all paleontology stories

Molecular analysis confirms T. Rex's evolutionary link to birds

yvette — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:25:39 -0400

Putting more meat on the theory that dinosaurs' closest living relatives are modern-day birds, molecular analysis of a shred of 68-million-year-old Tyrannosaurus rex protein -- along with that of 21 modern species -- confirms that dinosaurs share common ancestry with chickens, ostriches, and to a lesser extent, alligators.

Finding a fossilized needle in an Arctic haystack

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 06:27:54 -0400

The first season searching Arctic Canada for a fossil that would illuminate how our ancestors first crawled onto land proved Harvard Professor Farish Jenkins' explorer's maxim: Never go any place for the first time.

A crew of six trudged through a barren landscape during the summer of 1999, finding the wrong sort of rocks scattered across the wrong sort of terrain. In addition to dealing with the frustration and isolation, researchers had to keep a wary eye peeled for predators, since the islands of Arctic Canada are the stomping grounds for polar bears. So along with their scientific gear, the researchers carried rifles in case of an encounter.

Researchers close in on date of critical rise in Earth's oxygen

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:35:43 -0400

Findings by Harvard researchers and colleagues narrow the range of possible dates for a critical change in the Earth's atmosphere. Scientists had previously believed oxygen first appeared sometime between 2.45 billion and 2.22 billion years ago, a span of about 230 million years. The new findings narrow that window dramatically - to about 130 million years. "It's a fascinating transition, from a physical, chemical, and biological point of view," said Heinrich D. Holland, Harry C. Dudley Research Professor of Economic Geology, who, with postdoctoral fellow Andrey Bekker and colleagues from other institutions, conducted the research. The increase in oxygen allowed the development of early oxygen-using creatures and sowed the seeds for the eventual development of large land animals, an event scientists believe occurred after a second large increase in oxygen more than a billion years later. Whatever the cause, Bekker, Holland, and their colleagues, writing in the Jan. 7, 2004, issue of Nature, detailed their investigation of a black shale, a sedimentary rock thought to have been deposited 2.32 billion years ago in a shallow marine river delta. Researchers examined rock cores drilled by mining companies exploring South Africa's rich mineral resources.

What killed the dinosaurs?

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:11:13 -0400

Charles Marshall's childhood passion led him to a career in paleontology, trying to understand the interplay between inheritance, environment, and catastrophe in directing evolution. Marshall's work attracted media attention in 1996. He and University of Washington geologist Peter Ward concluded there may have been other causes than just the well-publicized comet or asteroid impact responsible for the extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous Period, when all living dinosaur species died out. Marshall used a statistical analysis of the fossil record to conclude that a major drop in sea level – preceding the impact by 150,000 to 300,000 years – may have led to as much as 25 percent of the huge number of extinctions that took place.

Charles Schaff brings knack for finding fossils to field -- and Harvard

70652986 — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 05:11:21 -0400

Charles Schaff 's official job description isn't "fossil hunter." He is a curatorial associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Schaff, however, makes regular trips to look for fossils in places as far-flung as Africa, South America and Greenland. Though the trips provide high points of excitement, most of Schaff's time is spent watching over Harvard's fossil collection. As curatorial associate, Schaff keeps track of Harvard's fossils, cataloging and storing them in drawers inside rows of gray cabinets that fill four large rooms at the Museum. Schaff describes the collection as a sort of fossil library and says the specimens are not just used by Harvard professors, undergraduates, and graduate students, but by scientists all over the world.