Search For "million years ago"
Study finds dinosaurs were in their prime before downfall due to asteroid
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
A landmark study has revealed that dinosaurs dominated the world right up until a deadly asteroid hit the earth, leading to their mass extinction, some 66 million years ago.
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Did you know ancient amphibians had their bones cooked?
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
Scientists have solved a decades-long mystery as to why ancient tetrapods - amphibian-like creatures that lived over 300 million years ago - preserved in one of Ireland's most important fossil sites seemingly had their bones cooked after they died.
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Researchers discover oldest Pterodactylus fossil in Germany
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
Pterosaurs, the flying reptiles of the dinosaur era, originated in the Late Triassic (227 million years ago) and became extinct at the end-Cretaceous extinction event (66 million years ago). With wing spans ranging from 1 to 12 meters, they dominated the world's skies for more than 160 milli
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Ancient superpredator got big by front-loading its growth in its youth: St
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
Whatcheeria, a six-foot-long salamander-like creature that lived 340 million years ago, was the T. rex of its time: the biggest, baddest predator in its habitat. A new study reveals how they grew to their "giant" size: instead of growing slow and steady throughout their lives like many moder
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Venom in snakes and salivary protein in mammals share a common origin: Stu
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
Snakes, some lizards and even a few mammals can have a venomous bite. Although these lineages split more than 300 million years ago, their venoms have evolved from the same ancestral salivary protein, reported scientists today in BMC Biology.
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World's oldest meal helps unravel mystery of our earliest animal ancestors
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
The contents of the last meal consumed by the earliest animals known to inhabit Earth more than 550 million years ago has unearthed new clues about the physiology of our earliest animal ancestors, according to scientists from The Australian National University (ANU).
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Research: Evolution of tree roots may have driven mass extinction
Updated : 3 years, 4 months ago IST
The evolution of tree roots may have triggered a series of mass extinctions that rocked the Earth's oceans during the Devonian Period over 300 million years ago, according to a study led by scientists at IUPUI, along with colleagues in the United Kingdom.
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Study shows Earth's first known mass extinction event 550 million years ag
Updated : 3 years, 4 months ago IST
The earliest morphological traces of life on Earth are often highly controversial, both because non-biological processes can produce relatively similar structures and because such fossils have often been subjected to advanced alteration and metamorphism. Stromatolites, layered organo-sedimen
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Study: Fossil bird's skull reconstruction reveals brain made for smelling
Updated : 3 years, 4 months ago IST
Jeholornis was a raven-sized bird that lived 120 million years ago, among the earliest examples of dinosaurs evolving into birds, in what's now China. The fossils that have been found are finely preserved but smashed flat, the result of layers of sediment being deposited over the years. That
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Research: Vocal communication originated over 400 million years ago
Updated : 3 years, 4 months ago IST
The use of vocalizations as a resource for communication is common among several groups of vertebrates: singing birds, croaking frogs, or barking dogs are some well-known examples.
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Dinosaur-killing asteroid triggered 'mega-earthquake': Study
Updated : 3 years, 5 months ago IST
Washington [US], October 7 (ANI): 66 million years ago, a 10-kilometre asteroid hit Earth, triggering the extinction of the dinosaurs. New evidence suggests that the Chicxulub impact also triggered an earthquake so massive that it shook the planet for weeks to months after the collision. The
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Primordial armored worm Wufengella reveals ancestry of three animal groups
Updated : 3 years, 5 months ago IST
Washington [US], September 28 (ANI): Scientists have discovered that a well-preserved fossilized worm dating from 518 million years ago resembles the ancestor of three major groups of living animals.
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