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Fossil Science News
Humans began contributing to environmental lead pollution as early as 8,000 years ago, according to a University of Pittsburgh research report.
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 | The first complete chemical analysis of feathers from Archaeopteryx, a famous fossil linking dinosaurs and birds, reveals that the feathers of this early bird were patterned -- light in color, with a dark edge and tip to the feather -- rather than all black, as previously thought. ...> Full Article |
 | The first complete chemical analysis of feathers from Archaeopteryx, a famous fossil linking dinosaurs and birds, reveals that the feathers were patterned--light in color, with a dark edge and tip--rather than all black, as previously thought. The X-ray study took place at SLAC's SSRL. ...> Full Article |
 | Pterosaurs are an extinct group of flying reptiles that are only abundant in very few deposits. One of these is situated in England, where hundreds of fossils of these animals, that covered the skies some 110 million years ago, have been unearthed. Paleontologists have re-analyzed these fossils and discovered that they had a much higher diversity of groups than previously thought. The study was published in the open access journal ZooKeys. ...> Full Article |
 | Prof. Shmulik Marco of Tel Aviv University and his fellow researchers have discovered a mysterious monument beneath the waves of the Sea of Galilee. The site resembles early burial sites in Europe and was likely built in the early Bronze Age. ...> Full Article |
 | The first-known definitive case of a benign bone tumor has been discovered in the rib of a young Neandertal who lived about 120,000 years ago in what is now present-day Croatia. The bone fragment, which comes from the famous archaeological cave site of Krapina, contains by far the earliest bone tumor ever identified in the archaeological record. ...> Full Article |
 | France is renowned the world over as a leader in the crafts of viticulture and winemaking -- but the beginnings of French viniculture have been largely unknown, until now.
Imported ancient Etruscan amphoras and a limestone press platform, discovered at the ancient port site of Lattara in southern France, have provided the earliest known biomolecular archaeological evidence of winemaking -- and point to the beginnings of a Celtic or Gallic vinicultural industry in France circa 500-400 BCE. ...> Full Article |
 | Most apes eat leaves and fruits from trees and shrubs. New studies spearheaded by the University of Utah show that human ancestors expanded their menu 3.5 million years ago, adding tropical grasses and sedges to an ape-like diet and setting the stage for our modern diet of grains, grasses, and meat and dairy from grazing animals. ...> Full Article |
 | Researchers from the University of Valencia and the Natural History Museum of Berlin have studied the fossilised remains of scales and bones found in Teruel and the south of Zaragoza, ascertaining that they belong to a new fish species called Machaeracanthus goujeti that lived in that area of the peninsula during the Devonian period. The fossils are part of the collection housed in the Palaeontology Museum of Zaragoza. ...> Full Article |
 | A new look at the diets of ancient African hominids shows a "game changer" occurred about 3.5 million years ago when some members added grasses or sedges to their menus, according to a new study led by the University of Colorado Boulder. ...> Full Article |
 | Spindle-shaped inclusions in 3 billion-year-old rocks are microfossils of plankton that probably inhabited the oceans around the globe during that time, according to an international team of researchers. ...> Full Article |
The first case of a bone tumor of the ribs in a Neanderthal specimen reveals that at least one Neanderthal suffered a cancer that is common in modern-day humans, according to research published June 5 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by David Frayer from the University of Kansas and colleagues from other institutions.
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 | The discovery of the oldest fossil skeleton of a primate provides insight into the phase of evolution when the lineage of modern monkeys, apes and humans split away. The fossil represents a new species, Archicebus achilles, and was unearthed in China. The skeleton was digitally reconstructed with synchrotron X-rays at the ESRF, allowing to study in detail this fossil radically different from any other primate, living or fossil. The results are published in Nature. ...> Full Article |
 | An international team of paleontologists is announcing the discovery of a nearly complete, articulated skeleton of a new tiny, tree-dwelling primate dating back 55 million years. It is is the oldest primate skeleton of this quality and completeness ever discovered. ...> Full Article |
 | A University of Iowa paleoanthropologist and his colleagues have published a paper in the June 5 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B that announces the discovery of a new species of lizard that lived in Southeast Asia about 40 million years ago and has been named for rock and roll legend Jim Morrison. ...> Full Article |
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