Cretaceous
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Oldest known Modern Shark as a Mega Predator
A gigantic 8 m long mega-predatory shark stalks an unwary long-necked plesiosaur in the seas off Australia 115 million years ago.
Credit: Polyanna von Knorring, Swedish Museum of Natural History
Scientists have uncovered evidence of a colossal shark that lived off northern Australia about 115 million years ago, revealing that modern shark lineages grew to immense sizes far earlier than expected.
Rare vertebrae from rocks once part of the ancient Tethys ocean show that this early lamniform predator shared the seas with giant marine reptiles during the Age of Dinosaurs.
Vertebrae Reveal a Massive Early Cardabiodontid
Five vertebrae were recovered, each partially mineralized, which helped them survive through time. Their shape closely matches the vertebrae of modern Great White sharks.
However, while adult Great Whites typically have vertebrae about 8 cm wide, the vertebrae from the Darwin specimen measured more than 12 cm across.
Their distinctive features identify them as part of the cardabiodontid group, which consists of huge predatory sharks that lived around 100 million years ago. The Darwin shark is especially significant because it appears to be about 15 million years older than other known cardabiodontids and had already reached the large body size characteristic of the group...
This bright orange life-form could point to new dino discoveries
A new study has revealed how we can take to the skies when trying to find dinosaur remains all thanks to vibrant orange-colored lichens. Two species (Rusavskia elegans and Xanthomendoza trachyphylla) were found to grow across as much as 50 percent of exposed fossil bones, but only grew on less than 1 percent of the surrounding rock fragments
The reflected infrared light of bone-loving lichen can be detected by drones
Orange lichen growing on dinosaur bones (one shown) in Dinosaur Provincial Park can be detected by drones, potentially facilitating new finds.
A colossal titanosaur, Chucarosaurus diripienda, unearthed in Patagonia, measured 30 meters and weighed tens of tonnes. Its immense size even cracked a road during transport, highlighting its incredible bulk. This discovery offers new insights into how these giants evolved, moved, and survived, challenging previous notions of their agility and strength.
Named Chucarosaurus diripienda, this extraordinary dinosaur measured roughly 30 metres long and weighed tens of tonnes, making it one of the largest land animals ever discovered. Beyond its sheer size, the find is reshaping scientists’ understanding of how these long-necked giants evolved, moved, and survived in prehistoric ecosystems, offering fresh insights into their anatomy, growth patterns, and ancient environmental adaptations, while also revealing previously unknown skeletal features, muscle structures, and biomechanical traits that deepen our understanding of dinosaur physiology and evolutionary history.
''' A preserved < hatching line > confirms it must’ve died shortly after emerging from its egg... Truly a baby dinosaur, but big news for palaeontology ! '''
A new study has become the first-ever to definitively identify an ankylosaur hatchling. The specimen is around 115 million years old and belongs to the species Liaoningosaurus paradoxus, for which we’d previously only found juveniles. We’ve still yet to find a Liaoningosaurus adult !
It is not clear yet,” said study author Dr. Wenjie Zheng of the Zhejiang Museum of Natural History to IFLScience. “I suspect one possibility is that the juvenile individuals lived near water.”
Liaoningosaurus was a very different beast. It was pretty mini as ankylosaurs go. In fact, it was suspected to be the smallest of the ornithischia – an extinct clade of “bird-hipped” herbivores.
That assumption was built upon the fact that all the specimens we’ve found to date have been very small, although it wasn't entirely clear if they were tiny adults or developing juveniles...
[ ''' Fifteen years ago, Mark Norell, a paleontologist at the American Museum of Natural History, discovered a clutch of dinosaur eggs in southern Mongolia.
What seemed unusual about the find was the presence of at least a dozen embryos of Protoceratops, a small herbivorous dinosaur related to the Triceratops.
These embryos appeared to be curled up inside invisible eggs, surrounded by an enigmatic white halo in the surrounding rock. Norell and his team were intrigued—something didn’t quite add up.
Now, more than a decade later, they have unveiled the surprising answer. Soft-Shelled Eggs Were Likely Common Among Dinosaurs !
