Life's diversity snowballed when Earth froze

Life's diversity snowballed when Earth froze

Ancient animals may have started their drive toward explosive diversity back when the Earth was a giant snowball, new research suggests. A startling expansion in the diversity of life forms began about 540 million years ago, early in the Cambrian period. During this apparently sudden outburst, known as the Cambrian explosion, all the major groups of animals seemed to materialize rapidly. Scientists have debated the causes of this great flowering of life for centuries.

Researchers Rush to Recover Whale Fossils From Highway Project

Researchers Rush to Recover Whale Fossils From Highway Project

In Chile's dry, hot, desert-like Atacama Region, a group of Smithsonian researchers are digging up whales. The fossil site, near the port city of Caldera in northern Chile, was discovered in late 2010 by a construction company expanding the Pan-American Highway. In a road cut, the workers discovered complete skeletons of baleen whales, says paleobiologist Nick Pyenson, the curator of fossil marine mammals at the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The company agreed to grant the site a brief reprieve, allowing Pyenson to coordinate a short-term excavation of the fossils

Massive volcanoes, meteorite impacts delivered one-two death punch to dinosaurs: study

Massive volcanoes, meteorite impacts delivered one-two death punch to dinosaurs: study

A cosmic one-two punch of colossal volcanic eruptions and meteorite strikes likely caused the mass-extinction event at the end of the Cretaceous period that is famous for killing the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, according to two Princeton University reports that reject the prevailing theory that the extinction was caused by a single large meteorite.

The first teeth grew on the outside of body

The first teeth grew on the outside of body

The fictional Cheshire cat's smile seemed to have a life of its own, outside of the cat's body, and now new research suggests the world's first teeth grew outside of the mouth before later moving into the oral cavity.

New fossils of oldest American primate

Link: New fossils of oldest American primate

Johns Hopkins researchers have identified the first ankle and toe bone fossils from the earliest North American true primate, which they say suggests that our earliest forerunners may have dwelled or moved primarily in trees, like modern day lemurs and similar mammals.

Whale fossils show important characters of the transition to water

Link: Whale fossils show important characters of the transition to water

 Decorative stone is often used in buildings for its strength and durability but is not often thought of as a hiding place for fossils. If not for an observant Italian stonecutter, a recently discovered fossil whale specimen from Egypt might have become part of the edifice of some new skyscraper rather than the focus of a scientific study. This fossil skull and partial rib cage, described in the latest issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, show transitional features of a new species of early whale and hint at how it became a fossil in the first place.

Artificial Intelligence Finds Fossil Sites--Palaeontologists use computer neural network and satellite images to work out where to dig.

Link: Artificial Intelligence Finds Fossil Sites--Palaeontologists use computer neural network and satellite images to work out where to dig.

Lucy, the famous Australopithecus afarensis skeleton, was found by accident when palaeoanthropologist Donald Johanson took a detour back to his Land Rover in Ethiopia in 1974. Such luck will always have a place in fossil hunting, but artificial intelligence now promises to assist, after a team trained a computer neural network to recognize fossil sites in satellite images.

DNA suggests North American mammoth species interbred: Supposedly separate types may really have been one

Link: DNA suggests North American mammoth species interbred: Supposedly separate types may really have been one

Here, here on the palaeogenetics articles in the news lately!

LAS VEGAS — The two major species of North American mammoth may actually have been one. DNA analysis of the Ice Age beasts’ remains suggests that the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) interbred with what has been considered a separate, more southerly species — the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi).

Although separate animal species do interbreed now and then, mammoth mixing may have been more than an occasional fluke. Two Columbian specimens turn out to carry woollylike DNA inherited from their mothers, said Ross MacPhee of the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, who presented the findings November 3 at a meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

CT Scans of Baby Mammoths Reveal Ice Age Mystery

Link: CT Scans of Baby Mammoths Reveal Ice Age Mystery

LAS VEGAS—Computed tomography (CT) scans of two extraordinarily well-preserved baby woolly mammoths from Siberia have yielded startling new insights into these iconic Ice Age beasts. Previously examinations of the external features of the mammoths suggested that the two creatures were quite similar, exhibiting the same developmental stage and similar age at death. But the new full-body scans—the first ever obtained for largely intact mammoths—tell a different story. Researchers unveiled the new findings on November 5 at the annual meeting of the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Super Cool Interactive Earth Evolution Timeline

Link: Super Cool Interactive Earth Evolution Timeline

well, this is pretty darn neat. and aesthetically pleasing too. (thanks, ally).