entire Web this site Home > current paleo news paleo news archive Paleo news: Latest from the world of fossils Neanderthals 'enjoyed broad menu' (Sep 24, 2008) It seems Neanderthals enjoyed a wide range of foods – a much broader menu than had previously been supposed. Excavations in caves in Gibraltar once occupied by the ancient humans show they ate seal and dolphin [photo is of a dolphin vertebra found in one of the caves] when they could get hold of the animals. There are even indications that mussels were warmed to open their shells. Read more. Source: BBC Did we out-breed slow-maturing Neanderthals? (Sep 9, 2008) Neanderthal women had just as much trouble in childbirth as modern women – and their kids took just as long to grow up. Christoph Zollikofer and colleagues at the University of Zürich, Switzerland, have done the first three-dimensional reconstructions of the skulls of a newborn Neanderthal from Russia, and two toddlers from Syria. They found that the newborn's cranium was the same diameter as a modern human's. Read more. Source: New Scientist Ancient trees recorded in mines (Sep 9, 2008) Spectacular fossil forests have been found in the coal mines of Illinois by a US-UK team of researchers. The group reported one discovery last year, but has since identified a further five examples. The ancient vegetation – now turned to rock – is visible in the ceilings of mines covering thousands of hectares. Read more. Source: BBC 'Rare' mammoth skull discovered (Sep 2, 2008) The "extremely rare" fossilised skull of a steppe mammoth has been unearthed in southern France. The discovery in the Auvergne region could shed much needed light on the evolution of these mighty beasts. Many isolated teeth of steppe mammoth have been found, but only a handful of skeletons exist; and in these surviving specimens, the skull is rarely intact. Read more. Source: BBC Tech-savvy Neanderthals couldn't blame their tools (Aug 27, 2008) Neanderthal stock is on the rise. A slew of recent studies have argued that the not-quite modern humans hunted, painted and communicated like their Homo sapiens cousins. Now new research suggests that Neanderthal technology was at least as good as that of early humans. Read more. Source: New Scientist Fossils date Dry Valleys' origin (Jul 23, 2008) Tiny fossils have helped refine the timing of the climate shift that gave rise to Antarctica's remarkable Dry Valleys, a landscape akin to Mars. The famously ice-free terrain enjoyed more benign, tundra-like conditions 14 million years ago – but then flipped to the intensely cold setting seen today. A Royal Society journal reports that their ancient lake-living shrimp-like creatures pinpoint the big switch. Read more. Source: BBC Brain size 'not key to intellect' (Jun 10, 2008) Size may not be everything when it comes to brain evolution, say experts. Instead, UK research reveals that the rising complexity of connections between brain cells may have been the biggest driving force. The Nature Neuroscience study found clear differences between brain junctions in mammals, insects and single cell creatures. Read more. Source: BBC Fossil reveals oldest live birth (May 31, 2008) A fossil fish uncovered in Australia is the oldest-known example of a mother giving birth to live young, scientists have reported in the journal Nature. The 380 million-year-old specimen has been preserved with an embryo still attached by its umbilical cord. The find pushes back the emergence of this reproductive strategy by some 200 million years. Read more. Source: BBC Fossil prints reveal giant winged reptile was a stalker (May 28, 2008) The largest creatures that ever flew may have spent much of their time on the ground, research suggests. Azhdarchids were a type of pterosaur living at the time of the dinosaurs. Their wingspans could exceed 10 metres (32ft). They were thought to have lived like seagulls or pelicans, patrolling coastlines from the air and swooping down on fish in the water. But new evidence from their fossil distribution and footprints suggests they were more likely to stalk prey on foot. Read more. Source: Guardian New dinosaur tracks discovered (May 23, 2008) Dinosaur footprints made 150 million years ago in the bedrock of what is now Yemen are the first to be discovered in the Arabian Peninsula, say scientists. The two separate trackways were made by a herd of 11 sauropods, and a lone two-legged plant-eating dinosaur belonging to the ornithopod family. They went unnoticed for so long because they were covered by rubble and debris. Read more. Source: BBC Tasmanian tiger DNA 'resurrected' (May 20, 2008) A fragment of DNA from the Tasmanian tiger has been brought back to life. Australian scientists extracted genetic material from a 100-year-old museum specimen, and put it into a mouse embryo to study how it worked. It is the first time DNA of an extinct species has been used in this way, says a University of Melbourne team. Read more. Source: BBC Human line 'nearly split in two' (Apr 27, 2008) Ancient humans started down the path of evolving into two separate species before merging back into a single population, a genetic study suggests. The genetic split in Africa resulted in distinct populations that lived in isolation for as much as 100,000 years, the scientists say. This could have been caused by arid conditions driving a wedge between humans in eastern