( so that presumed mosssaur egg from Antartica could also be a dinosaur's too )
■ [ ::: { Scientists Just Cracked an 85 Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Egg Mystery ! } ::: ] ■
● ] https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-just-cracked-an-85-million-year-old-dinosaur-egg-mystery/
^^^^^
Egg clutch sampled for chronological studies. Credit Dr. Bi Zhao
Researchers dated dinosaur eggs directly for the first time, placing them at 85 million years old. The findings link climate cooling to evolutionary pressures that may have doomed some species.
During the Cretaceous period, Earth experienced intense volcanic eruptions, widespread loss of oceanic oxygen, and several devastating mass extinctions. Fossils from this turbulent era still survive today, offering scientists valuable insights into the climate conditions that once shaped different regions of the planet...
'''' We show that these dinosaur eggs were deposited roughly 85 million years ago, in the Late Cretaceous period,” said corresponding author Dr. Bi Zhao, a researcher at the Hubei Institute of Geosciences.
We provide the first robust chronological constraints for these fossils, resolving long-standing uncertainties about their age... ''''
■ ] The majority are thought to belong to Placoolithus tumiaolingensis, a member of the Dendroolithidae family, which is distinguished by eggshells with unusually porous structures.
Meet : Sinopterus Atavismus
The Papper :
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095927325006759
''' Paleontologists from China and Brazil say they have found a total of 320 phytoliths — microscopic, rigid bodies made of mineral deposits that form inside plant cells — inside the fossilized stomach of a pterosaur species called Sinopterus atavismus... '''
'''' The Pterosaurs, a group of extinct reptiles from the Mesozoic Era, were the earliest vertebrates to evolve powered flight capabilities. Among the several questions surrounding these flying reptiles is their dietary habits, which remain poorly understood.
Various dietary hypotheses have been proposed for different pterosaur groups, encompassing insectivory, piscivory, carnivory, durophagy, herbivory / frugivory, filter-feeding, and generalist diets. As widely acknowledged, an incontrovertible piece of evidence is stomach contents, which are extremely rare. Besides the presence of scales associated with the ribcage of Eudimorphodon from the Late Triassic of Italy, there are only five confirmed cases of pterosaur stomach contents reported, all related to Rhamphorhynchus from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Limestone of Germany.
They are mainly composed of fish remains, with some unidentified objects. In a new study, Dr. Xiaolin Wang from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences and colleagues examined the fossilized stomach contents of Sinopterus atavismus, a species of tapejarid pterodactyloid pterosaur that lived in China around 120 million years ago... ''''
'''' They detected numerous small gastroliths within the stomach content and extracted 320 phytoliths from a small piece of the content. Phytoliths are microscopic silica structures formed during plant growth, exhibiting distinct morphologies across plant species and even within different parts of the same plant '' the paleontologists said...
'''' This discovery marks both the first phytolith extraction from any pterosaur and the second documented pterosaur specimen containing gastroliths. '''''
'''' To confirm that Sinopterus atavismus was truly a plant-eater, the researchers explored other possible explanations. “First, we ruled out contamination by showing that the surrounding rock contained none of the phytoliths found in the stomach,” they said.
“Next, we considered whether the plant material might have come from eating other plant-consuming animals.” “But Sinopterus atavismus had a fast, bird-like metabolism — if it had eaten vertebrates or insects, some traces like bones, scales, or hard insect shells would have remained in its stomach, yet none were present.”
“The idea that it ate soft-bodied creatures like caterpillars also didn’t hold up: why would it need so many stomach stones if it wasn’t grinding tough food?” “These stones are typically used by animals to break down hard materials like insect shells or plants, making them unnecessary for digesting soft prey.”
“Finally, earlier studies of Tapejara wellnhoferi — a close relative of Sinopterus atavismus — showed it had strong jaws suited for plant-eating, further supporting this conclusion.”
“Therefore, the phytoliths represent direct dietary intake, while the gastroliths functioned as grinding tools for plant material processing.”
