Science

According to new research, American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) have remained virtually untouched by evolutionary change for at least 8 million years — up to 6 million years older than previously thought. American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis). Image credit: Gareth Rasberry / CC BY-SA 3.0. “If we could step back in time …

An international team of archaeologists from Sweden, Greece and the United Kingdom is exploring the ruins of a previously unknown ancient city at the village of Vlochos, municipality of Palamas, central Greece. The city’s acropolis is barely visible during a cloudy day on the Thessalian plains. Image credit: Swedish Institute …

Paleontologists have described a completely unexpected new species of reptile that lived 230 million years ago (Triassic period). Dr. Stocker and co-authors describe Triopticus primus, a bizarre Late Triassic animal, whose skull structure is converged on by distantly related dome-headed pachycephalosaurs. The unique body plans observed in Triopticus primus and …

 A 90-million-year-old fossil discovered in Morocco is the oldest known iguanian lizard from Africa, which could help tell the story of lizard evolution in southern continents, paleontologists say. An artistic life reconstruction of Jeddaherdan aleadonta. Image credit: Jorge González. Iguania (chameleons, agamas, iguanas and New World lizards) is one of …

A multinational team of researchers has uncovered fossil proteins dating back 3.8 million years — a discovery that will enhance future understanding of ancient organisms. The team has identified fossil proteins in 3.8 million year-old ostrich eggshells. Image credit: Matthew Collins. Fragments of ancient ostrich eggshells are abundant in Africa, …

An international team of paleontologists, led by Carleton University researcher Bradley McFeeters, has added another ornithomimid dinosaur to the prehistoric catalog, and this one was found in the Canadian province of Alberta. An artistic life reconstruction of Rativates evadens in the paleoenvironment of the Late Cretaceous of Alberta. Image credit: …

212-million-year-old fossils discovered in New Mexico confirm that Drepanosaurus, a Late Triassic tree-dwelling reptile, was a small-bodied creature with a fearsome finger. The second digit of its forelimb sported a huge claw. Drepanosaurus unguicaudatus rips away tree bark with its huge claw and powerful arm. Image credit: Victor Leshyk. Yale …

A fossilized biting midge found in India preserved in amber dates back some 54 million years, says an international team of paleontologists. Camptopterohelea odora in amber from Gujarat State, western India. Scale bar – 0.2?mm. Image credit: Frauke Stebner / University of Bonn. From studying the amber from Gujarat State …

Fossilized teeth from a newly identified species of extinct shark that lived 20 million years ago (early Miocene) were found in the mid-latitudinal zones along the Pacific (Japan, California, and Peru) and western Atlantic (North Carolina) coasts. Megalolamna paradoxodon lived in the same oceans megatoothed sharks inhabited. Image credit: Kenshu …

An enigmatic wingless parasitic wasp has been found preserved in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, a new study says. Aptenoperissus burmanicus lived at the base of trees while dinosaurs wondered around above it, and is the only known specimen in a newly-created family, Aptenoperissidae. Scale bar – 1.0 mm. Image credit: George …