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1. The Fossil Record: What Is It, and How Is It Used? (https://www.livescience.com/37193-fossil-record.html) 2. Unprecedented Discovery: Scientists Find New Dinosaur Fossil Encased in Amber (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/unprecedented-discovery-scientists-find-new-dinosaur-fossil-encased-amber-180972058/) 3. Ancient Fossils Reveal How New Species Emerge (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180724142646.htm) 4. Fossil Finds Reveal How Ancient Monkeys Adapted to Life in the Trees (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2207986-fossil-finds-reveal-how-ancient-monkeys-adapted-to-life-in-the-trees/) 5. Fossils Reveal How Ancient Marine Reptiles Evolved Over Time (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/11/181114
An international team of paleontologists has made a significant discovery in fossils that offer key information about the evolutionary shift from the jaw joint bones to those of the middle ear in early mammals.
A new reconstruction of the 375-million-year-old fossil fish Tiktaalik -- a close relative of limbed vertebrates -- used micro-CT to reveal bones still embedded in matrix. The reconstruction shows that the fish's ribs likely attached to its pelvis, an innovation thought to be crucial to supporting the body and for the eventual evolution of walking.
Several similar large, fossilized bone fragments have been discovered in various regions across Western and Central Europe since the 19th century. The animal group to which they belonged is still the subject of much debate to this day. A study carried out at the University of Bonn could now settle this dispute once and for all: The microstructure of the fossils indicates that they come from the lower jaw of a gigantic ichthyosaur. These animals could reach 25 to 30 meters in length, a similar size to the modern blue whale.
Early jawless fish were likely to have used bony projections surrounding their mouths to modify the mouth's shape while they collected food. Experts have used CT scanning techniques to build up the first 3D pictures of these creatures, which are some of the earliest vertebrates (animals with backbones) in which the mouth is fossilized. Their aim was to answer questions about feeding in early vertebrates without jaws in the early Devonian epoch -- sometimes called the Age of Fishes -- around 400 million years ago.
According to a research team led by paleontologists from the University of Vienna, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago). The study was recently published in the journal New Phytologist.
According to a research team led by palaeontologists, the net-like leaf veining typical for today's flowering plants developed much earlier than previously thought, but died out again several times. Using new methods, the fossilized plant Furcula granulifer was identified as such an early forerunner. The leaves of this seed fern species already exhibited the net-like veining in the late Triassic (around 201 million years ago).