Fossil and Archaeology News - July 2009 Archives

Scientist describes first vertebrate to live in trees (7/31/2009)

In the Late Paleozoic (260 million years ago), long before dinosaurs dominated the Earth, ancient precursors to mammals took to the trees to feed on leaves and live high above predators that prowled the land, Jörg Fröbisch, Ph.D., a Field Museum paleontologist has concluded. Elongated fingers, an opposable "thumb," and a grasping tail of Suminia getmanovi demonstrate that this small plant-eating synapsid is the earliest known tree-climbing vertebrate. ...> Full Article

Sex in the Caribbean: Environmental change drives evolutionary change - eventually (7/30/2009)

Hungry, sexual organisms replaced well-fed, clonal organisms in the Caribbean Sea as the Isthmus of Panama arose, separating the Caribbean from the Pacific, report researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute and Scripps Institution of Oceanography. The fossil record shows that if a species could shift from clonal to sexual reproduction it survived. Otherwise it was destined for extinction, millions of years later. ...> Full Article

Extinct rodent species discovered (7/29/2009)

An international team of scientists has discovered an extinct rodent species, based on fossil tooth remains found in Alborache, Valencia. Eomyops noeliae, from the Eomyidae family, represents the oldest find within this genus in the world ...> Full Article

Earliest animals lived in a lake environment, research shows (7/28/2009)

A UC Riverside-led team of researchers studying ancient rock samples in South China has found that the first animal fossils in the paleontological record are preserved in ancient lake deposits, not marine sediments as commonly assumed. The research gives scientists a glimpse into where some of the early animals lived and what the environmental conditions were like for them -- important information for addressing the broader questions of how and why animals appeared when they did. ...> Full Article

Small fossils provide key clues for interpreting environmental changes (7/26/2009)

The micropalaeontology team at the Department of Stratigraphy and Palaeontology at the University of the Basque Country is working on the study of microfossils under the direction of Mr. Julio Rodríguez Lázaro. The concentrations of these types of fossils and the composition of their shells can provide much information about the conditions of life thousands or even millions of years ago. ...> Full Article

Scientists determine that ancient Maya practiced forest conservation -- 3,000 years ago (7/25/2009)

Researchers find the forest and water conservation practices of the ancient Maya hold lessons for the future -- ours ...> Full Article

Ancient humans left evidence from the party that ended 4,000 years ago (7/24/2009)

MU researchers extract starch grains from gourd and squash artifacts, and learn about ancient feast ...> Full Article

California's Channel Islands hold evidence of Clovis-age comets (7/22/2009)

A 17-member team has found what may be the smoking gun of a much-debated proposal that a cosmic impact about 12,900 years ago ripped through North America and drove multiple species into extinction. ...> Full Article

Prehistoric cold case shows hints of interspecies homicide (7/21/2009)

The wound that ultimately killed a Neandertal man between 50,000 and 75,000 years was most likely caused by a thrown spear, the kind modern humans used but Neandertals did not, according to Duke University-led research. ...> Full Article

Primate archaeology sheds light on human origins (7/19/2009)

University of Calgary archaeologist Julio Mercader is joining his colleagues in establishing a discipline devoted to the history of tool use in nonhuman primate species in order to better understand human evolution. ...> Full Article

Fossilized dung balls reveal secret ecology of lost world (7/18/2009)

Research published in the journal Palaeontology reveals an intricate ecological system discovered within fossilized balls of dung. ...> Full Article

The last meal of the hominids establishes the times they lived at the sites (7/17/2009)

In the French cave of Arago, an international team of scientists has analyzed the dental wear of the fossils of herbivorous animals hunted by Homo heidelbergensis. It is the first time that an analytical method has allowed the establishment of the length of human occupations at archaeological sites. The key is the last food that these hominids consumed. ...> Full Article

Swedish researcher finds missing piece of fossil puzzle (7/16/2009)

