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Fossil and Archaeology News - December 2007 Archives
 | Scientists have discovered the missing link between whales and their four-footed ancestors. The result is reported in this week's issue of the journal Nature. The research is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF). ...> Full Article |
 | The collapse of honeybee colonies across North America is focusing attention on the honeybees' vital role in the survival of agricultural crops, and a new study by University of Florida and Indiana University Southeast researchers shows insect pollinators have likely played a key role in the evolution and success of flowering plants for nearly 100 million years. ...> Full Article |
 | The mysterious missing link between marine mammals known as cetaceans -- a group that includes whales, dolphins and porpoises -- and their land-based mammal ancestors has been found. ...> Full Article |
 | Time Magazine has named a study by Oxford researchers, using new dating techniques on a human skull to help find out where our most recent common ancestor came from, as one of the Top 10 Scientific Discoveries of the Year. ...> Full Article |
 | Where and Why Humans Made Skates Out of Animal Bones ...> Full Article |
 | Some of the world's most exquisite early models of the natural world have been made available to the public for the first time. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists studying ancient fish bones in Scandinavia have discovered that warm-water species like anchovies and black sea bream that once thrived in Danish waters during a prehistoric warm period are now returning. Some cold-water species, such as cod, were also abundant during this period, having benefited from a lower fishing effort. ...> Full Article |
 | Researchers have discovered important information about the origin of flowering plants and how they reproduce. ...> Full Article |
 | Ancient armoured fish fossils from Australia present some of the first definite fossil evidence of a forerunner to the human eye, a scientist from The Australian National University says. ...> Full Article |
 | Evolutionary differences in male and female spine ...> Full Article |
 | A paleontological dig in Chile at an altitude of more than 14,000 feet in the Andes has yielded fossils of an 18-million-year-old armored mammal. It appears to be one of the most primitive members of a family of extinct mammals known as "glyptodonts," a group closely related to the modern-day armadillo. ...> Full Article |
A new genus and species of dinosaur from the Early Jurassic has been discovered in Antarctica. The massive plant-eating primitive sauropodomorph is called Glacialisaurus hammeri and lived about 190 million years ago.
...> Full Article
 | The remains of one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs ever found have recently been recognized as representing a new species by a student working at the University of Bristol. ...> Full Article |
 | Scientists in France are reporting for the first time that sculptors from the fantastically wealthy ancient Empire of Mali -- once the source of almost half the world's gold -- used blood to form the beautiful patina, or coating, on their works of art. Pascale Richardin and colleagues describe development of a new, noninvasive test that accurately identifies traces of blood apparently left on ancient African artifacts used in ceremonies involving animal sacrifices. ...> Full Article |
 | Coaxing answers from 1500-year-old clues hidden in soil clumps, a team of archaeologists and environmental scientists identified a marketplace in an ancient Maya city, calling into question archaeologists' widely held belief that people of the era relied on rulers to tax and re-distribute goods, rather than trading them with one another. ...> Full Article |
 | Although most scientists believe tuberculosis emerged only several thousand years ago, new research from The University of Texas at Austin reveals the most ancient evidence of the disease has been found in a 500,000-year-old human fossil from Turkey. ...> Full Article |
 | The belief among some archeologists that Europeans introduced alcohol to the Indians of the American Southwest may be faulty. ...> Full Article |
 | An international European research collaboration led by scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology reports evidence for a rapid developmental pattern in a 100,000 year old Belgian Neanderthal (Homo neanderthalensis). The report, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA (online edition early December), details how the team used growth lines both inside and on the surfaces of the child's teeth to reconstruct tooth formation time and its' age at death. ...> Full Article |
Palaeontologist Dr Phil Manning, working with National Geographic Channel has uncovered the Holy Grail of palaeontology in the United States: a partially intact dino mummy.
...> Full Article
A major gift will enable Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park near Royal to greatly expand its Rhino Barn. The larger enclosed facility will enable paleontologists to discover more fossils and enhance the experiences for visitors.
...> Full Article
Long before tourists arrived in the Bahamas, ancient visitors took up residence in this archipelago off Florida's coast and left remains offering stark evidence that the arrival of humans can permanently change - and eliminate - life on what had been isolated islands, says a University of Florida researcher.
...> Full Article
 | How did the rodents which inhabited the south of the Iberian Peninsula live six million years ago? The researcher of the UGR Raef Minwer-Barakat has attempted to answer this question through his doctoral thesis "Rodents and insectivorous of Upper Turoliense and the Pliocene of the central section of the Guadix basin", supervised by doctors Elvira Martín and César Viseras, of the Department of Stratigraphy y Palaeontology of the Universidad de Granada. His studied has concluded with the discovering of three new species of rodents and insectivores (Micromys caesaris, Blarinoides aliciae and Archaeodesmana elvirae) and the finding, for the first time in the region, of nine more species. ...> Full Article |
 | Among the earliest reliably dated modern human fossils from Europe is the Cioclovina calvaria from Romania. This individual lived about 28-29 thousand years before present, and has recently been argued to represent a Neanderthal-modern human hybrid. ...> Full Article |
 | Dennis Myllyla thought he'd struck a fine bargain with the Michigan Department of Transportation. MDOT would get fill for nearby highway construction by dredging a pond on his farm near Arnheim, Mich., and Myllyla would get the pond. ...> Full Article |
Fossils illustrate sex differences in growth and the costs of being a male
...> Full Article
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Fish can recognize a face based on UV pattern alone
Ancient DNA from rare fossil reveals that polar bears evolved recently and adapted quickly
Scientists locate apparent hydrothermal vents off Antarctica
Mars Express heading for closest flyby of Phobos
Artificial bee silk a big step closer to reality
Predicting the fate of stem cells
Artificial foot recycles energy for easier walking
New fiber nanogenerators could lead to electric clothing
What drives our genes? Researchers map the first complete human epigenome
Juggling enhances connections in the brain
Tracking down the human 'odorprint'
Fill 'er up - with algae
Scientists discover quantum fingerprints of chaos
Researchers help identify cows that gain more while eating less
Dinosaurs might be older than previously thought
Recently analyzed fossil was not human ancestor as claimed, anthropologists say
'Anaconda' meets 'Jurassic Park': Study shows ancient snakes ate dinosaur babies
Tiny shelled creatures shed light on extinction and recovery 65 million years ago
New dinosaur rears its head
New dinosaur discovered head first, for a change
Archaeologist discovers Jerusalem city wall from tenth century B.C.E.
Pitt-led study debunks millennia-old claims of systematic infant sacrifice in ancient Carthage
What was that? Unraveling a 400-million-year-old mystery
Queen's helps produce archaeological 'time machine'
Scientists complete color palette of a dinosaur for the first time
Ancient remains put teeth into Barker hypothesis