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Remarkable fossil evidence of an ancient sea cow being preyed upon by not one, but two different predators - a crocodile and a shark - offers fresh insights into the predation tactics and food chain dynamics of millions of years ago.

A team of geoscientists, including members from the Archaeology, Environmental Changes and Geo-Chemistry large research unit of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, has investigated traces of the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. The team examined samples from the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary layer, which marks the extinction of 70% of all species that existed at the time, including the dinosaurs.

Writing in The Conversation, Research Fellow Dr Sandra Álvarez-Carretero (UCL Biosciences) explains how her research offers new insights into the origin of life on Earth. Understanding how life began and evolved on Earth is a question that has fascinated humans for a long time, and modern scientists have  made great advances  when it comes to finding some answers.

University of Bonn researchers are studying the lifespan and growth patterns of early mammals What distinguishes the growth and development patterns of early mammals of the Jurassic period? This is the question jointly investigated by researchers of Queen Mary University of London and the University of Bonn.

Study: Cenozoic seeds of Vitaceae reveal a deep history of extinction and dispersal in the Neotropics The ancestor of Vitoid grapes that gave rise to commercial grapes likely originated in the New World, in the tropical belt of the Americas and the Caribbean, 60 million years ago, according to a study co-authored by a University of Michigan researcher.

UV teams discovers dietary similarities between the megalodon and the great white shark A study led by a UV research group shows that the extinct megalodon and the white shark may have competed for trophic resources. The scientific team found similarities in the diet of both predators by analysing dental microwear.

The region with the greatest marine biodiversity on our planet is known as the Coral Triangle or Indo-Australian Archipelago. However, the detailed evolutionary history of this biodiversity hotspot is poorly understood. An international research team has reconstructed how biodiversity has developed over the past 40 million years.

Fossils in Brazil indicate a more complex evolutionary history for ray-finned fish brains than previously anticipated, according to new research. Rodrigo Tinoco Figueroa , a Brazilian doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan, and colleagues not only found well-preserved brains in late Paleozoic ray-finned fishes, they also discovered other soft tissues-such as fragments of the heart and eyes, meninges and gill filaments-a rarity in paleontology due to the scarcity of the fossil record.

An international team of researchers has discovered a previously unknown ape species in the Hammerschmiede clay pit in southern Germany. Buronius manfredschmidi was found close to the great ape Danuvius guggenmosi , known as "Udo". This was about 12 million years ago the first ape with adaptations for walking upright and made the Hammerschmiede excavation site famous.

The discovery, published in Nature, opens a new window on early animal evolution. At first glance, the simple, spikey sea sponge is no creature of mystery. No brain. No gut. No problem dating them back 700 million years. Yet convincing sponge fossils only go back about 540 million years, leaving a 160-million-year gap in the fossil record.

The patchy fossil record makes it difficult for paleontologists to draw an accurate picture of the extent of past biodiversity and to understand how it has changed over time. A study led by Rebecca Cooper and Daniele Silvestro from the University of Fribourg shows how artificial intelligence (AI) can make this task easier .

In a warmer climate, summers warm much faster than winters in northwestern Europe. That is the conclusion of research into fossil shells by an international team of earth scientists. With this knowledge we can better map the consequences of current global warming in the North Sea area. The researchers measured the chemical composition of fossil shells.

The ability to regulate body temperature, a trait all mammals and birds have today, may have evolved among some dinosaurs early in the Jurassic period about 180 million years ago, suggests a new study led by UCL and University of Vigo researchers. In the early 20 century, dinosaurs were considered slow-moving, "cold-blooded" animals like modern-day reptiles, relying on heat from the sun to regulate their temperature.

From today's perspective, they look like a cross between a horse and a gorilla: clawed animals (Chalicotheriidae) had a massive body and a horse-like head; their arms were much longer than their legs and equipped with claws. They belonged to the group of odd-toed ungulates and are thus related to modern rhinoceroses, horses and tapirs.

Scientists have discovered the tracks of a 5 metre-long raptor dinosaur, challenging what was previously known about the species' size range. The tracks were found in Fujian Province in south-eastern China by an international team of researchers with palaeontologist Dr Anthony Romilio from The University of Queensland's Dinosaur Lab providing detailed analysis.

Flowering plant-type leaf veins died out and re-evolved several times in the course of the Earth's history According to a research team led by palaeontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times.

A study carried out at the University of Bonn sheds light on a mystery that has puzzled paleontologists for 150 years Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the subject of much debate to this day.

Whether human or reptile: in the skull of most terrestrial vertebrates there is a gaping hole in the temple; in the case of most reptiles, there are two. Scientists have been looking for explanations for this for 150 years. A team of researchers from the University of Tübingen and Ruhr University Bochum has now shown that the forces acting on the skull change depending on how and where food is held, bitten and chewed in the mouth - and over millions of years, these factors lead to the formation of connections and openings in the skull.

Working with colleagues at the University of Copenhagen, Australian Museum and Flinders University, Professor Simon Ho and Dr Al-Aabid Chowdhury have found that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs was a 'big bang' for bird evolution. In a world first, a team of international scientists including three Australians, Al-Aabid Chowdhury and Professor Simon Ho from University of Sydney, and Dr Jacqueline Nguyen from Australian Museum and Flinders University, have determined the family tree of modern birds and pinpointed the timing of their evolution.

New fossil ray species discovered in Bavarica, Germany: Aellopobatis bavarica from the Late Jurassic In a new study recently published in the journal Papers in Palaeontology , an international team of scientists led by palaeobiologist Julia Türtscher from the University of Vienna has explored the puzzling world of rays that lived 150 million years ago and discovered a previously hidden diversity - including a new ray species.