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The Palaeontology thread
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CLL Dodge
30-01-2016
Interesting article on early mammalian brain evolution.

It's not the overall size that counts but which bits are expanding (i.e. the neocortex).

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-ancient...cessarily.html

There's a link to the full article but you'll have to pay for it unless you are a Fellow of the Royal Society.
Keyser_Soze1
01-02-2016
Originally Posted by CLL Dodge:
“Interesting article on early mammalian brain evolution.

It's not the overall size that counts but which bits are expanding (i.e. the neocortex).

http://phys.org/news/2016-01-ancient...cessarily.html

There's a link to the full article but you'll have to pay for it unless you are a Fellow of the Royal Society.”

Very interesting stuff.

Some recent palaeo articles.

http://nerdist.com/favorite-dinosaur...e-baby-eaters/

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...tomp-the-earth

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....easts-old-age/

http://triblive.com/aande/museums/98...s-says-history
Keyser_Soze1
03-02-2016
Recent articles on the age of the Placoderms, Dollocaris and it's enormous eyes, Terror birds and Australian avian baddasses.

But my favourite discovery being the poor little bugger who has been trapped in amber for 99 million years - with a raging hard on.

Now that is what I call frustration!

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...imals-science/

http://www.eartharchives.org/article...age-of-fishes/

http://www.eartharchives.org/article...-was-all-eyes/

http://www.eartharchives.org/article...-terror-birds/

http://theconversation.com/a-case-of...big-bird-52856
Keyser_Soze1
05-02-2016
How do you weigh a Dodo?

By calculating the convex hull volume that's how!

https://twilightbeasts.wordpress.com...-weigh-a-dodo/

Beautifully preserved Kalligrammatid lacewings and the Ice Age mammal that hooted like a hadrosaur.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....e-butterflies/

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2...-age-dinosaur/
Keyser_Soze1
08-02-2016
An article on the recently extinct Australian Megafauna (with a couple of small mistakes - Diprotodon weighed nearly 3 tons and Thylacoleo was about the same size as a jaguar - and far more powerfully built).

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...ian-wilderness
Keyser_Soze1
10-02-2016
Plenty of interesting recent palaeo stories.

The new site 'Pteros' should be an an enjoyable read when it opens.

http://www.eartharchives.org/article...he-pterosaurs/

'Walking through Time' was a superb documentary - highly recommended.

https://twilightbeasts.wordpress.com...d-mega-floods/

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/w.../episode-guide

Other articles.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-fossils-rich-source.html

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....-turtle-shell/

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-dr...-idUSKCN0VH12L

http://www.livescience.com/53673-pri...ers-video.html
Shrike
11-02-2016
Sad news that Micheal Hanlon has died from a heart attack - only 51

Jurassica founder sudden death

In recent years he was the founder of the Jurassica project though I always liked his science writing - probably the only reporter on MailOnline that I would trust to have any idea of what they were on about.

RIP.
Keyser_Soze1
11-02-2016
Originally Posted by Shrike:
“Sad news that Micheal Hanlon has died from a heart attack - only 51

Jurassica founder sudden death

In recent years he was the founder of the Jurassica project though I always liked his science writing - probably the only reporter on MailOnline that I would trust to have any idea of what they were on about.

RIP.”

RIP.

Jurassica - when it is completed - will be a wonderful tribute to him.
Hotelier
11-02-2016
Possibility multi-celled life( fauna and flora) all evolved from an eye. Or rather a single celled organism with light detecting capability.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35502310
Keyser_Soze1
11-02-2016
Originally Posted by Hotelier:
“Possibility multi-celled life( fauna and flora) all evolved from an eye. Or rather a single celled organism with light detecting capability.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-35502310”

Very interesting.

Thanks.
Keyser_Soze1
16-02-2016
The rather sinister evolutionary origins of love and other interesting recent Palaeo articles.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...origin-of-love

http://markwitton-com.blogspot.co.uk...hinges-on.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...shire-35524230

http://microcapmagazine.com/2016-02-...istoric-arctic

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...r-of-evolution
Keyser_Soze1
16-02-2016
Not palaeontology - but Lions are evolving novel new ways of predating on Giraffes.

http://static.proporta.com/media/cat...i/big_cat.jpeg
Keyser_Soze1
17-02-2016
Ants locked in mortal combat for 99 million years (now that's what I call a grudge).

http://www.livescience.com/53746-ant...-in-amber.html

http://www.livescience.com/53745-pho...ved-amber.html
MAW
17-02-2016
On a lighter note....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-35579159

You don't find a dinosaur in the middle of the road every day
WhatJoeThinks
17-02-2016
Originally Posted by MAW:
“On a lighter note....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-35579159

You don't find a dinosaur in the middle of the road every day”

You might have assumed otherwise after reading some of the posts in the thread about zebra crossing rage.
Keyser_Soze1
17-02-2016
Originally Posted by MAW:
“On a lighter note....http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-35579159

You don't find a dinosaur in the middle of the road every day”

I imagine that a few sleepy drivers had a bit of a shock!
CLL Dodge
18-02-2016
Originally Posted by Keyser_Soze1:
“The rather sinister evolutionary origins of love and other interesting recent Palaeo articles.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...origin-of-love
”

A wild assumption that humans are monogamous (most societies are not: 83% are polygynous, 0.05% are polyandrous, and the rest are probably monogamous).*

And infanticide has been the norm rather than the exception, Even today there are millions of missing females in Asian countries (estimates indicate that 30.5 million females are "missing" from China, 22.8 million in India, 3.1 million in Pakistan, 1.6 million in Bangladesh, 1.7 million in West Asia, 600,000 in Egypt, and 200,000 in Nepal).** It was widespread in Victorian Britain (not with such a sexual bias) until methods of contraception became available.

