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New dinosaur species unearthed in Venezuela

(Phys.org) —A team of paleontologists with members from Brazil, Venezuela, the U.S. and Germany has found fossil evidence of a previously unknown dinosaur in Venezuela. In their paper published in the...

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New ionoscopiform fish found from the Middle Triassic of Guizhou, China

The Ionoscopiformes are a fossil fish lineage of halecomorphs known only from the Mesozoic marine deposits. Because of their close relationships with the Amiiformes, the Ionoscopiformes are...

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Earliest-known arboreal and subterranean ancestral mammals discovered

The fossils of two interrelated ancestral mammals, newly discovered in China, suggest that the wide-ranging ecological diversity of modern mammals had a precedent more than 160 million years ago.

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Largest group of fossil humans are Neanderthals after all

(Phys.org) -- The world's largest known sample of fossil humans has been classified as the species Homo heidelbergensis but in fact are early Neanderthals, according to a study by Prof Chris Stringer...

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Strange phallus-shaped creature provides crucial missing link: Discovery...

Christopher Cameron of the University of Montreal's Department of Biological Sciences and his colleagues have unearthed a major scientific discovery - a strange phallus-shaped creature they found in...

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New carnivorous dinosaur from Madagascar raises more questions than it answers

The first new dinosaur named from Madagascar in nearly a decade, Dahalokely tokana was a carnivore measuring 9-14 feet long. Its fossils were found in 90-million-year-old rocks of northernmost...

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Scientists date prehistoric bacterial invasion still present in today's cells

Long before plants and animals inhabited the earth, when life consisted of single-celled organisms afloat in a planet-wide sea, bacteria invaded these organisms and took up permanent residence. One...

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Pigments, organelles persist in fossil feathers

A study provides multiple lines of new evidence that pigments and the microbodies that produce them can remain evident in a dinosaur fossil. In the journal Scientific Reports, an international team of...

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Factoring for cosmic radiation could help set a more accurate 'molecular clock'

Scientists long have used the "molecular clock" to establish when species may have branched from each other on the Tree of Life.

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Fossils enrich our understanding of evolution

Our understanding of evolution can be enriched by adding fossil species to analyses of living animals, as shown by scientists from the University of Bristol.

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Discovery shows dinosaurs may have been the original lovebirds

Dinosaurs engaged in mating behavior similar to modern birds, leaving the fossil evidence behind in 100 million year old rocks, according to new research by Martin Lockley, professor of geology at the...

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Study gets an earful of how mammals developed hearing

An international study led by University of Queensland researchers has challenged a long-held idea about how mammals evolved more sensitive hearing than reptiles.

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Gorilla fossil suggests split from humans as far back as 10 million years ago

(Phys.org)—An international team of researchers studying fossils unearthed in Ethiopia's Chorora Formation in the Afar rift has dated some gorilla teeth fossils to approximately 8 million years ago,...

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New study confirms giant flightless bird wandered the Arctic 50 million years...

It's official: There really was a giant, flightless bird with a head the size of a horse's wandering about in the winter twilight of the high Arctic some 53 million years ago.

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An ancient retrovirus has been found in human DNA – and it might still be active

Striking evidence has emerged that an ancient virus previously known only from fossil evidence has persistently infected some humans at very low levels for hundreds of thousands or even millions of...

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Paleontologists find first fossil monkey in North America—but how did it get...

Seven tiny teeth tell the story of an ancient monkey that made a 100-mile ocean crossing between North and South America into modern-day Panama - the first fossil evidence for the existence of monkeys...

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Beetles pollinated orchids millions of year ago, fossil evidence shows

When most people hear the word "pollinator," they think of bees and butterflies. However, certain beetles are known to pollinate plants as well, and new fossil evidence indicates that they were doing...

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Male or female? Scientists challenge evidence of sex differences among dinosaurs

A paleontologist at the Canadian Museum of Nature is countering decades of studies that assert that some dinosaurs can be identified as male or female based on the shapes and sizes of their bones.

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Genetic evidence suggests that early mammals had good night-time vision,...

Our earliest mammalian ancestors likely skulked through the dark, using their powerful night-time vision to find food and avoid reptilian predators that hunted by day. This conclusion, published by...

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Cretaceous tanaidaceans took care of their offspring more than 105 million...

A scientific team has found the first evidence of parental care in Tanaidaceans, dating back to more than 105 million years, according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports, from...

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