Latest news with #fossil
Yahoo
13 hours ago
- Science
- Yahoo
New dog-sized dinosaur identified after fossil mix-up
(NewsNation) — A new species of dinosaur the size of a Labrador retriever has been identified after scientists managed to untangle a fossil mix-up. Incomplete fossil remains of the newly named enigmacursor mollyborthwickae were initially discovered in modern-day Colorado in 2021-22 but were misclassified by scientists as being the remains of a nanosaurus. In a newly published report, scientists behind the discovery note that the small herbivore was about 3 feet long, with its tail making up about half of its length. Dinosaurs didn't roar like in the movies. Here's how they sounded According to the museum, the name enigmacursor roughly translates to 'puzzle runner' in Latin. Despite its small stature, this two-legged dinosaur had long legs, which allowed it to quickly move away from predators. 'We can speculate that Enigmacursor probably wasn't that old, as it doesn't seem to have many of its neural arches fused in place. However, the way the fossil was prepared before it was acquired by the Natural History Museum has obscured some of these details, so we can't be certain,' Paul Barrett, co-lead author, said. New 2-clawed dinosaur discovered in Mongolia The remains, which date back to roughly 150 million years ago, are now on display at the Natural History Museum in London, marking the museum's first new dinosaur on display since 2014. Unearthed from the Morrison Formation of the Western United States, the dinosaur is said to have roamed the same region as dinosaurs like the stegosaurus and diplodocus. 'While the Morrison Formation has been well-known for a long time, most of the focus has been on searching for the biggest and most impressive dinosaurs,' professor Susannah Maidment, co-lead author of the report, told the museum. 'Engimacusor shows that there's still plenty to discover in even this well-studied region and highlights just how important it is to not take historic assumptions about dinosaurs at face value.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Russia Today
2 days ago
- Science
- Russia Today
Russian miners find 40-million-year-old cockroach (VIDEO)
A fossilized cockroach estimated to be 35 to 40 million years old has been discovered in a piece of amber in Russia's Kaliningrad Region. The specimen was found during manual sorting at the Kaliningrad Amber Combine, a facility operated by technology giant Rostech, the company announced on Thursday. The insect is encased in a 41x21 mm piece of amber weighing 7 grams. Rostech noted that the cockroach is preserved near the surface of the amber, allowing for detailed observation of its wings, legs, and head. Anna Dugina, a gemologist at the Kaliningrad Amber Combine, said the find is the largest cockroach-like specimen discovered by the facility in the past five years. She estimated its age at no less than 35 to 40 million years. 'The cockroach was covered in resin in an exceptionally fortunate way,' she added. 'It is located very close to the surface of the amber, but still far enough from the edge. This made it possible to spot the inclusion during sorting and later grind and polish the surface without damaging it.' The scientist explained that although the insect differs from cockroaches found today, similar species still live in tropical areas. The Kaliningrad Amber Combine is the only enterprise globally that mines amber on an industrial scale. The facility has developed unique extraction methods to preserve the integrity of amber pieces, especially those containing inclusions of flora and fauna. The discovery adds to the collection of the Kaliningrad Regional Amber Museum, which houses over 14,000 individual pieces, including more than 3,000 amber inclusions. Baltic amber, such as that found in Kaliningrad, is known for preserving ancient life forms in remarkable detail. The region holds over 90% of the world's amber reserves, most of which is located near the village of Yantarny.
