A mat composed of microbes may have preserved a series of 255-million-year-old indentations made in a sandy South African tidal bottom by a hulking amphibian, a new study says.The remarkable shapes reveal that the nearly 2-meter-long rhinesuchid temnospondyl lurked for its prey and swam after it in the fashion of a crocodile. Like a prehistoric choreographer’s diagram, the impressions are a unique window into life on ancient earth shortly before the Permian Mass Extinction Event destroyed 90 p ...read more
Some creatures in the animal kingdom show off spectacular colors when exposed to light, such as certain snakes, insects and peacocks. They are known as iridescent animals.While snakes have iridescent scales and peacocks have iridescent feathers, a recent study published in PNAS indicates that in the case of the transparent ghost catfish, the iridescent shine it gives off isn’t from the fish’s scales. Read More: Inside the Secret World of Iridescent AnimalsThe Rainbow FishThe ghost catfis ...read more
Most people perceive paleontology as a frivolous sort of science. To them, the study of fossils is nothing more than the investigation of the planet’s trivial, far-flung past, making it impossible to appreciate the practical applications of the field.That said, the findings of paleontology apply to the present and the future of the planet much more than most people probably imagine. So, what, specifically, do paleontologists do, and why is their work so important?What Is Paleontology?In the si ...read more
Dinosaurs lived relatively long lives. The oldest Tyrannosaurus rex specimens that we’ve found were alive for about 30 years. It’s likely that many dinosaurs, especially sauropods, lived much longer than that. And with long lives and aging comes diseases. But what do we know, and what can we know about the diseases that impacted our favorite dinosaur species?According to Penélope Cruzado-Caballero, an assistant professor of paleontology at the University of La Laguna in Spain, dinosaurs ...read more
There’s no way to sugarcoat it: Animal and plant life is declining across the globe at rates never seen before in human history. And alongside this decline, extinction rates are speeding up — as many as one million plant and animal species are at risk of being lost forever, according to a landmark United Nations report in 2019.What’s more, humans may be uniquely responsible for fueling these losses. Activities like agriculture and aquaculture are changing the habitats of animals at an “u ...read more
Author Vishay SinghPosted on Categories Discover Magazine