and southern Africa. Read more. Source: BBC Secret 'dino bugs' revealed (Apr 2, 2008) Paleontologist Paul Tafforeau and colleague Malvina Lak have put kilos of opaque amber chunks in the way of this beam and have found a treasure trove of ancient organisms. From more than 600 blocks, they have identified nearly 360 fossil animals. Wasps, flies, ants – even spiders. There are also small fragments of plant material. All of it caught up in the sticky goo of some prehistoric tree and then locked away until modern science provided the key. Read more. Source: BBC Spain dig yields ancient European (Mar 27, 2008) Scientists have discovered the oldest human remains in western Europe. A jawbone and teeth discovered at the famous Atapuerca site in northern Spain have been dated between 1.1 and 1.2 million years old. The finds provide further evidence for the great antiquity of human occupation on the continent, the researchers write in the journal Nature. Read more. Source: BBC Volcanoes fingered for 'crime of the Cretaceous' (Mar 21, 2008) One of the prime suspects for "the crime of the Cretaceous" – the killing-off of the dinosaurs – may have hidden evidence of its guilt inside a rare time-capsule. The biggest volcanic eruptions are called flood events, which release millions of cubic kilometres of lava and all the gases trapped within it. One of the main theories about mass extinctions is that such flood events could have pumped sulphur and chlorine into the atmosphere, killing off anything nearby. Read more. Source: New Scientist Island find stirs Hobbit debate (Mar 13, 2008) The discovery on South Pacific islands of ancient bones thought to belong to a tribe of tiny humans has raised new anthropological questions. Radiocarbon dating suggests the little people lived on the islands of Palau a few thousand years ago. Scientists believe they were true humans who shrank, perhaps because of a genetic disorder or lack of food. Read more. Source: BBC New twist in Hobbit-human debate (Mar 5, 2008) The row over the origins of "Hobbit" fossils found on the Indonesian island of Flores has taken a new twist. An Australian team claims the little people were not a new human species, but modern humans with a form of dwarfism caused by poor nutrition. In 2004, international researchers announced the discovery of the ancient remains in the Liang Bua Cave. Read more. Source: BBC Sea reptile is biggest on record (Feb 27, 2008) A fossilised "sea monster" unearthed on an Arctic island is the largest marine reptile known to science, Norwegian scientists have announced. The 150 million-year-old specimen was found on Spitspergen, in the Arctic island chain of Svalbard, in 2006. The Jurassic-era leviathan is one of 40 sea reptiles from a fossil "treasure trove" uncovered on the island. Read more. Source: BBC 'Frog from hell' fossil unearthed (Feb 18, 2008) A 70-million-year-old fossil of a giant frog has been unearthed in Madagascar by a team of UK and US scientists. The creature would have been the size of a "squashed beach ball" and weighed about 4kg (9lb), the researchers said. They added that the fossil, nicknamed Beelzebufo or "frog from hell", was "strikingly different" from present-day frogs found on the island nation. Read more. Source: BBC New meat-eating dinos identified (Feb 14, 2008) Two previously unknown types of meat-eating dinosaur have been identified from fossils unearthed in the Sahara desert in Niger. The new carnivore fossils have been described by a researcher from the University of Bristol working with palaeontologists from the US. One of the dinosaurs probably scavenged its prey like a hyena, the other probably hunted live animals. Read more. Source: BBC Bat fossil solves evolution poser (Feb 14, 2008) A fossil found in Wyoming has resolved a long-standing question about when bats gained their sonar-like ability to navigate and locate food. They found that flight came first, and only then did bats develop echolocation to track and trap their prey. A large number of experts had previously thought this happened the other way around. Read more. Source: BBC Flying reptiles came in miniature (Feb 11, 2008) A new fossil species of flying reptile with a wingspan of less than 30cm (1ft) has been discovered in China. The nearly complete articulated skeleton was unearthed in fossil beds from north-eastern China. The 120-million-year-old reptile had not reached adulthood when it died, but neither was it a hatchling. Read more. Source: BBC Gigantic fossil rodent discovered (Jan 16, 2008) The fossilised skull of the largest rodent ever recorded has been described by scientists for the first time. The remains of the one-tonne beast, found in Uruguay, indicate that it would have been as big as a bull. It is thought that the three-metre-long herbivore would have roamed estuaries and forests 2-4 million years ago. Read more. Source: BBC Dinosaurs 'grew fast, bred young' (Jan 15, 2008) Dinosaurs bred as early as age eight, long before they reached adult size, fossil evidence suggests. Although they were descended from reptiles, and evolved into birds, dinosaurs grew fast and bred young, much like the mammals of today. Researchers at the University of California found hallmark "egg-making" tissue in two juvenile females. Read more. Source: BBC paleo news archive BACK TO TOP

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