Latest news with #JournalofVertebratePaleontology
Miami Herald
30-06-2025
- Science
- Miami Herald
‘Dangerous predator' — 350 million years old — is new species in Canada creekbed
On an inner beach in Nova Scotia, layers of stone and sediment are battered by water. The area is susceptible to the extreme tides in the Bay of Fundy, pulling anything on the surface out to sea, possibly lost forever. For centuries, researchers, geologists and paleontologists have studied Blue Beach because of its abundant fossil record, and in recent years they have worked to start collecting, preserving and categorizing the bones found there. Researchers Chris Mansky and Sonja Wood founded the Blue Beach Fossil Museum as part of this mission, and now their work has led to the discovery of a new prehistoric species. Wood, who died last year, is credited with finding a jaw bone for a previously undescribed species in a study published June 18 in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 'She (a wheelchair user) was out with Chris along the road at Blue Beach when she got a good feeling that a fossil would be found in the nearby creek,' Conrad Wilson, a Ph.D. candidate at Carleton University and lead author on the study, told McClatchy News in an email. 'She pointed Chris down the rocky embankment into the creek bed and that's where he found the fossil.' The jaw is long and curved and teeth protrude from the bone, according to the study. The teeth near the back of the jaw were conical and nearly vertical, while those near the front were strongly curved backward in a hook-like structure The jaw was identified as a species of actinopterygian, or predatory ray-finned fish, a group that is 'hugely important today,' Wilson said. 'Today, they include more than 50% of all vertebrates and pretty much any fish that is fished commercially, and range from sturgeon to tuna,' Wilson said. '... This one was close to 3 feet long and is strikingly different from its contemporaries because of the curvature of its jaws and the size and anatomy of its fangs.' Each type of tooth served a different purpose in making the fish a 'dangerous predator,' Wilson said. Hooked teeth at the front of the jaw would capture the fish's prey in their mouth, holding them in while the pointed fangs in the back could 'pierce' the creature and 'chop it up,' according to Wilson. This is the earliest record of this kind of dentition in ray-finned fishes, appearing about 350 million years ago, Wilson said. The species was named Sphyragnathus tyche, combining Greek words 'sphyra,' meaning hammer and 'gnathus,' meaning jaw for the genus, according to the study. The species name, Tyche, refers to the Greek goddess of fortune for 'the fortunate circumstances of the fossil's discovery.' Aside from a distinction as a new species, the hammer jaw fish also tells researchers about how all ray-finned fish fared after a catastrophic event. Lots of species were lost at the end of the Devonian period, which ended about 358.9 million years ago, to a mass extinction and the diversity of fish declined, Wilson wrote in a June 24 article published in The Conversation. 'One point of debate revolves around how actinopterygians (ray-finned fishes) diversified as the modern vertebrate world was born — whether they explored new ways of feeding or swimming first,' Wilson wrote. By noting and analyzing the unique teeth, researchers suggest the group of fish focused first on changing their feeding strategy evolutionarily, instead of adapting their swimming, according to Wilson. 'The fossils are telling us about what the fish existing right after a mass extinction looked like,' Wilson told CBC News. '... The beach where this fossil was discovered tells us … this is a group of animals that is doing well, pretty quickly, after a mass extinction.' Blue Beach is on the inner shore of Nova Scotia, on Canada's east coast. The research team includes Wilson, Mansky and Jason S. Anderson.
Yahoo
24-06-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Fossils from giant possum-like mammal that lived 60 million years ago found in Texas
Paleontologists have found fossilized remains of a giant possum-like mammal that lived 60 million years ago. The fossils, found at Big Bend National Park in Texas, belong to a group of ancient near-marsupials from the Paleocene period that scientists call Swaindelphys, according to a paper published last week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. MORE: Fossils found in North America reveal new species of 'very odd' sea monster: Scientists The prehistoric species, called Swaindelphys solastella, was "gigantic" compared to other Swaindelphys at the time but are actually about the size of a modern hedgehog, according to the researchers. "I compared them to a lot of other marsupials from around the same time period to see what they're most closely related to," said Kristen Miller, a doctoral student at The University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. At first, the paleontologists thought the fossils belonged to a group of metatherians -- or marsupial-like mammals -- from the Cretaceous period that survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, the mass extinction event believed to have wiped dinosaurs from the planet 66 million years ago. But additional analysis revealed that the specimens belonged to a "surprisingly large" new species of Swaindelphys. "Not only are they the largest metatherians from this time period, but they're also the youngest and located at the most southern latitude," Miller said. MORE: What paleontologists learned from fossils of a 3-eyed predator that lived 500 million years ago The new fossil is the largest marsupial -- in terms of body and size -- found so far in North America from the Paleocene period, Chris Beard, senior curator with KU's Biodiversity Institute, said in a statement. "Since everything is bigger in Texas, this is perhaps not surprising," Beard said. "I call them 'primatomorphans,'" Beard said. "They're not, technically speaking, primates, but they're very close to the ancestry of living and fossil primates. These marsupials are probably ecological analogues of early primates." The researchers' work is aimed at uncovering some of the smaller and harder-to-find fossil mammals that lived at Big Bend at the time, Beard said. MORE: Scientists discover 'legless, headless wonder' that predated the dinosaurs The paleontologists are also interested in the differences in the kinds of fossils found in more northern regions, such as Wyoming and Alberta, Canada. "North of that ancient divide, we see the classic Bighorn Basin taxa in their expected time periods," Miller said said. "But south of that, in river drainages that originate in the central Rockies and areas farther to the south, things start to go a little wacky." More research into Swaindelphys solastella, as well as new fieldwork in Big Bend, is planned.