The mode of reproduction seen in modern sharks is nearly 400 million years old. That is the conclusion drawn by Professor Per Erik Ahlberg, Uppsala University, from his discovery of a so-called "clasper" in a primitive fossil fish earlier this year. The research results are published today in Nature. ...> Full Article

Underwater exploration seeks evidence of early Americans (7/15/2009)

Where the first Americans came from, when they arrived and how they got here is as lively a debate as ever, only most of the research has focused on dry land excavations. Last summer's pivotal underwater exploration in the Gulf of Mexico led by Mercyhurst College archaeologist Dr. James Adovasio yielded evidence of inundated terrestrial sites that may have supported human occupation more than 12,000 years ago, paving the way for another expedition July 23. ...> Full Article

Down Under dinosaur burrow discovery provides climate change clues (7/14/2009)

Emory University paleontologist Tony Martin, who made the Montana discovery of the first known dinosaur burrow, has now found the trace fossil of a burrow in Australia almost identical to the one he identified in the US.The journal Cretaceous Research will publish Martin's find this month. His growing evidence of dinosaur burrows provides clues to climate change and how dinosaurs may have survived extreme environments -- throwing a wrench in some extinction theories. ...> Full Article

Explosive growth of life on Earth fueled by early greening of planet (7/12/2009)

Earth's 4.5-billion-year history is filled with several turning points but one of the biggest is the Cambrian explosion of life, roughly 540 million years ago, when complex, multicellular life burst out all over the planet. Now, researchers led by Arizona State University geologist L. Paul Knauth believe they have found the trigger for the Cambrian explosion. ...> Full Article

Field Museum conducts archaeological excavation at 'The Place of the Dead' (7/11/2009)

Scientists previously believed pre-Hispanic Zapotec rulers carried around human femurs as a symbol of power and legitimacy, as evidenced from a carved lintel at the site of Lambityeco, where a ruler is depicted with a femur in his hand. Now, a Field Museum excavation team has confirmed they did remove femurs from earlier graves and that this custom may have been widely practiced by heads of households outside of the ruling class. ...> Full Article

Coralline algae in the Mediterranean lost their tropical element between 5 and 7 million years ago (7/9/2009)

An international team of researchers has studied the coralline algae fossils that lived on the last coral reefs of the Mediterranean Sea between 7.24 and 5.3 million years ago. Mediterranean algae and coral reefs began to resemble present day reefs following the isolation of the Mediterranean from the Indian Ocean and global cooling 15 and 20 million years ago respectively. ...> Full Article

Ancient fossils shed light on anatomical changes accompanying evolution of first land vertebrates (7/8/2009)

Long before mammals, birds, and even dinosaurs roamed the Earth, the first four-legged creatures made their first steps onto land. These early land vertebrates varied considerably in size and shape. To understand the anatomical changes that accompanied this diversity, paleontologist Jennifer Clack teamed up with two biologists who work on living fishes -- Charles Kimmel of the University of Oregon, and Brian Sidlauskas of the National Evolutionary Synthesis Center in North Carolina. ...> Full Article

First direct evidence of substantial fish consumption by early modern humans in China (7/7/2009)

Freshwater fish are an important part of the diet of many peoples around the world, but it has been unclear when fish became an important part of the year-round diet for early humans. A new study by an international team of researchers, including Erik Trinkaus, Ph.D., professor of anthropology in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, shows it may have happened in China as far back as 40,000 years ago. ...> Full Article

Ferns took to the trees and thrived (7/3/2009)

As flowering plants like giant trees quickly rose to dominate plant communities during the Cretaceous period, the ferns that had preceded them hardly saw it as a disappointment. ...> Full Article

New fossil primate suggests common Asian ancestor, challenges primates such as 'Ida' (7/2/2009)

A new fossil primate from Myanmar suggests that the common ancestor of humans, monkeys and apes evolved from primates in Asia, not Africa as many researchers believe ...> Full Article

Dino tooth sheds new light on ancient riddle (7/1/2009)

Scientists discover major group of dinosaurs had unique way of eating unlike anything alive today ...> Full Article