Tag: paleontology
June 7, 2022
UT Paleontologists Create Fossilization Board Game
A new board game created by paleontologists at The University of Texas at Austin challenges players to protect, preserve, and unearth Jurassic fossils – and…
Read MoreFebruary 24, 2022
Social Networking for Fossils Shows Community Impacts of Mass Extinctions
By applying an algorithm akin to what Facebook uses to make friend suggestions, researchers have identified communities of ancient life in the fossil record and…
Read MoreDecember 8, 2021
World’s Largest Pterosaur Leaped Aloft to Fly
With a wingspan nearing 40 feet, the giant pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus is the largest known animal to take to the sky. But known from only a…
Read MoreJuly 7, 2020
Famous ‘Jurassic Park’ Dinosaur is Less Lizard, More Bird
From movies to museum exhibits, the dinosaur Dilophosaurus is no stranger to pop culture. Many probably remember it best from the movie “Jurassic Park,” where…
Read MoreJune 17, 2020
Egg from Antarctica is Big and Might Belong to an Extinct Sea Lizard
In 2011, Chilean scientists discovered a mysterious fossil in Antarctica that looked like a deflated football. For nearly a decade, the specimen sat unlabeled and…
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 10, 2020
Gulf Coast Mollusks Rode Out Past Periods of Climate Change
About 55 million years ago, a rapidly warming climate decimated marine communities around the world. But according to new research, it was a different story…
Read MoreNovember 5, 2019
Exceptional Fossils May Need a Breath of Air to Form
Some of the world’s most exquisite fossil beds were formed millions of years ago during time periods when the Earth’s oceans were largely without…
Read MoreJuly 1, 2019
Martindale Awarded NSF CAREER Grant for Paleontological Research and Education
The National Science Foundation has awarded a CAREER grant to Jackson School of Geosciences Assistant Professor Rowan Martindale to research how marine communities responded to…
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