Archaeology News Online

It is a classic chase scene in modern cinematic history. The image of a rampant Tyrannosaurus rex (T. rex) chasing Jeff Goldblum as he sits injured in the back of a 4x4 vehicle in Stephen Spielberg’s original film adaptation of Jurassic Park. But could a T. rex actually move that fast, or even run at all? Illustration shows a Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaur hunting an Ornithomimus dinosaur. The T. rex was among the largest  carnivorous dinosaurs, but was not a swift runner [Credit: © Mark Garlick/Science Photo Library/Corbis] New research from the University of Manchester says the sheer size and weight of T. rex means it couldn’t move at high speed, as its leg-bones would have buckled under its own weight load. The research, published by journal PeerJ , looks extensively into the gait and biomechanics of the world’s most famous Dinosaur and, using the latest high performance computing technology from N8 High Performance Computing (HPC), has created a new simulation model to test its findin

Today mammals and birds are the only true warm-blooded animals. They are called endotherms, meaning they produce their body heat internally. The skeleton of a therapsid dicynodont Lystrosaurus [Credit: Flickr] Endotherm animals are the opposite to ectotherms which get their heat from an external factor like the sun. They are considered “cold-blooded”. The origins of warm-bloodedness in mammals has been a very controversial issue for two reasons. One is that several of the anatomical features thought to be linked to warm-bloodedness have also been found in cold-blooded reptiles. The other is that these characteristics are not always preserved in fossils, giving scientists inconsistent signals about the presence of warm-bloodedness. Our research helps shed new light on this controversy. We’ve been able to come up with new insights about how mammals developed a warm-blooded metabolism that may have helped them survive the terrible mass extinction that marked the end of the Permian period

For three years, Tara Djokic, a Ph.D. student at the University of New South Wales Sydney, scoured the forbidding landscape of the Pilbara region of Western Australia looking for clues to how ancient microbes could have produced the abundant stromatolites that were discovered there in the 1970s. Conical stromatolite (view from the top) at the Trendall locality in the Pilbara  [Credit: © Government of Western Australia] Stromatolites are round, multilayered mineral structures that range from the size of golf balls to weather balloons and represent the oldest evidence that there were living organisms on Earth 3.5 billion years ago. Scientists who believed life began in the ocean thought these mineral formations had formed in shallow, salty seawater, just like living stromatolites in the World Heritage-listed area of Shark Bay, which is a two-day drive from the Pilbara. But what Djokic discovered amid the strangling heat and blood-red rocks of the region was evidence that the stromatolite

In the shallow waters of a sea in northern China 500 million years ago, a dazzling new array of creatures was swimming: part of an explosion of animal diversity that would forever change the course of life on Earth. Quietly, in the seabed beneath them, another revolution was underway. Close-up view of fossilized branching burrows preserved in rock formed from an ancient seabed  in what is now northern China [Credit: University of Saskatchewan] For perhaps the first time, tiny creatures were pushing their way through the sediment to create complex mazes of burrows, slowly but profoundly altering the environment around them. Evidence of these early "ecosystem engineers" was published in Scientific Reports by researchers from the University of Saskatchewan (USA) and Henan Polytechnic University in China. The floors of Earth's ancient oceans looked very different than they do today, said Luis Buatois, a professor in the US Department of Geological Sciences and one of the st

Scientists from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Philip J Currie Dinosaur Museum have identified and named a new species of dinosaur in honour of renowned Canadian palaeontologist Dr. Philip J. Currie. Albertavenator curriei, meaning "Currie's Alberta hunter." It stalked Alberta, Canada, about 71 million years ago in what is now the famous Red Deer River Valley. The find recognizes Currie for his decades of work on predatory dinosaurs of Alberta. Research on the new species is published in the Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences . Life recreation of Albertavenator curriei [Credit: © Oliver Demuth] Palaeontologists initially thought that the bones of Albertavenator belonged to its close relative Troodon, which lived around 76 million years ago -- five million years before Albertavenator. Both dinosaurs walked on two legs, were covered in feathers, and were about the size of a person. New comparisons of bones forming the top of the head reveal that Albertavenator had a