^^^^
The specimen of Sinopterus atavismus. Image credit: Jiang et al
'''' A less-famous branch of sauropods — The Titanosauria — rewrote what scientists thought about how giant dinosaurs lived. Rather than fading away early, titanosaurs thrived for tens of millions of years and occupied ecosystems on all seven continents until The Asteroid impact 66 million years ago. ''''
Titanosaurs first appear in the fossil record by the Early Cretaceous, about 126 million years ago. Over the next 75–80 million years, continental drift helped distribute them worldwide.
Nearly 100 species are now recognized — more than 30% of known sauropod diversity — and they ranged from elephant-sized forms to giants exceeding 60 tons ( 54 metric tonnes ) such as Argentinosaurus, Patagotitan and Futalognkosaurus.
Titanosaurs were plant specialists with diverse feeding habits. Microscopic wear patterns on teeth from Argentina indicate consumption of gritty, low-growing vegetation, while coprolites (fossilized dung) from India show they could feed from ground-level plants up into tree branches — a broad feeding envelope.
Like other dinosaurs, titanosaurs continuously replaced their teeth; analyses suggest an extraordinary replacement rate of about every 20 days for individual teeth, among the fastest known for dinosaurs.
'''' Titanosaurs hatched from relatively small eggs — no larger than grapefruits. The richest nesting evidence comes from Auca Mahuevo in Argentina, where hundreds of nests and thousands of eggs ( about 75 million years old ) include exceptionally preserved embryos and even skin impressions.
The dense clustering of nests suggests repeated use of the same sites and a largely hands-off reproductive strategy: many eggs, little parental care.
Hatchlings were small by adult standards — roughly 1 ft (30 cm) tall, 3 ft (1 m) long and weighing only a few kilograms — and evidence from juvenile bones (for example, Rapetosaurus from Madagascar) shows they were presumed to be precocial, foraging and moving more independently at an early age....
For a long time paleontologists modeled titanosaur growth using slow, reptile-like rates that implied decades-long juvenescence. High-resolution studies of bone microstructure and vascular spaces tell a different story: titanosaurs grew rapidly, with growth rates comparable to large mammals such as whales.
Instead of taking a century to mature, many titanosaurs likely reached adult size within a few decades. Chemical analyses of fossil teeth and eggshells indicate titanosaurs maintained relatively high body temperatures — about 95–100.5 °F (35–38 °C) — warmer than modern crocodilians, roughly similar to many mammals, and slightly cooler than many birds.
Higher body temperatures and dense bone vascularization together helped sustain fast growth.... ''''
Tl;dr :: Dinosaurs were doing very well; Actually Great ! So the theory about the dinosaurs started to ''' decline ''' throughout the Cretaceous period is technically Debunked. That Damn Asteroid slaughtered them ! Second Asteroid was just sealing their fate | Grim Reaper's signature...
| Dinosaurs in New Mexico Thrived Until the Very End, Study Shows |
Study challenges long-held assumptions, finding late-surviving dinosaurs lived in vibrant, regionally distinct communities...
For decades, many scientists believed dinosaurs were already dwindling in numbers and variety long before an asteroid strike sealed their fate 66 million years ago. But new research in the journal Science from Baylor University, New Mexico State University, the Smithsonian Institution and an international team is rewriting that story. The dinosaurs, it turns out, were not fading away. They were flourishing.
| Latest Cretaceous Dinosaurs Lived in Vibrant, Regionally Distinct Communities |
The most iconic mass extinction in Earth history occurred around 66 million years ago, as rapid environmental destruction led to the extinction of around 75% of species, most famously the non-avian dinosaurs, and subsequently restructured terrestrial ecosystems.
Debate centers on whether dinosaurs vanished abruptly while diverse and flourishing or were in long-term decline before the end-Cretaceous.
New evidence reveals dinosaurs were thriving right up to the moment the asteroid hit Newly dated fossils from New Mexico challenge the idea that dinosaurs were in decline—and suggest instead they had formed flourishing communities !
Fossils reveal dinosaurs were thriving in North America just before being wiped out by asteroid strike, study shows...
Scientists have long debated whether dinosaurs were in decline before an asteroid smacked the Earth 66 million years ago, causing mass extinction.
New research suggests dinosaur populations were still thriving in North America before the asteroid strike, but it's only one piece of the global picture, independent experts say.
