrestrial fauna completely different from the one we have now.

“There were mastodons, which were very much like today’s elephants; lazy giants which weighed more than a ton; glyptodonts, with almost the size of a small car; and among the carnivores was the well-known saber toothed tiger”, said specialist Agnolin.

Paleontologist Federico Brissón Egli, co-author of this study and also a researcher at MACN and CONICET, emphasized that “the most important thing about this site of Marcos Paz is that, besides finding fossils of large animals, also remains small ones, microvertebrate, birds, lizards, fish, which are harder to find well preserved over time, and that’s what makes this quarry special, because it offers a window into the past of these important species”.

Part of the quarry was declared as a paleontological reserve, only usable for scientific purposes. Researchers made a new discovery at each step they make in the site that has more than six-hectare fully explored, (see video). But undoubtedly, the most important discovery that has given this place since 2010, when it began to be studied, is, precisely, the Pampagyps imperator, because it is a species unknown until today.

The researchers determined that this bird had a great ability to open and close its claws. “A backbone bone shows that the muscle insertions were much larger than the current condors, so it could possibly catch a prey”, explain the Dr. Federico Agnolin to the Agencia CTyS-UNLaM.

Nowadays, condors eat only carrion. The emperor of the Pampas, with its up to 3 meters in height, must have been fearsome for its prey, among which there could be small vertebrates such as rodents, reptiles and ducks.

Source: tecake.in

The extremely well-preserved hatchling of Tasbacka danica was collected in 2008 from within a limestone concretion in the Ejerslev Mo-clay pit on the Isle of Mors, Denmark. The specimen is less than 3 inches (7.4 cm) long.

In 2013, Lund University paleontologist Johan Lindgren and colleagues uncovered soft tissue residues from an area located near the sea turtle’s left ‘shoulder.’

They then investigated the microscopic and molecular contents of soft tissues retrieved from the fossil.

“Our results show that a number of biomolecules, which can be directly linked to the animal itself, are preserved in an identifiable form,” Dr. Lindgren said.

The researchers identified residues of several different molecules, including beta-keratin, hemoglobin, tropomyosin, and eumelanin (a pigment that provides dark skin color also in humans).

“Our results indicate that the baby turtle had the same color patterns 54 million years ago as they do today, that is, a dark back with light/pale edges,” they said.

“This coloration is an adaptation that provides protection against harmful UV radiation from the Sun, but they also use the dark skin to increase their body heat, thereby growing faster.”

“This phenomenon is called adaptive melanism and entails the animal’s ability to utilize color for survival purposes.”

“The presence of eukaryotic melanin within a melanosome embedded in a keratin matrix rules out contamination by microbes, because microbes cannot make eukaryotic melanin or keratin,” said co-author Professor Mary Schweitzer, of North Carolina State University and Lund University.

“So we know that these hatchlings had the dark coloration common to modern sea turtles.”

“The data not only support the preservation of multiple proteins, but also suggest that coloration was used for physiology as far back as the Eocene, in the same manner as it is today.”

The discovery of several biomolecules could, eventually, enable researchers to study the evolution of life at the molecular level through geological time.

“We have previously identified eumelanin in fossilized skin, but the fact that the organic matter from this baby turtle contained such a wide range of identifiable biomolecular remains came as a big surprise,” Dr. Lindgren said.

Furthermore, the results of the study call for a revision of what fossils actually are and what they consist of.

“Fossils are not only petrifactions, but can sometimes consist of parts of the original biological material,” Dr. Lindgren said.

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Johan Lindgren et al. 2017. Biochemistry and adaptive colouration of an exceptionally preserved juvenile fossil sea turtle. Scientific Reports 7, article number: 13324; doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-13187-5

Source: sci-news.com

Whether it started with exhibits at the Natural History Museum or fun-terrified screams watching Jurassic Park, humans have always been awestruck by dinosaurs.

But little is known about what, if any, role dinosaurs and other large animals like mammoths or elephants play in ecosystem functioning. What would the world be like if they never existed?

Christopher Doughty, faculty member in the School of Informatics, Computing and Cyber Systems at Northern Arizona University, asks that question often. He has been studying large animals for more than 10 years, specifically how these animals have increased the planet’s fertility.

“Theory suggests that large animals are disproportionately important to the spread of fertility across the planet,” Doughty said. “What better way to test this than to compare fertility in the world during the Cretaceous period—where sauropods, the largest herbivores to exist, roamed freely—to the Carboniferous period—a time in Earth’s history before four-legged herbivores evolved.”

