Search For "million years"
Million years old lizard found in storeroom cupboard pushes origin of rept
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
A specimen retrieved from a cupboard of the Natural History Museum in London has shown that modern lizards originated in the Late Triassic and not the Middle Jurassic as previously thought.
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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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Half-a-billion year old fossilised brain of sea creature defies textbook e
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
According to a new study, fossils of a tiny sea creature with a delicately preserved nervous system solve a century-old debate over how the brain evolved in arthropods, the most species-rich group in the animal kingdom. Combining detailed anatomical studies of the fossilized nervous system w
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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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Welsh 'weird wonder' fossils add piece to puzzle of arthropod evolution
Updated : 3 years, 3 months ago IST
International team of researchers describe new fossil species discovered in fossil deposit near Llandrindod Wells in mid-Wales. The fossil, Mierridduryn bonniae, shares many features with Cambrian 'weird wonder' Opabinia, but is 40 million years younger. Robust phylogenetic analyses suggest
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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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Fossil study gives insights into 12 million-year-old climatic past of UK's
Updated : 3 years, 4 months ago IST
Washington [US], October 22 (ANI): A decade-long study into unique rocks near a Derbyshire village has been uncovering the secrets of what the county and the Peak District might have looked like under a much warmer and wetter past.
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