"Dinosaurs were quite diverse and now we know there were quite distinct communities" roaming around before being abruptly wiped out, said Daniel Peppe, a study co-author and paleontologist at Baylor University.
| Late-surviving New Mexican dinosaurs illuminate high end-Cretaceous diversity and provinciality |
Editor’s summary ::: Since researchers first began to understand that the mass nonavian dinosaur extinction occurring at the end of the Cretaceous was due to an asteroid, many have also debated whether these groups were already on the decline.
This debate has been ongoing for decades, in large part because there are few fossil sites dated to this precise time period outside of those in the northern plains of North America, which may only tell part of the story.
Flynn et al. now date a previously problematic site in New Mexico and model diversity and endemism around the asteroid impact. They found that non-avian dinosaurs were not in decline before this event, and it really was THE asteroid that did them in....
| Fossils of Some of the Last Dinosaurs in North America Have a Story to Tell |
| Rare look at the last days of the dinosaurs shows they were Thriving, scientists say |
An artist's impression of the last dinosaurs from southern North America features a long-necked Alamosaurus. Credit : Natalia Jagielska
A site in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico is providing a rare glimpse into the last days of the dinosaurs. Rocks and fossils at the Naashoibito Member site show an ecosystem that was filled with a diverse population of dinosaurs just before they disappeared from Earth.
Paleontologists have long debated if the dinosaurs suddenly went extinct when a 6.2-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) asteroid crashed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period, or if they were in a gradual decline and living in weakened ecosystems ahead of the catastrophic event.
Answering that question requires finding fossils and dating the surrounding rock to come up with an accurate timeline of the site. But identifying fossils in an area accurately dated to just before the extinction event is rare...
A group of scientists in Argentina have unearthed a dinosaur egg so perfectly preserved that it looks like it was laid yesterday. The ancient egg – thought to be more than 70 million years old – was discovered near General Roca in Patagonia and has left experts around the world stunned
The team from Argentina’s Museum of Natural Sciences made the astonishing find live on air during a broadcast on October 7.
“It was so well preserved that it looked recent,” one of the scientists said, still in disbelief.
The egg, smooth and oval, looks remarkably similar to that of a modern bird, but its markings reveal its prehistoric origins.
This was a scientific mission led by Argentina’s National Council for Scientific and Technical Research (CONICET), supported by the Azara Foundation, National Geographic, and the government of Río Negro.
Although dinosaur eggs have been found before in Patagonia, one this intact – with its shell undamaged and possibly containing embryonic material – is a rare treasure.
Experts believe the egg may belong to the Bonapartenykus genus.
Dinosaur egg unearthed in perfect condition after 70M years— and it could hold genetic material
Argentine paleontologists found a real diamond in the rough after happening across a perfectly preserved 70 million-year-old dinosaur egg during an excavation.
“It was a complete and utter surprise,” Gonzalo Leonel Muñoz, a vertebrate paleontologist at the Bernardo Rivadavia Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences, told National Geographic of the “spectacular” find.
“It’s not uncommon to find dinosaur fossils, but the issue with eggs is that they are much less common.”
It looks like it could have been laid yesterday.
But believe it or not, this dinosaur egg, recently unearthed in Argentina, dates back 70 million years.
The ancient egg was discovered in Rio Negro in Patagonia and has left experts around the world stunned.
While it appears remarkably similar to an ostrich egg, it was likely laid by a member of the Bonapartenykus genus – a small, carnivorous therapod that prowled the region during the late Cretaceous period.
Although dinosaur eggs have been found in the area before, one this well preserved is rare.
It may even contain embryonic material, according to the archaeology team – who plan to carry out in–depth scans to find out.
Egg Similar to Ostrich Eggs Belonging to "Bonapartenykus"
The egg shows a shape similar to that of modern ostrich eggs, and scientists believe it belongs to a small dinosaur of the genus Bonapartenykus, a type of carnivorous dinosaur that lived in the late Cretaceous period.
It is believed that this dinosaur was small in size, which supports the hypothesis that the egg may contain fossilized remains of an embryo...