During these two periods, plants were buried faster than they could decompose. As a result, coal was formed. Doughty gathered coal samples from mines throughout the U.S. By measuring the coal elemental concentrations, he found elements needed by plants, like phosphorus, were more abundant and much better distributed during the era of the dinosaurs than the Carboniferous. The data also revealed that elements not needed by plants and animals, such as aluminum, showed no difference, suggesting the herbivores contributed to increased global fertility.

According to Doughty, these large animals are important not for the quantity of dung they produce, but for their ability to move long distances across landscapes, effectively mixing the nutrients. By increasing the abundance and distribution of elements like phosphorus, plants grow faster, meaning large herbivores are responsible for producing their own food and contributing to their lush habitats.

But as today’s large animal populations become more in danger of extinction, the environment too is at risk. Simply put, fewer large animals may mean less plant growth.

“This is important for two reasons,” Doughty said. “First, we are rapidly losing our remaining large animals, like forest elephants, and this loss will critically impair the future functioning of these ecosystems by reducing their fertility. Second, combining the idea that large animals are disproportionately important for the spread of nutrients with the natural rule that animal size increases over time, means the planet may have a Gaia-like mechanism of increasing fertility over time.

Life makes the planet easier for more life.”

Source: newswise.com

When approaching a baby Dilophosaurus, keep your hood up.

Jurassic Park is a ’90s classic, and everyone who disagrees can eat triceratops poop.

But there’s one thing about the movie that, through all these years, has bothered me…

Why does the little dilophosaurus go from being all cute and curious to spitting acid in Nedry’s face in, like, two seconds?

 

 

Well, Redditor magecatwitharrows seems to have it figured out. At first, the lil’ dino is curious about Nedry and very docile.

BUT! What’s the very first thing Nedry does when he sees the dino? He puts his hood up!

According to magecatwitharrows’ theory, the appearance of the hood might have made the dilophosaurus think that perhaps Nedry was ALSO a dilophosaurus of some kind, because of the big hood.

Nedry was even able to throw a stick — kind of an aggressive gesture — without being attacked.

But when Nedry falls down at the top of the hill, his hood is off!

At this point, the dilophosaurus probably recognizes that Ned is human, and is therefore dinner.

The rest, as they say, is history.

“With Pakakali, we can start to unravel that extinction,” researcher Matthew Borths said. “Were the lineages competing? Were they adapting differently to a drier, more open landscape?”

Not that anyone thought Jurassic World wasn’t going to be a hit, but the fact that the sequel is now one of the highest-grossing movies ever released is something that caught a lot of people off guard. So, we’re getting a follow-up next year and, while we all wait for the trailer, a brand new banner for Jurassic World 2 has been unveiled. The new poster comes to us from the Brand Licensing Expo in London and features the return of the T. rex, Chris Pratt’s Owen Grady and his pal, Blue the velociraptor.

Universal Pictures hasn’t officially released this banner, but it was shared on Instagram by a fan. The banner features the previously revealed logo for Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom at its center. On the left is the famous T. rex from the original Jurassic Park, who many fans have taken to calling Rexy over the years, looking her usual amount of intimidating. To the right of the logo is Chris Pratt as Owen Grady, standing alongside Blue, who looks to be budded up with him.

The other thing well worth noting with this Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom banner is the red-hot embers floating around. The first official poster for the movie also featured them and, even though the studio hasn’t released an official synopsis for the movie, it has been rumored that there will be a volcanic eruption that threatens the life of the dinosaurs on Isla Nublar. Producer Frank Marshall all but confirmed that this is going to be the case and some of the early, leaked merchandise for the movie has featured a volcano on it.

The real question is, when are we going to see the Jurassic World 2 trailer? Well, the very same Instagram account also shared an image that states the trailer may be coming a littler later than we anticipated. Recently, a rumor was circulating that the Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom teaser trailer was set to arrive around Thanksgiving in November. However, if this post is to be believed, the trailer is going to make its way online December 13. Since Star Wars: The Last Jedi arrives in theaters on December 15, it’s possible that Universal hopes to attach the trailer to that release, which makes perfect sense. This should be regarded as mere rumor for now, but you may want to make that date on your calendar.

Colin Trevorrow, who helmed Jurassic World, isn’t directing this time around, but he did co-write the script with Derek Connolly and serves as producer. This time, it’s J.A. Bayona (A Monster Calls) who has to try and change things up enough so that we don’t get bored with dinosaurs chasing people around on an island. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom is set for release on June 22, 2018. Be sure to check out the new Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom banner, courtesy of Jurassic World 2015 Spain’s Instagram, for yourself below.