Tag: Paleontology/Geobiology
May 19, 2022
This Graduate Visualizes the Past to Create His Future
When Michael Chiappone hikes through a Texas landscape, he imagines vegetation greening to include conifers and ferns and stars shifting to a pattern not seen in the night sky…
Read MoreJanuary 26, 2022
Fossil Snail Shells Offer New Tool for Determining Ancient Ocean Chemistry
A collection of fossil shells from marine snails and clams is challenging a theory that says the world’s deadliest mass extinction was accompanied by severe…
Read MoreDecember 10, 2021
Dec 17: Join us Live for a Mystery Fossil Unwrapping
Thousands of fossils remain under wraps at The University of Texas at Austin waiting for paleontologists to open them up and discover their identity. The…
Read MoreSeptember 15, 2021
Lone Star Manatees
Fossil evidence shows that Ice age manatees may have called Texas home.
Read MoreJuly 30, 2021
Bird Brains Left Other Dinosaurs Behind
Today, being “birdbrained” means forgetting where you left your keys or wallet. But 66 million years ago, it may have meant the difference between life…
Read MoreJanuary 1, 2021
Lizard Skull Fossil is New and “Perplexing” Extinct Species
In 2017, while browsing the fossil collections of Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History, University of Texas at Austin graduate student Simon Scarpetta came across…
Read MoreOctober 1, 2020
Ice Age Manatees May Have Called Texas Home
Manatees don’t live year-round in Texas, but these gentle, slow-moving sea cows are known to occasionally visit, swimming in for a “summer vacation” from Florida…
Read MoreMay 27, 2020
World’s Oldest Bug is Fossil Millipede from Scotland
A 425-million-year-old millipede fossil from the Scottish island of Kerrera is the world’s oldest “bug” — older than any known fossil of an insect, arachnid…
Read MoreMay 13, 2020
Microscopic Feather Features Reveal Fossil Birds’ Colors and Explain Why Cassowaries Shine
Cassowaries are big flightless birds with blue heads and dinosaur-looking feet; they look like emus that time forgot, and they’re objectively terrifying. They’re also, along…
Read MoreFebruary 3, 2020
UT Scientists’ Fossil-Finding Board Game is a Success in Classrooms
Becoming a fossil is the ultimate game of chance. From the manner of death, to the place where the corpse is buried, to the transformational…
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