24-06-2025
- Science
Fossils from giant possum-like mammal that lived 60 million years ago found in Texas
Paleontologists have found fossilized remains of a giant possum-like mammal that lived 60 million years ago. The fossils, found at Big Bend National Park in Texas, belong to a group of ancient near-marsupials from the Paleocene period that scientists call Swaindelphys, according to a paper published last week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The prehistoric species, called Swaindelphys solastella, was "gigantic" compared to other Swaindelphys at the time but are actually about the size of a modern hedgehog, according to the researchers. "I compared them to a lot of other marsupials from around the same time period to see what they're most closely related to," said Kristen Miller, a doctoral student at The University of Kansas' Biodiversity Institute and Natural History Museum and lead author of the paper, said in a statement. At first, the paleontologists thought the fossils belonged to a group of metatherians -- or marsupial-like mammals -- from the Cretaceous period that survived the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, the mass extinction event believed to have wiped dinosaurs from the planet 66 million years ago. But additional analysis revealed that the specimens belonged to a "surprisingly large" new species of Swaindelphys. "Not only are they the largest metatherians from this time period, but they're also the youngest and located at the most southern latitude," Miller said. The new fossil is the largest marsupial -- in terms of body and size -- found so far in North America from the Paleocene period, Chris Beard, senior curator with KU's Biodiversity Institute, said in a statement. "Since everything is bigger in Texas, this is perhaps not surprising," Beard said. "I call them 'primatomorphans,'" Beard said. "They're not, technically speaking, primates, but they're very close to the ancestry of living and fossil primates. These marsupials are probably ecological analogues of early primates." The researchers' work is aimed at uncovering some of the smaller and harder-to-find fossil mammals that lived at Big Bend at the time, Beard said. The paleontologists are also interested in the differences in the kinds of fossils found in more northern regions, such as Wyoming and Alberta, Canada. "North of that ancient divide, we see the classic Bighorn Basin taxa in their expected time periods," Miller said said. "But south of that, in river drainages that originate in the central Rockies and areas farther to the south, things start to go a little wacky." More research into Swaindelphys solastella, as well as new fieldwork in Big Bend, is planned.
Hamilton Spectator
21-06-2025
- Science
- Hamilton Spectator
Researchers discover ancient predatory, fanged fish that swam in Nova Scotia waters
HALIFAX - Researchers have discovered a new species of ancient fish with hooked front fangs that made them a fearsome and effective predator. A paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology this week says the long, curved jaw of the animal sheds light on how fish were evolving smaller, front teeth that acted like fishing hooks, about 350 million years ago. Meanwhile, the centimetre-long back fangs were used to chew the catch before digestion into a body that may have been almost a metre long. They hunted for prey in the inland waters of Nova Scotia, in what was likely a vast inland lake. Lead author Conrad Wilson, a doctoral candidate in paleontology at Carleton University, said in an interview Friday that the fish has been named Sphyragnathus tyche, with the first phrase meaning 'hammer jaw.' 'I would say it's a fairly fearsome looking fish. If its mouth is open, you would see those fangs in the jaw,' he said. But the fossil is also significant for the clues it offers to the evolution of ray-finned fish — a huge and diverse vertebrate group that occupies a wide range of aquatic and semi-aquatic environments around the globe. 'These fish were the last major group of vertebrates to be identified and we still have big gaps in our knowledge about their early evolution,' said the researcher, who published his paper with Chris Mansky, a fossil researcher at the Blue Beach Fossil Museum in Hantsport, N.S., and Jason Anderson, a professor of anatomy at the veterinary faculty at the University of Calgary. 'The fossils are telling us about what the fish existing right after a mass extinction looked like,' said Wilson, referring to the transition from the Devonian to the Carboniferous periods. Wilson says paleontologists have wondered how ray-finned fish recovered from the extinction period as other groups of fish, such as the heavily armed category referred to as placoderms, were disappearing. 'The beach where this fossil was discovered tells us is ... this is a group of animals that is doing well, pretty quickly, after a mass extinction,' he said. The paper theorizes that the feeding methods of the evolving teeth may have played a role, creating an evolutionary advantage for the species. Wilson noted 'that particular feature of the curved and pointy fang at the front and processing fangs at the back became a feature of many species in times to come.' The area where the fossil was found — at Blue Beach on the Minas Basin, about 90 kilometres north of Halifax — was believed to be part of a vast freshwater lake not far from the ocean. The research team's paper credits Sonja Wood, former director of the Blue Beach Fossil Museum, for finding the fossilized jaw by urging Mansky to check along a creek that flowed onto the beach. Wood, who died last year, was in a wheelchair and had urged her colleague to search the area. 'She had a good feeling about what could be found ... and she said he should go and have a look,' said Wilson. 'He went down and sure enough it (the jaw fossil) was sitting right there,' said the researcher, adding that Mansky managed to recover the fossil before a storm rolled through that night. Wilson said more discoveries are possible as examination of the fossils from the Blue Beach area continues. 'We have lots of different anatomies that simply haven't been described yet. And we'll be working on that in a paper that's coming up in a few months,' he said. This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 21, 2025.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Newly discovered frog species from 55 million years ago challenges evolutionary tree