Using a combination of fossils and chemical markers, scientists have tracked how a period of globally low ocean-oxygen turned an Early Jurassic marine ecosystem into a stressed community inhabited by only a few species. Before the low oxygen period, bivalves were larger and more numerous [Credit: The University of Texas at Austin/ Rowan Martindale] The research was led by Rowan Martindale, an assistant professor at The University of Texas at Austin Jackson School of Geosciences, and published in print in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoeconology . The study was co-authored by Martin Aberhan, a curator at the Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science at the Natural History Museum in Berlin, Germany. The study zeroes in on a recently discovered fossil site in Canada located at Ya Ha Tinda Ranch near Banff National Park in southwest Alberta. The site records fossils of organisms that lived about 183 million years ago during the Early Jurassic in a shallow sea that once co

There was a lot of excitement when scientists reported the discovery of an entirely new hominin species, Homo naledi , in 2015. Since then, we are gradually learning more about them. For example, earlier this year, researchers found that they lived sometime between 335,000 and 236,000 years ago. Teeth don’t lie [Credit: Ian Towle] Now my colleagues and I have reported among the first evidence on the diet and behaviour of this fascinating new addition to the human family tree. Our research, published in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology , suggests they probably ate a substantially different diet from other South African hominins. The young age of Homo naledi suggests they may have shared their environment with humans, raising an intriguing discussion about the ecological niche they would have filled . The preservation of their skeletons is also interesting – the research team that first described it concluded they may have deliberately placed their dead in the cave. Mapping

A scientific team has found the first evidence of parental care in Tanaidaceans, dating back to more than 105 million years, according to a new study published in the journal Scientific Reports , from Nature group. A new species looking after their offspring, Daenerytanais maieuticus, is named after the fiction character  Daenerys Targaryen “Mother of Dragons”, Khaleesi in the TV series Game of Thrones  [Credit: University of Barcelona] These new findings are based on the study of three small crustaceans from different species of the Cretaceous -Alavatanais carabe, Alavatanais margulisae and Daenerytanais maieuticus- preserved in amber pieces from the sites in Peñacerrada (Álava, Spain) and La Buzinie (Charente, France), reference models in the study of fossil records in amber with bioinclusions of the Mesozoic in Europe. The authors of the study are the researchers Alba Sánchez and Xavier Delclòs, from the Faculty of Earth Sciences and the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) of th

Large, robust, lens-shaped microfossils from the approximately 3.4 billion-year-old Kromberg Formation of the Kaapvaal Craton in eastern South Africa are not only among the oldest elaborate microorganisms known, but are also related to other intricate microfossils of the same age found in the Pilbara Craton of Australia, according to an international team of scientists. Lenticular organic microfossils in the Kromberg Formation, Onverwacht Group, Barberton Mountain Land of South  Africa. Image shown is an optical photomicrograph of a polished thin section, taken in transmitted light  [Credit: Dorothy Oehler/Maud Walsh (Louisiana State University)] The researchers report that the "Kromberg Formation (KF) forms are bona fide, organic Archean microfossils and represent some of the oldest morphologically preserved organisms on Earth," in the July issue of Precambrian Research . They also state that the combination of morphology, occurrence and carbon isotope values argues that the

DNA in a fossil from a young girl has revealed that a mysterious extinct human lineage occupied the middle of Asia longer than previously thought, allowing more potential interbreeding with Neanderthals, a new study finds. Photographs of the Denisova 2 lower second molar in (A) occlusal, (B) mesial, (C) buccal, (D) lingual, (E) distal, and  (F) apical views. Scientists estimate the molar found in the Denisova Cave in Siberia is older than previously  studied Denisovan fossils [Credit: Slon et al. Sci. Adv. 2017; 3: e1700186] Although modern humans are the only surviving human lineage, other hominins — which include modern humans, extinct human species and their immediate ancestors — once lived on Earth. These included Neanderthals, the closest extinct relatives of modern humans, as well as the Denisovans, who lived across a region that might have stretched from Siberia to Southeast Asia. In 2010, researchers analyzed DNA from fossils to reveal the existence of the Denisovans, suggestin