The Independent
3 days ago
- Science
- The Independent
Chance discovery of 365-million-year-old fossil reveals new species
In 2015, two members of the Blue Beach Fossil Museum in Nova Scotia found a long, curved fossil jaw, bristling with teeth. Sonja Wood, the museum's owner, and Chris Mansky, the museum's curator, found the fossil in a creek after Wood had a hunch. The fossil they found belonged to a fish that had died 350 million years ago, its bony husk spanning nearly a metre on the lake bed. The large fish had lived in waters thick with rival fish, including giants several times its size. It had hooked teeth at the tip of its long jaw that it would use to trap elusive prey and fangs at the back to pierce it and break it down to eat. For the last eight years, I have been part of a team under the lead of palaeontologist Jason Anderson, who has spent decades researching the Blue Beach area of Nova Scotia, northwest of Halifax, in collaboration with Mansky and other colleagues. Much of this work has been on the tetrapods — the group that includes the first vertebrates to move to land and all their descendants — but my research focuses on what Blue Beach fossils can tell us about how the modern vertebrate world formed. Birth of the modern vertebrate world The modern vertebrate world is defined by the dominance of three groups: the cartilaginous fishes or chondrichthyans (including sharks, rays and chimaeras), the lobe-finned fishes or sarcopterygians (including tetrapods and rare lungfishes and coelacanths), and the ray-finned fishes or actinopterygians (including everything from sturgeon to tuna). Only a few jawless fish round out the picture. This basic grouping has remained remarkably consistent, at least for the last 350 million years. Before then, the vertebrate world was a lot more crowded. In the ancient vertebrate world, during the Silurian Period (443.7-419.2 MA) for example, the ancestors of modern vertebrates swam alongside spiny pseudo-sharks (acanthodians), fishy sarcopterygians, placoderms and jawless fishes with bony shells. Armoured jawless fishes had dwindled by the Late Devonian Period (419.2-358.9 MA), but the rest were still diverse. Actinopterygians were still restricted to a few species with similar body shapes. By the immediately succeeding early Carboniferous times, everything had changed. The placoderms were gone, the number of species of fishy sarcopterygians and acanthodians had cratered, and actinopterygians and chondrichthyans were flourishing in their place. The modern vertebrate world was born. A sea change Blue Beach has helped build our understanding of how this happened. Studies describing its tetrapods and actinopterygians have showed the persistence of Devonian-style forms in the Carboniferous Period. Whereas the abrupt end-Devonian decline of the placoderms, acanthodians and fishy sarcopterygians can be explained by a mass extinction, it now appears that multiple types of actinopterygians and tetrapods survived to be preserved at Blue Beach. This makes a big difference to the overall story: Devonian-style tetrapods and actinopterygians survive and contribute to the evolution of these groups into the Carboniferous Period. But significant questions remain for palaeontologists. One point of debate revolves around how actinopterygians diversified as the modern vertebrate world was born — whether they explored new ways of feeding or swimming first. The Blue Beach fossil was actinopterygian, and we wondered what it could tell us about this issue. Comparison was difficult. Two actinopterygians with long jaws and large fangs were known from the preceding Devonian Period (Austelliscus ferox and Tegeolepis clarki), but the newly found jaw had more extreme curvature and the arrangement of its teeth. Its largest fangs are at the back of its jaw, but the largest fangs of Austelliscus and Tegeolepis are at the front. These differences were significant enough that we created a new genus and species: Sphyragnathus tyche. And, in view of the debate on actinopterygian diversification, we made a prediction: that the differences in anatomy between Sphyragnathus and Devonian actinopterygians represented different adaptations for feeding. Front fangs To test this prediction, we compared Sphyragnathus, Austelliscus and Tegeolepis to living actinopterygians. In modern actinopterygians, the difference in anatomy reflects a difference in function: front-fangs capture prey with their front teeth and grip it with their back teeth, but back-fangs use their back teeth. Since we couldn't observe the fossil fish in action, we analysed the stress their teeth would experience if we applied force. The back teeth of Sphyragnathus handled force with low stress, making them suited for a role in piercing prey, but the back teeth of Austelliscus and Tegeolepis turned low forces into significantly higher stress, making them best suited for gripping. We concluded that Sphyragnathus was the earliest actinopterygian adapted for breaking down prey by piercing, which also matches the broader predictions of the feeding-first hypothesis. Substantial work remains — only the jaw of Sphyragnathus is preserved, so the 'locomotion-first' hypothesis was untested. But this represents the challenge and promise of palaeontology: get enough tantalising glimpses into the past and you can begin to unfold a history. As for the actinopterygians, current research indicates that they first diversified in the Devonian Period and shifted into new roles when the modern vertebrate world was born. Conrad Daniel Mackenzie Wilson is a PhD candidate in Earth Sciences at Carleton University.