Australian tree frogs today make up over one third of all known frog species on the continent. Among this group, iconic species such as the green tree frog (Litoria caerulea) and the green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea), are both beloved for their vivid colours and distinctive calls. In the Early Eocene epoch, 55 million years ago, Australia's tree frogs were hopping across the Australian continent from one billabong to the next through a forested corridor that also extended back across Antarctica to South America. These were the last remnants of ancient supercontinent Gondwana. In new research published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, we identify Australia's earliest known species of tree frog – one that once hopped and croaked around an ancient lake near the town of Murgon in south-eastern Queensland. This research demonstrates tree frogs were present in Australia 30 million years earlier than previously thought, living alongside Australia's earliest known snakes, songbirds and marsupials. Tree frogs (Pelodryadidae) have expanded discs on their fingers and toes enabling them to climb trees. Despite their name, however, they are known to occupy a wide range of habitats, from fast-flowing streams to ephemeral ponds. Australia's previously earliest tree frogs were recovered from Late Oligocene (about 26 million years old) and Early Miocene (23 million years old) fossil deposits. Late Oligocene frog fossils were found at Kangaroo Well in the Northern Territory and Lake Palankarinna in South Australia. They were also recently found in many deposits from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Queensland. It has long been known that South American tree frogs and Australian tree frogs shared a common Gondwanan ancestor. What is unknown is when this common ancestor lived. Based on some molecular data, it has been estimated that the two groups separated from this common ancestor as recent as 32.9 million years ago. Our new study was based on frog fossils from a deposit near the town of Murgon, located on the traditional lands of the Waka Waka people of south-eastern Queensland. These fossils accumulated some 55 million years ago. This was between the time when a colossal meteorite took out the non-flying dinosaurs and the time when Australia broke free from the rest of Gondwana to become an isolated continent. As well as ancient frog fossils, the Early Eocene freshwater clay deposit also contains fossils of ancient bats, marsupials, snakes, non-marine birds and potentially the world's oldest songbirds. We used CT scans of frogs preserved in ethanol from Australian museum collections to compare the three-dimensional shape of the fossil bones with those of living species. This method is called three-dimensional geometric morphometrics. It has only been used on fossil frogs once before. Using these new methods, we can unravel the relationships of these fossils to all other groups of frogs – both living and extinct. From its diagnostic ilium (one of three paired pelvic bones), we identified a new species of Litoria from the family Pelodryadidae. We named this species Litoria tylerantiqua in honour of the late Michael Tyler, a renowned Australian herpetologist globally celebrated for his research on frogs and toads. Litoria tylerantiqua joins the only other Murgon frog discovered so far, the ground-dwelling Platyplectrum casca, as the oldest frogs known from Australia. Both species have living relatives in Australia and New Guinea. This demonstrates the remarkable resilience over time of some of Australia's most fragile creatures. Our new research provides crucial new understanding that helps to calibrate molecular clock studies. This is a method scientists use to estimate when different species split from a common ancestor based on the calculated rate of genetic change over time. Our research indicates the separation of Australian tree frogs and South American tree frogs is at minimum 55 million years ago. This pushes back the estimated molecular separation time for these groups by 22 million years. Unravelling the deep-time changes in the diversity and evolution of the ancestors of today's living animals can provide important new insights into the way these groups have responded in the past to previous challenges. These challenges include former natural cycles of climate change. The more we know about the fossil record, the more likely we will better anticipate future responses to similar challenges, including human-induced climate change. This is especially important for critically endangered species such as the Southern Corroboree Frog and Baw Baw Frog. Now restricted to alpine habitats in New South Wales and Victoria, they are at serious risk of extinction due to global warming. This article is republished from The Conversation. It was written by: Roy M. Farman, UNSW Sydney and Mike Archer, UNSW Sydney Read more: Two lizard-like creatures crossed tracks 355 million years ago. Today, their footprints yield a major discovery Improving human beings to make them perform better: Why is transhumanism so harmful? Antarctica has a huge, completely hidden mountain range. New data reveals its birth over 500 million years ago Roy M. Farman received funding from the Research Training Program through the University of New South Wales. Mike Archer has received funding from the Australian Research Council, the Australian Geographic Society, the National Geographic Society, the Riversleigh Society Inc and private funding from Phil Creaser (the CREATE Fund in UNSW), K. and M. Pettit, D. and A. Jeanes and other benefactors.