Exceptional Preservation Raises Questions
This discovery is considered one of the rarest cases of dinosaur egg preservation, especially since carnivorous dinosaur eggs are very rare due to the fragility of their shells, which resemble those of modern bird eggs, making them susceptible to damage over millions of years.
Gonzalo Muñoz, a researcher at the Bernardo Rivadavia Museum of Natural Sciences in Argentina, said: "It was completely surprising. Finding dinosaur fossils is not rare, but finding an egg preserved in such a complete condition is extremely exceptional."
Plans for In-Depth Studies
The research team that discovered the egg intends to conduct advanced imaging examinations to confirm the presence of biological materials inside it. In an important step, the egg will be transferred to the Natural Science Museum in Argentina for detailed studies that may reveal more secrets about the evolution of dinosaurs and the mechanisms of their egg hatching.
Two New Specimens of Edmontosaurus annectens Preserve Fine Details of Scales and Hooves
Paleontologists have examined two exceptional specimens of the end-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens. Using an array of imaging techniques, they reconstructed the fleshy appearance of the species in life, from a tall crest over the neck and trunk to a spike row over its tail and hooves sheathing its toes; combined with fossilized footprints, the appearance of Edmontosaurus annectens is now at hand.
Exceptionally Preserved 'Dinosaur Mummies' Reveal First-Known Reptile Hooves !
About 66 million years ago, a herd of herbivorous dinosaurs succumbed to drought – tragically, just hours or days before heavy rains fell...
We know this because they left some of the most incredibly well-preserved dinosaur 'mummies' ever found, consisting of clay molds of features such as skin, spikes, and the first known examples of hooves in a reptile.
Dinosaur 'mummies' unlock secrets of their real-life appearance
Mummy of the juvenile duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens with fossil preparator Tyler Keillor of the University of Chicago.
The dinosaur mummy nicknamed "Ed Jr.," was covered by floodwaters some 66 million years ago, preserving its fossilized skeleton, and in a thin clay layer, large areas of scaly, wrinkled skin and a tall fleshy crest over its back. Credit: University of Chicago Fossil Lab
In a new paper in Science, experts from the University of Chicago describe steps that took place some 66 million years ago to transform the carcasses of a duck-billed dinosaur, Edmontosaurus annectens, into dinosaur "mummies" preserving fine details of scales and hooves.
[ ■ ]
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adw3536
Two “mummies” of the end-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens preserve a fleshy crest over the neck and trunk, an interdigitating spike row over the hips and tail, and hooves capping the toes of the hind feet. A battery of tests shows that all the fossilized integument (skin, spike, hoof) are preserved as a thin clay template that formed on the surface of a buried carcass during decay prior to loss of all soft tissues and organic compounds.
Unlike the underlying permineralized skeletal bone, the integument renderings of these “dinosaur mummies” are preserved as a thin external clay mask, a templating process documented previously only in anoxic marine settings.
''' Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from five fossil specimens found in the Late Cretaceous Two Medicine Formation of Montana, the United States. '''
''' The new dinosaur species lived in North America during the Late Cretaceous epoch, some 75 million years ago. Dubbed Brontotholus harmoni, the ancient herbivore was approximately 3 m (10 feet) long.
It belongs to Pachycephalosauridae, a family of bipedal, dome-headed dinosaurs within the ornithischian clade Pachycephalosauria.
“The dome-headed ornithischian clade Pachycephalosauria possesses a distinctive suite of morphological features,”
| ◊ | The Photos of the 70-million-year-old embryonic oviraptorid fossil
••• Gobiazhdarcho tsogtbaatari & Tsogtopteryx mongoliensis •••
[ Azhdarchid Pterosaur Diversity in the Bayanshiree Formation, Upper Cretaceous of the Gobi Desert, Mongolia ]
The coexistence between Gobiazhdarcho tsogtbaatari and Tsogtopteryx mongoliensis in the Bayanshiree paleoenvironment.
We have had Two raptors and now two Azhdarchid Pterosaurs living side by side in the same ecosystem !
Source/s :
What a magnificent Turtle
'''' Tavachelydra stevensoni lived in what is now the United States during the earliest Paleocene epoch, between 66 and 65 million years ago -- in the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
The species belongs to Chelydridae, a family of freshwater turtles that includes at least seven extinct and two living genera.