*The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Edited by Robin Dunbar and Louise Barret, 2007, Chapter 30 Ecological and socio-cultural impacts on mating and marriage systems by Bobbi S. Low

**Hardness of Heart/Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide, by Larry S. Milner, 2000
Keyser_Soze1
18-02-2016
Originally Posted by CLL Dodge:
“A wild assumption that humans are monogamous (most societies are not: 83% are polygynous, 0.05% are polyandrous, and the rest are probably monogamous).*

And infanticide has been the norm rather than the exception, Even today there are millions of missing females in Asian countries (estimates indicate that 30.5 million females are "missing" from China, 22.8 million in India, 3.1 million in Pakistan, 1.6 million in Bangladesh, 1.7 million in West Asia, 600,000 in Egypt, and 200,000 in Nepal).** It was widespread in Victorian Britain (not with such a sexual bias) until methods of contraception became available.

*The Oxford Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology, Edited by Robin Dunbar and Louise Barret, 2007, Chapter 30 Ecological and socio-cultural impacts on mating and marriage systems by Bobbi S. Low

**Hardness of Heart/Hardness of Life: The Stain of Human Infanticide, by Larry S. Milner, 2000”

I am aware of this but the article is for a general audience and is more about our primate evolutionary roots than our social behaviour in recorded history.

Humans can be heartless bastards (especially in extreme poverty) that is nothing new.

A few recent articles that may be of interest.

I fail to see the 'controversy 'over the Hobbit (Homo floresiensis) - the fossil remains are obviously not humans suffering from Dwarfism and Microcephaly or Down's Syndrome.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...-was-not-human

http://www.nature.com/news/what-spar...losion-1.19379

http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/2016...-tyrannosaurs/
CLL Dodge
19-02-2016
Originally Posted by Keyser_Soze1:
“I fail to see the 'controversy 'over the Hobbit (Homo floresiensis) - the fossil remains are obviously not humans suffering from Dwarfism and Microcephaly or Down's Syndrome.

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...-was-not-human

http://www.nature.com/news/what-spar...losion-1.19379

http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/2016...-tyrannosaurs/”

I'm still hoping that remains of relatively recent surviving Neanderthals will turn up.
Keyser_Soze1
19-02-2016
Originally Posted by CLL Dodge:
“I'm still hoping that remains of relatively recent surviving Neanderthals will turn up.”

That would be very interesting indeed - and could it explain the age-old legends of 'Trolls' or 'Goblins'?

The vast sauropod skeletons that are seen in museums are nowhere near fully grown (I think eventually that we will find that the largest sauropods topped out at around 150 tons or so).

http://svpow.com/2016/02/18/dinosaur...e-plicomcated/

And I just love this sentence.

"The skeleton of an adult tyrannosaur is that of a 500 kg cursor pressed into service hauling around 10 tons of murder."

Were some swimming or walking from these fossilised tracks?

http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk...sauropods.html

Raptor tracks and and some astonishing new Scottish fossils that help to fill in 'Romer's Gap'.

http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk...-colorado.html

https://www.theguardian.com/science/...walked-on-land

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...-fife-35606480

http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk...tery-1-4033734
Keyser_Soze1
22-02-2016
Palaeontology articles that may be of interest to some.

My favourite being story of the discovery of Tiktaalik - the famous 'Fishapod' and one of the many beautiful transitional fossils that will give the bloody Creationists nightmares for decades to come.

http://nautil.us/issue/33/attraction/its-a-fishapod

http://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160...al-reality-360

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rfh-64s5va4

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-ancestor-biggest-bird.html

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-extinct...s-ancient.html
MAW
22-02-2016
And a South American giant armadillo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/35630712

You have no idea what a struggle I've just had with autocorrect. And I have no idea what use an armoured one of those would be
Keyser_Soze1
22-02-2016
Originally Posted by MAW:
“And a South American giant armadillo

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/35630712

You have no idea what a struggle I've just had with autocorrect. And I have no idea what use an armoured one of those would be”

Yes - the last of my links was about the Glyptodonts.

Yet another wonderful member of the Megafauna wiped off the face of the earth by you know who.

Another couple of links on the topic.

http://www.science20.com/news_articl...eir_dna-166322

http://www.livescience.com/53794-anc...-relative.html
Keyser_Soze1
23-02-2016
The rise and fall of the fearsome 'Terminator pigs' (Entelodonts).

http://www.eartharchives.org/article...e-entelodonts/

Tumours found on a Titanosaur specimen's fossil vertebra.

http://www.natureworldnews.com/artic...s-vertebra.htm

http://www.livescience.com/53777-tit...ad-tumors.html

Research suggests that Sea sponges may well have been be the world's first complex animals - at the grand old age of 640 million years.

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-title-e...a-sponges.html
Keyser_Soze1
24-02-2016
Ouch!

Dinosaurs were tough buggers, far, far more durable to injury than any mammal.

http://blogs.plos.org/paleocomm/2016...opod-dinosaur/

http://www.livescience.com/53832-jur...-injuries.html

http://news.discovery.com/animals/di...ain-160224.htm

Some more recent articles.

http://phenomena.nationalgeographic....saurus-a-hand/

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-human-e...eth-story.html

http://phys.org/news/2016-02-big-din...ootprints.html
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