http://www.paleoportal.org Interesting news from the world of Paleontology 2006 PaleoPortal.org en-us Andy Farke <tapestrywebmaster@lists.berkeley.edu> Wed, 20 Aug 2008 06:30:02 PDT University of Alberta scientists contend they have the answer to mass extinction of animals and plants 93 million years ago. The answer, research has uncovered, has been found at the bottom of the sea floor where lava fountains erupted, altering the chemistry of the sea and possibly of the atmosphere. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717095027.htm Fri, 18 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080717095027.htm Reuters - Scientists in Panama have unearthed hundreds of animal fossils dating back 20 million years, which could shed more light on how and when the American continent became connected. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fossils/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080717/sc_nm/panama_fossils_dc Thu, 17 Jul 2008 21:43:49 GMT nm/20080717/panama_fossils_dc Scientists have confirmed that an approximately 500 million-year-old stromatolite was recently discovered at the Boxley Blue Ridge Quarry near Roanoke, Virginia. This is the first-ever intact stromatolite head found in Virginia, and is one of the largest complete "heads" in the world, at over 5 feet in diameter and weighing over 2 tons. Stromatolites are among the earliest known life forms, and are important in helping scientists understand more about environments that existed in the past. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080704122847.htm Tue, 08 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080704122847.htm New research may be disproving much of the conventional wisdom about the diversity of marine fossils and extinction rates. While previous research showed eventual recoveries in the diversity of fossils after periods of extinction, new work shows that the number of species comes back up quickly -- at least on a geological time scale -- and then stays relatively flat. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080711090057.htm Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080711090057.htm It has long been debated whether dinosaurs were part of the 'Terrestrial Revolution' that occurred some 100 million years ago during the Cretaceous when birds, mammals, flowering plants, insects and reptiles all underwent a rapid expansion. During their last 50 million years of existence, dinosaurs were not expanding as actively as had been previously thought and that the apparent explosion of dinosaur diversity may be largely explained by sampling bias. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724074203.htm Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080724074203.htm AFP - A duck-billed dinosaur which was a favourite prey of the Tyrannosaurus Rex grew "like crazy" from egg to adult-size to avoid being eaten by the king of the dino world, a study revealed Wednesday. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fossils/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080806/sc_afp/sciencebritaindinosaur Wed, 06 Aug 2008 10:18:54 GMT afp/20080806/sciencebritaindinosaur In a new study published in the online-open access journal PLoS ONE, Per Christiansen at the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, Denmark, reports the finding that the evolution of skull and mandible shape in sabercats and modern cats were governed by different selective forces, and the two groups evolved very different adaptations to killing. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080729234258.htm Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080729234258.htm Paleontologists in 2005 hailed research apparently showing that soft tissues had been recovered from dissolved dinosaur bones, but new research suggests the supposed recovered tissue is really just biofilm -- or slime. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080729234140.htm Wed, 30 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080729234140.htm AP - Call them the paleo-paparazzi. Scientists trying to learn more about dinosaurs are snapping aerial photos of tracks left behind millions of years ago near southern Utah's Coral Pink Sand Dunes. http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/fossils/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080729/ap_on_sc/dino_tracks Tue, 29 Jul 2008 22:58:34 GMT ap/20080729/dino_tracks A global change in climate could explain the explosion in marine biodiversity that took place 460 million years ago. Researchers have now found evidence of a progressive ocean cooling of about 15°C over a period of 40 million years during the Ordovician. Until now, this geologic period had been associated with a "super greenhouse effect" on our planet. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080727225420.htm Mon, 28 Jul 2008 11:00:00 EDT http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/07/080727225420.htm