Interestingly, turtle species with a durophageous ( they prefer to eat animals with a Shell ) diet have a higher survivorship across the end-Cretaceous mass extinction compared to turtles with a non-durophageous diet... '''
Pappers :
The Lake Erie Formation is a wide formation originating from the Albian-Cenomanian Appalachia (modern-day Great Lakes) in the Mid-Cretaceous.
It was mostly floodplains, with deltas, streams, and bogs making up most of the environment, and containing all sorts of vegetation, such as Cretaceous redwoods, regnellites, ground fibre, and ground fruit, and possibly early pteridosperms. The known fauna (to in-universe paleontologists) include:
Naviadupleovenator erieii
Sauraves michigensis
Pachystegocephale appalachiani
Erie Fossil Abelisaurid (Abelisauridae indet)
Erie Rib Specimen (Dinosauria indet)
Erie Coelecanth (Dipnoi indet)
Erie Halecomorphi (Halecomorphi indet)
Erie Sauropod (Sauropoda indet)
If you would like to know more about the speculative project, about the fauna, predator-prey dynamics, and differences between what is believed in-universe to what they're meant to be, just ask! Or, what the hell some of these species are, go ahead!
1 - ] New *smol* Shark Alert !
{ Remarkable } New Species Of 340-Million-Year-Old Ancient Shark Discovered In World’s Longest Cave System !
'''' | The sharks just don’t stop coming at Mammoth Cave National Park in the US, where palaeontologists have uncovered yet another new species of ancient shark that lurked in the shallow seas submerging the region millions of years ago.
The new species, which is thought to have only reached less than ~ 30 centimeters ~ in length, has been named Macadens olsoni in honor of the park and retired park scientist Rickard Olson, who played a significant part in documenting Mammoth Cave’s abundance of shark fossils. It was discovered in the Ste. Genevieve Formation, a vast hunk of limestone that dates back between 340 to 335 million years.
Though hard to believe today, when Mammoth Cave is hundreds of miles away from the ocean, back then, the area was covered by a warm, shallow sea connecting what would later become eastern North America, Europe, and northern Africa. This seaway was positively teeming with life... ''''
2-] Manitoba paleontologist identifies, renames new classification of ancient fish
placoderm-elmosteus-lundarensis
'''' | On a warm, sunny July day, paleontologist Melina Jobbins and her team search an old rock quarry near Lundar, Man., for 390-million-year-old fossils of an extinct fish that swam in what was once a vast inland sea. Jobbins, a postdoctoral fellow at the PaleoSed+ lab at the University of Manitoba's department of earth sciences, spreads a geological map over the hood of her rental car to confirm which era of history they can expect to find fossils from in this area, now part of the Canadian Prairies.
"All the orange is Devonian," she tells Kirstin Brink, another paleontologist at the University of Manitoba. The Devonian period is nicknamed the Age of Fishes, Jobbins explains to a CBC reporter.
Jobbins renamed and reclassified the fish as Elmosteus lundarensis, named after the Elm Point Formation, the rock formation it was found in. Her research was published in July's edition of the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology. The remnants of this fish are about 150 million years older than the dinosaurs and only about 1½ metres long, the size of a large Chinook salmon. ( Yummy ! ) '''' |
3-] Mysterious 380 Million-Year-Old Fish Reveals Secrets of Our Land-Walking Ancestors
Ancient lungfish jaws tell a complex evolutionary story. New 3D analysis uncovers surprising feeding adaptations.
''' The robust skull of an extinct Chirodipterus australis lungfish. '''
Credit: John Long, Flinders University
''' ||| Ancient predatory fish that eventually gave rise to the first land-dwelling vertebrates are continuing to shed light on mammalian origins—thanks to new research into the dietary behaviors of lobe-finned fish that once lived in a prehistoric reef in northern Australia.
A recent study published in iScience, led by researchers at Flinders University, offers new perspectives on the biology of 380-million-year-old lungfish. This breakthrough comes from a high-resolution analysis of exceptionally well-preserved jawbones discovered in the remote Gogo fossil site in northern Western Australia.