The Sun
4 days ago
- Science
- The Sun
Never-before-seen dog-sized dinosaur that dodged 32ft flesh-eating giants and killer crocs found after 150 MILLION years
A "NEVER-BEFORE-SEEN" dinosaur that dates back 150 million years has been revealed – and is now on show in the heart of London. The speedy creature would've dodged 32ft flesh-eating giants and even crocodiles to survive in prehistoric USA, scientists told The Sun. 13 Officially named Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae, the two-legged sprinter is available for free public viewing at the Natural History Museum from Thursday, June 26. The metre-long creature's fossilised skeleton is remarkably well-preserved, stretching over a metre long (3.2ft) – and about 50cm (1.6ft) tall. Visitors will be able to get up close to the early American creature, which lived alongside iconic dinos like Diplodocus and Stegosaurus. "What we're dealing with here is a new species of dinosaur that comes from Colorado in the western USA," said Professor Paul Barrow, of the Natural History Museum, speaking to The Sun at the grand unveiling. "It was discovered back in 2021 and we were able to acquire it thanks to an amazingly generous private donation, which allowed us to buy it for the museum." BACK IN TIME The dinosaur itself is believed to have not been fully grown. Normally the upper and lower parts of the creature's back bones would fuse together as the animal aged. But they weren't fully fused together, suggesting that the dino may have been quite young. And it certainly would've been surrounded by dino pals. "At the time, Colorado would have been a floodplain," said Professor Susannah Maidment, of the Natural History Museum, speaking to The Sun. Walking With Dinosaurs: Official Trailer, BBC "It would have had a series or rivers coming down from high land to the west, and there would have been dinosaurs all over it. "Some of the most famous dinosaurs – thinks like Diplodocus and Camarasaurus and Brachiosaurus. "And so this little dinosaur would have been running around at the feet of those giants." GREEN MACHINE This particular dinosaur was a herbivore, meaning it mostly ate plants. 13 But because flowering plants hadn't evolved yet, Professor Maidment told us, it "would have just been eating things like cycads and ferns". The dinosaur didn't need to move fast to eat – but it did need speedy legs to avoid being eaten. It lived alongside deadly predators, including prehistoric crocodiles. "We know it's a very speedy little dinosaur," said Professor Paul Barrow. 13 13 "It has very long hind legs – it walks on its hind legs only. "So its main defence against predators would actually have just been a speedy getaway. "And it's living at the same time as quite a lot of other large predatory dinosaurs. "Probably the most famous of which is a thing called Allosaurus, which is a big carnivore that gets up to about nine or 10 metres (29 to 32ft) in length – it's quite common at the time. A timeline of life on Earth Here's a brief history of life on our planet 4.6billion years ago – the origin of Earth 3.8billion years ago – first life appears on Earth 2.1billion years ago – lifeforms made up of multiple cells evolve 1.5billion years ago – eukaryotes, which are cells that contain a nucleus inside of their membranes, emerge 550million years ago – first arthropods evolve 530million years ago – first fish appear 470million years ago – first land plants appear 380million years ago – forests emerge on Earth 370million years ago – first amphibians emerge from the water onto land 320million years ago – earliest reptiles evolve 230million years ago – dinosaurs evolve 200million years ago – mammals appear 150million years ago – earliest birds evolve 130million years ago – first flowering plants 100million years ago – earliest bees 55million years ago – hares and rabbits appear 30million years ago – first cats evolve 20million years ago – great apes evolve 7million years ago –first human ancestors appear 2million years ago – Homo erectus appears 300,000 years ago – Homo sapiens evolves 50,000 years ago – Eurasia and Oceania colonised 40,000 years ago – Neandethal extinction 13 "But also a lot of speedy predators as well, and also some big crocodiles that could have taken out this guy." DIG IT The creature was first unearthed in 2021 from a commercial quarry. And it was thought to be a Nanosaurus, a "poorly-known" species that was first named in 1870s. The Enigmacursor was acquired from the David Aaron Ltd gallery with support from David and Molly Lowell Borthwick (after whom the dinosaur is now named). 13 13 And Natural History Museum scientists renamed it after analysing the specimen, confirming it as a species new to science. But there is still a mystery: exactly how fast the nippy little creature could run. "It was a two-legged dinosaur and so it had very small forelimbs actually," Professor Maidment told us. "But we don't really know how fast it would have run at all. "It probably might have been able to just about outrun us – but probably not much faster than that." 13 13
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Science
- Yahoo
College of Charleston student discovers large sea lizard fossil on school trip
CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – A College of Charleston student found the skeleton of a large sea lizard, and the condition of the fossil is considered to be 'extraordinary.' In May, rising senior and geology major Monika Angner was on the college's annual Dinosaur Expedition in the Badlands of Wyoming when she found the skeleton of a mosasaur, a giant marine lizard that swam in prehistoric seas. Her professor of paleobiology and expedition leader, Scott Persons, recalls the excitement when Angner shouted, 'Dr. Persons, I think I found something BIG!' According to Persons, mosasaur fossils are not unusual at the field site they were at, but what Angner discovered was more complete than their usual findings. 'Broken vertebrae and teeth are frequently collected, right on the surface. But Monica found what looks to be a nearly complete skull, with the neck, back, limbs, and tail all fully articulated. A skeleton in that good of condition is extraordinary. Plus, it's a contender for the largest mosasaur yet found at the site,' said Persons. According to Persons' estimation, the sea lizard would have measured over 25 feet in length. However, the exact size and how complete the specimen is now, along with identifying the particular species of mosasaur it belongs to, are unknown, and questions will have to wait until work on the skeleton is complete, according to the college. Angner and Person will continue to pick at, clean, and measure the specimen at the College of Charleston's Mace Brown Museum of Natural History. The skull of the creature traveled from the Badlands of Wyoming to the Lowcountry in a protective plaster jacket, the college states. 'It's a tradition in paleontology that, when a really cool specimen is found – one that will require lots of personnel hours over multiple field seasons to fully excavate and lots of lab hours to study – the discoverer gets to give the specimen a nickname,' says Persons. Angner named the sea lizard Jillian in honor of her sister. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
