Our ancestors and those of other modern mammals were not held back by the dinosaurs, but by other early mammal lineages, a study has concluded. It was assumed that mammals lived in the shadow of the dinosaurs, who filled many ecological niches, thus keeping mammals small and generalist in lifestyle and diet. And when the … Read more
Palaeontologists have unearthed a species of ‘talkative’ dinosaur from 73 million years ago that emitted ‘strong sounds’ to scare off predators and attract mates. The crested creature — Tlatolophus galorum — was found near General Cepeda in north-east Mexico by experts with the National Institute of Anthropology and History. The articulated tail of the newly-identified hadrosaur … Read more
The dinosaur that grew like a TREE: Analysis of 200million-year-old South African creature’s bones reveals its growth varied season-to-season — more like a plant than a puppy or a baby human Massospondylus carinatus was a plant-eating dinosaur from the early Jurassic Experts from American Museum of Natural History studied its fossil thigh bones They counted growth … Read more
A newly-identified sabre-toothed cat that lived in North America five to nine million years ago weighed some 600 pounds and could have taken down prey ten times its size. US researchers named the ferocious feline ‘Machairodus lahayishupup’ to honour the Cayuse people, on whose lands the original specimen was unearthed. In Old Cayuse, ‘Laháyis Húpup’ means ancient … Read more
Skinny teenage tyrannosaurs could likely run rings around their bulky, ‘fat-footed’ elders 66 million years ago, new analysis of fossilised footprints has suggested. Experts from Australia, Canada and Italy studied a set of tyrannosaur footprints found in the rocks of the Wapiti Formation on the British Columbia–Alberta border. They found that as tyrannosaurs grew larger … Read more
Skinny teenage tyrannosaurs could likely run rings around their bulky, ‘fat-footed’ elders 66 million years ago, new analysis of fossilised footprints has suggested. Experts from Australia, Canada and Italy studied a set of tyrannosaur footprints found in the rocks of the Wapiti Formation on the British Columbia–Alberta border. They found that as tyrannosaurs grew larger … Read more
Meet the Monkeydactyl! New species of flying reptile is discovered that lived in China 160 million years ago and has the oldest true opposed THUMB The fossil — ‘Kunpengopterus antipollicatus’ — was found in north-east China It was a small-sized pterosaur, with a wingspan in the order of 2.8 feet (85 cm) This is the first … Read more
Largest ever flightless bird lived in Australia 50,000 years ago and weighed up to 1,323lbs with a HUGE head more than 1.5 feet long — but its brain was squeezed for space Experts studied fossils of ‘mihirungs’, the name given to Australia’s giant birds The largest, Dromornis stirtoni, was able to reach some 10 feet (3 … Read more
Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was common, reanalysis of thirteen 48,000-year-old Neanderthal teeth from Jersey has revealed. The teeth were first uncovered between 1910–11 from the top of a small granite ledge within the La Cotte de St Brelade cave by archaeologists with the Société Jersiaise. While the teeth had been assumed to come from a … Read more
Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was common, reanalysis of thirteen 48,000-year-old Neanderthal teeth from Jersey has revealed. The teeth were first uncovered between 1910–11 from the top of a small granite ledge within the La Cotte de St Brelade cave by archaeologists with the Société Jersiaise. While the teeth had been assumed to come from a … Read more