Using 3D finite element modeling (FEM), the team assessed the structural properties and functional performance of the fossilized mandibles. The results helped scientists understand how various lungfish species co-existed within the same tropical marine ecosystem during the Devonian period, often referred to as the { ‘Age of Fishes’ }
4 - ] Most Important one ! Please Read !
New Fossil discovery casts fresh doubt on the ' | burst of evolution | ' known as the Cambrian Explosion
''' [ -- These complex, looping tracks pressed into ancient seafloor mud look much more like doodles made by a child with a stick than fossils of animal movement.
However, new measurements have shown those squiggles were, in fact, purposeful movements along paths made by primitive animals navigating their world almost 550 million years ago, well before textbooks say complex life “took off” during the Cambrian Explosion !
Analysis of 170 trace fossils, which are the preserved marks of animal movement rather than the animals actual bodies, tell a much different story.
They suggest that streamlined, sensor‑rich creatures were gliding across the seabed roughly 10 million years before the start of the Cambrian Explosion, a 20‑million‑year interval beginning near 538.8 million years ago when most major animal groups appear in rocks. Paleontologist Dr. Zekun Wang of the Natural History Museum, London, led the work with colleagues in Canada and China. -- ] '''
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2 Votes in Poll
Astigmasaura genuflexa
'''' | -- { The newly-discovered dinosaur lived in what is now Argentina during the Late Cretaceous epoch, approximately 95 million years ago. Scientifically named Astigmasaura genuflexa, the species was about 18 - 19 meters ( 59 - 60 feet ) long and weighed more than 10+ tons. The ancient giant was a member of Rebbachisauridae, a large family of sauropod dinosaurs within the superfamily Diplodocoidea.
“Rebbachisaurids are medium to large-sized, non-selective and ground-level browser diplodocoid sauropods, and they are characterized by highly specialized skulls, widely pneumatized axial elements and gracile appendicular skeletons,” said
“Known from the Early Cretaceous to the early Late Cretaceous, the rebbachisaurid fossil record is particularly diversified in the ancient supercontinent Gondwana, with several specimens found in North Africa and South America.” --- } | ''''
The Fact we still discover large Sauropods is Amazing !
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We already knew that the Dinosaurs; both theropods and others were truly social; akin to crocodilians and avians....
https://www.popsci.com/science/dinosaurs-lived-in-herds/
.... but we have ever more evidence
[ ◊ ] Tl;dr : Planet Dinosaur is throughly based. It has proven correct once more !
'''' In July 2024, Bell and an international team of colleagues visited the park for a field course. While there, they discovered a set of at least 20 full and partial dinosaur footprints preserved in a roughly 312-square-foot section of sediment. But unlike past finds, the tracks didn’t all belong to one type of dinosaur. Instead, paleontologists eventually matched them to multiple different species.
A total of 13 prints were linked to at least five ceratopsian (horned) dinosaurs walking side-by-side, while another grouping likely indicates the presence of an ankylosaurid among them. One footprint also appears to belong to a small, unidentified carnivorous species.
“It was incredibly exciting to be walking in the footsteps of dinosaurs 76 million years after they laid them down,” recalled University of Reading paleontologist and study co-author Brian Pickles. '''''
' | A herd of ceratopsians (Styracosaurus albertensis) accompanied by an ankylosaur (Euplocephalus tutus) walk through an old river channel under the watchful eyes of two tyrannosaurs (Gorgosaurus libratus). | '
'''' Zoologists believe blended animal communities function as a means of mutual defense against predators. Recently discovered footprints in Alberta, Canada, have led paleontologists to speculate that dinosaurs may have similarly participated in multi-species herding patterns.
According to Popular Science, a team of international colleagues visited the park for a field course and discovered at least 20 full and partial dinosaur footprints preserved in an approximately 312-square-foot section of sediment. Notably, unlike previous discoveries, the footprints belonged to multiple species of dinosaurs.
A total of 13 prints were linked to at least five ceratopsian (horned) dinosaurs walking side-by-side, while another grouping likely indicates the presence of an ankylosaurid among them. One footprint also belonged to an unidentified carnivorous dinosaur. '''''
Planet Dinosaur shown first evidence towards that !
