news 2022

International research team describes bone cancer in a large amphibian species from southwestern Poland More than 215 million years ago, a large amphibian species lived in floodplains in southwestern Poland: Metoposaurus krasiejowensis. On one of these fossils, Polish and American scientists, with the participation of researchers from the University of Bonn, detected bone cancer for the first time.

An international team of scientists has made a groundbreaking discovery at a major new fossil site in Morocco: giant arthropods - relatives of modern animals such as shrimps, insects and spiders - would have dominated the seas 470 million years ago. The excavations were carried out in Taichoute, in Morocco, on a site formerly underwater but today desert.

A long-necked dinosaur from northern Germany was a so-called nest fledger Europasaurus was a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur on four legs. The dinosaur lived in the late Jurassic period about 154 million years ago on a small island in what is now northern Germany. Researchers from the Universities of Vienna and Greifswald have now examined fossil skull remains of Europasaurus using computer tomography.

Climate change, rather than competition, played a key role in the ascendancy of dinosaurs through the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods. According to new research, changes in global climate associated with the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinction - which wiped out many large terrestrial vertebrates such as the giant armadillo-like aetosaurs - actually benefitted the earliest dinosaurs.

An international research team including the Department of Biology at the University of Hamburg has used computer models and engineering methods to analyze the mobility of dinosaur tails. According to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, the researchers found that these tails could move at speeds of more than 100 kilometers per hour.

Yale research has identified the oldest-known, definitive members of an evolutionary group that includes all living lizards and their closest extinct relatives. Yale researchers have identified the oldest-known, definitive members of the lizard crown group that includes all living lizards and their closest extinct relatives.

Scientists find copies of lost fossil destroyed in WWII hiding in a US museum. The world's first complete skeleton of a prehistoric reptile brought to the attention of science was discovered a little over 200 years ago and named ' Proteosaurus '. Unfortunately, that fossil was destroyed in an air raid in May 1941, during WWII, with no copies thought to exist.

Göttingen University geobiologist discovers diversity of patterns in 240 million-year-old seashells UV light makes it possible to see intricate structures of fossils that are barely visible in normal daylight. This method has often been used on the fossilised seashells from the Earth's current geological era to reveal patterns of colour that had long since faded away.

A fossil discovery from Scotland has provided new information on the early evolution of lizards, during the time of the dinosaurs, reports a study involving UCL researchers. The tiny skeleton discovered on the Isle of Skye, called Bellairsia gracilis , is only 6 cm long and dates from the Middle Jurassic, 166 million years ago.

Acoustic communication is not only widespread in land vertebrates like birds and mammals, but also in reptiles, amphibians and fishes. Many of them are usually considered mute, but in fact show broad and complex acoustic repertoires. According to researchers at the University of Zurich, the evolutionary origin of vocal communication dates back more than 400 million years.

For the first time, zinc isotope ratios in tooth enamel have been analysed with the aim of identifying the diet of a Neanderthal. Other chemical tracers indicate that this individual did not consume the blood of their prey, but ate the bone marrow without consuming the bones. A new study published on october 17th in the journal PNAS , led by a CNRS researcher, has for the first time used zinc isotope analysis to determine the position of Neanderthals in the food chain.

Study by the University of Bonn proves for the first time that enigmatic microstructures originate from calcium oxalate In fossil leaves, puzzling structures are often visible under the microscope. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show for the first time that they originate from calcium oxalate crystals.

Study by the University of Bonn proves for the first time that enigmatic microstructures originate from calcium oxalate In fossil leaves, puzzling structures are often visible under the microscope. Researchers at the University of Bonn have now been able to show for the first time that they originate from calcium oxalate crystals.

Researchers at the University of Bonn study the way of life of extinct amphibians If you need to lurk at the bottom of a water body waiting for prey, it is wise to stay motionless without resisting against the buoyant forces of water. To do so you need a kind of diving belt that helps to sink. One large amphibian species Metoposaurus krasiejowensis, that lived more than 200 million years ago, compensated for buoyancy with a heavy shoulder girdle.

The first appearance of shark-like 'jawed fish' may have happened some 15 million years earlier than previously thought, according to new evidence. A handful of fossil teeth from a completely new species, uncovered from rock samples found in China, suggest jawed fish emerged some time at the end of the Ordovician, or beginning of the Silurian period, around 440 million years ago.

An extinct species of lizard-like reptile that belongs to the same ancient lineage as New Zealand's living tuatara has been discovered by a team involving a UCL researcher. The researchers describe the new species Opisthiamimus gregori , which once inhabited Jurassic North America about 150 million years ago alongside dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Allosaurus , in a paper published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology .

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of algae called  Protocodium sinense  that predates the origin of land plants and modern animals and provides new insight into the early diversification of the plant kingdom. Discovered at a site in China, the 541-million-year-old fossil is the first and oldest green alga from this era to be preserved in three dimensions, enabling the researchers to investigate its internal structure and identify the new specimen with unprecedented accuracy.

Canid conundrum. Upending long-held assumptions, researchers found that a single doglike species that entered South America less than 4 million years ago gave rise to all of today's canid species. Speedy speciation. Within a span of 2 million years, the blink of an eye in evolutionary time, all 10 existing species and some that are now extinct evolved from that original group.

Researchers have discovered a 380-million-year-old heart - the oldest ever found - alongside a separate fossilised stomach, intestine and liver in an ancient jawed fish, shedding new light on the evolution of our own bodies. The new research , found that the position of the organs in the body of arthrodires – an extinct class of armoured fishes that flourished through the Devonian period from 419.2 million years ago to 358.9 million years ago – is similar to modern shark anatomy, offering vital new evolutionary clues.

When they re-analyzed a skeleton that was discovered in Trossingen in 1922, consisting mainly of the rear of the body, Regalado Fernandez and Werneburg established that many of the bones were not the same as a typical Plateosaurus . For instance, the partial skeleton displayed, among other derived characters, broader and more strongly-built hips with fused sacral vertebrae as well as unusually large and robust long bones - both features implied locomotion on four legs.