Following a discovery in 2015 in Alberta's Dinosaur Provincial Park, Greg Funston puzzled for two years over a mysterious bone trying to identify the species of animal—as well as the part of the body—the bone belonged to. Three Pteranodon Longicepts fly over a misty prehistoric seascape, with two diplodocus dinosaurs  near the shore [Credit: Seeker] "It confused us for a long time, because it's such an unusual bone," said Funston, a UAlberta PhD student in paleontology. "There are a lot of features to it, but none of them are like anything we've ever seen before." Funston initially thought the bone might belong to either a theropod dinosaur or a prehistoric bird. After exhaustive comparison to other known species and insight from pterosaur expert and UAlberta alumna Liz Martin-Silverstone, the team knew the bone was part of the pelvis that belonged to the pterosaur species, an ancient non-dinosaurian reptile species typically associated with flight. They

Bruce Museum Curator Dr. Daniel Ksepka has published a research paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science announcing the discovery of a new species of fossil bird in New Mexico. Artist’s rendering of Tsidiiyazhi abini [Credit: Sean Murtha] The fossil is important because it is the oldest tree-dwelling species among modern bird groups. It lived just a few million years after the dinosaurs went extinct. Because of its place in the arboreal crown, the new species shows that birds radiated explosively in the aftermath of the Cretaceous mass extinction, rapidly splitting into different forms to pursue a variety of diets and lifestyles. The bones were found by 11-year-old twins Ryan and Taylor Williamson, the sons of paleontologist Tom Williamson, one of the co-authors of the research. Surprisingly, the fossil belongs to a mousebird, a type of bird which today lives only in Africa. The team named the new species Tsidiiyazhi abini. Fossil bones of Tsidiiyazhi abini, a 62.5

Why did life on Earth change from small to large when it did? Researchers from the University of Cambridge and the Tokyo Institute of Technology have determined how some of the first large organisms, known as rangeomorphs, were able to grow up to two metres in height, by changing their body size and shape as they extracted nutrients from their surrounding environment. Artist's impression of rangeomorphs [Credit: Jennifer Hoyal Cuthill] The results, reported in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution , could also help explain how life on Earth, which once consisted only of microscopic organisms, changed so that huge organisms like dinosaurs and blue whales could ultimately evolve. Rangeomorphs were some of the earliest large organisms on Earth, existing during a time when most other forms of life were microscopic in size. Some rangeomorphs were only a few centimetres in height, while others were up to two metres tall. These organisms were ocean dwellers that lived during the Ediaca

Throughout the history of life, new groups of species have flourished at the expense of earlier ones and global biodiversity has varied dramatically over geologic time. A new study led by the University of Turku, Finland, shows that completely different factors regulate the rise and fall of species. Tree ferns still occupy the tropical moist forests in Australia, even though  they shared their 'golden age' with dinosaurs  [Credit: Samuli Lehtonen] "Previously, the debate has been about whether biodiversity is regulated mainly by the interaction between species or the external environment," explains researcher and leader of the study Samuli Lehtonen from the Biodiversity Unit of the University of Turku. In order to test these competing views, Lehtonen compiled a group of top researchers from Finland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. The researchers focused on the diversity of ferns and the factors that influenced it during the past 400 million years. Ferns ha

A Neanderthal child’s upper right canine milk tooth from the Vanguard Cave was discovered during laboratory work in the Gibraltar Museum, on Monday 3rd July, by Miriam Napper of Liverpool John Moores University, and Lucia Castagna from Bologna University. They noticed a strange tooth, which they passed to Stewart Finlayson of the Gibraltar Museum who immediately recognised its importance. The Neanderthal child’s upper right canine milk tooth from the Vanguard Cave  [Credit: Gibraltar Museum] Photographs of the tooth were sent immediately to leading experts in this field, particularly working on Neanderthal teeth, who confirmed that tooth belonged to a human child aged 4-5 years and showed features characteristic of Neanderthal. Its context, in a level at Vanguard Cave dated to ~50,000 years ago, confirms the identity as being Neanderthal. The level from which the tooth came is not one of occupation by Neanderthals but is, instead, a Spotted Hyaena (Crocuta crocuta) lair. It is possibl