Fossil hunters find bones of human-sized penguin on New Zealand beach
The remnants of an ancient penguin that stood as tall as a human have been found encased in rock on a beach in New Zealand.
Fossil hunters chanced upon the prehistoric bones in sedimentary rock that formed 55m to 60m years ago on what is now Hampden beach in Otago in the country’s South Island.
Measurements of the partial skeleton show that the flightless bird weighed about 100kg and had a body length of 1.77 metres (5ft 10in), equal to the average height of an American man. Emperor penguins, the tallest penguin species alive today, reach only 1.2 metres when fully grown.
... More than 100 new species have been discovered in the ecologically diverse region of the Mekong river ...
So why is this posted in a thread about fossils?
Russian Scientists Claim to Have Resurrected 40,000-Year-Old Worms Buried in Ice
A team of Russian scientists is lining themselves up to be the opening cast of a John Carpenter film. Earlier this month, in the journal Doklady Biological Sciences, they announced they had apparently discovered ancient nematode worms that were able to resurrect themselves after spending at least 32,000 years buried in permafrost. The discovery, if legitimate, would represent the longest-surviving return from the cold ever seen in a complex, multi-celled organism, dwarfing even the tardigrade.
The worms were found among more than 300 samples of frozen soil pulled from the Kolyma River Lowlands in Northeastern Siberia by the researchers. Two of the samples held the worms, with one from a buried squirrel burrow dating back 32,000 years and one from a glacier dating back 40,000 years.
OK, not a fossil, but a creature that is 40,000 years old has been brought back to life (reminds me of 'The Thing'):
https://gizmodo.com/russian-scientists-claim-to-have-resurrected-40-000-yea-1827923906
Rest of article at link.
Wish I had: either the 50's or 80's version.I'm going to see The Thing tonight at the Irish Film Institute, always good to see it on the big screen.
Wish I had: either the 50's or 80's version.
The remains came from three separate dinosaurs from the herbivorous group of sauropods, the best known of which are the Diplodocus and Brontosaurus. This new species has been named Lavocatisaurus agrioensis.
“We found most of the cranial bones: the snout, the jaws, a lot of teeth, also the bones that define the eye sockets for example and, in that way, we were able to create an almost complete reconstruction,” said Jose Luis Carballido, a researcher at the Egidio Feruglio museum and the national council of scientific investigations.
The remains belonged to an adult about 12 metres long, and two young of six to seven metres which lived around 110 million years ago.
However it doesn't really surprise me. Reptiles have some excellent survival strategies. Deserts are strong holds for lizards, snakes and tortoises. Sauropods were reptilian in nature unlike many of the theropods.New Sauropod species found in Argentina
The area in which the fossils were found is unusual for dinosaurs as it would have been a desert with sporadic lakes in that era.
Something funny in the link - doesn't open for me.
Makes sense since during the Devonian to Carboniferous periods giant arthropods and invertebrates of numerous kinds existed. An earthworm "Gippsland earthworm" still grows to > 3 meters in present day Australia.Monster fossil worm uncovered https://www.geologyin.com/2017/02/s..._rGLW28tE8L_obf6sqlogaA5taGlNbmyCdLtSbW570aco
Makes sense since during the Devonian to Carboniferous periods giant arthropods and invertebrates of numerous kinds existed. An earthworm "Gippsland earthworm" still grows to > 3 meters in present day Australia.
'Gigantic mammal 'cousin' discovered'
Wondered if this might be if interest?
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181123134400.htm
Worst 'three way' ever.