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Scientists Reconstruct 520M-Year-Old Nervous System

Mega-claw's brain fossilized, looks like a spider's

(Newser) - Scientists digging through old fossils have identified a 520-million-year-old mega-claw with an almost completely preserved nervous system—the oldest such find ever, the LA Times reports. The specimen belongs to the Alalcomenaeus family, which is part of a larger group of "megacheirans," meaning roughly "mega-claw" or "...

Jurassic Park-esque Find: Blood-Filled Mosquito Fossil

But don't expect dinosaurs anytime soon

(Newser) - OK, so the mosquito is only 46 million years old—too recent to have sucked dinosaur blood. But for the first time in history, scientists have found a fossilized skeeter that's still got a belly full of blood, harkening back to the plot of Jurassic Park, the Smithsonian points...

Oldest Primate Fossil Found
 Oldest Primate Fossil Found 
Jun 5, 2013 5:45 PM CDT

Oldest Primate Fossil Found

Tiny creature from 55M years ago discovered in ancient Chinese lake

(Newser) - A tiny, funny-looking creature that scampered around what is now China some 55 million years ago might help rewrite the book on primates, reports the BBC . Scientists have concluded that little Archicebus achilles—it weighed about an ounce and was maybe 8 inches long—is the world's oldest primate...

Here's the Oldest Bird Ever Found —Maybe

Aurornis xui predates Archaeopteryx, but some think China 'enhanced' fossil

(Newser) - The feathered Archaeopteryx long ago laid claim to the title of oldest known bird—but it appears there's a new oldest winged critter in town. Scientists have found a fossil of a feathered dinosaur that predates Archaeopteryx by some 10 million years: Aurornis xui, discovered in northeastern China. The...

Guess How Much This Massive Egg Costs?

Elephant bird egg expected to fetch up to $45K

(Newser) - The gigantic egg is 100 times larger than an average chicken's—it's a foot long and almost nine inches in diameter—and it can be yours for just $45,000. On April 24, Christie's will auction the fossilized egg, which was laid by the elephant bird, reports...

New Dinosaur Named for Girl, 5, Who Discovered It

Daisy Morris found Vectidraco daisymorrisae fossil

(Newser) - Daisy Morris was just a 5-year-old when she found a fossil while walking with her family on a UK beach. That fossil ended up being from a newly discovered dinosaur species, and scientists have decided to name it after Daisy, who's now 9. The little girl has so many...

Did a Sri Lanka Meteorite Have Fossils Inside?

Scientists fuel controversy with big claim

(Newser) - A group of scientists says a December meteorite over Sri Lanka held "fossilized biological structures"—but many of their colleagues aren't convinced. According to the pro-fossil team, electronic microscope images show tiny pieces of algae known as diatoms, supporting the idea of "panspermia." The theory—...

'Dinosaur Smuggler' Pleads Guilty

Tyrannosaurus fossil sold for $1M

(Newser) - A man from Florida has admitted to smuggling some prehistoric cargo. Eric Prokopi yesterday told a Manhattan federal court that he'd "forwarded a few shipments of fossils of Mongolian origin from Great Britain to the US that were mislabeled." Among the shipments in question: a Tyrannosaurus bataar...

Scientists Say They Found Earth's Oldest Dinosaur

Nyasasaurus parringtoni lived in the Middle Triassic period

(Newser) - Scientists studying fossilized bones originally discovered in Tanzania in the 1930s may have revealed Earth's oldest known dinosaur, LiveScience reports. Nyasasaurus parringtoni lived between 240 million and 245 million years ago, some 10 million to 15 million years earlier than any other dinosaurs previously discovered. Researchers stopped short of...

Man Digs Up Mammoth Skeleton in Back Yard

He keeps the bones in his living room

(Newser) - Have you ever checked—really checked—your back yard for the remains of ancient prehistoric beasts? Because that's what an Iowa man found on his property two years ago, ABC 5 reports. "I got down on my hands and knees on the bank and I could see a...

'Illegal' Dinosaur Skeleton Sells for Over $1M

Heritage Auctions ignores Mongolia's restraining order

(Newser) - A New York auction house sold off a dinosaur skeleton for $1 million yesterday despite a restraining order from the Mongolian government, which said the find had been illegally exported, New Scientist reports. Heritage Auctions kept mum about the seller and winning bidder, and said it had "legal assurances"...

Whale Graveyard Puzzles Experts

Paleontologists ponder: Why are the fossils found together?

(Newser) - A newly discovered graveyard of ancient whales in Chile has scientists wondering how on Earth the bus-sized mammals all ended up dying in the same place. "That's the top question," says the director of a nearby museum. Their current location—the middle of a highway under construction...

Apeman Fossil Could Be Missing Link

Swinging between species

(Newser) - Have scientists finally found the "missing link" connecting human-like apes to the first human? A South African researcher is convinced he may have tracked down the creature after an exhaustive examination of the partial skeletons of a young female adult and a male child of a hominin that lived...

Fossil Shows Meteor Wiped Out Dinosaurs

How a single horn could cement a theory

(Newser) - It’s just one horn, not quite a foot and a half long, but scientists say a newly discovered fossil could clinch the theory that a falling asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs. Skeptics of the scenario have always pointed out that we’ve found no dinosaur fossils dated within the...

‘Monstrously Big’ Ants Once Roamed America

Biggest-ever US ant fossil unearthed in ancient lake sediments in Wyoming

(Newser) - The fossil of an ant queen the size of a hummingbird has been found in lake sediments in Wyoming. The 2-inch-long ant is the biggest ever found in the US, and the newly identified species is one of the largest to have ever lived, reports LiveScience . Researchers say the "...

Shark Jaw Found in Kentucky Mine

It's from a shark comparable to a great white, experts say

(Newser) - A large 300-million-year-old shark jawbone was discovered in February in a place you might not expect: a Kentucky mine. Jay Wright was 700 feet underground, adding supports to a roof in the Dotiki Mine, when a rock fell and he saw "a bunch of teeth" above him. He pulled...

Giant Bunny Fossils Discovered Off Spain

'King of rabbits' was 6 times the size of modern bunnies

(Newser) - On the Spanish island of Minorca up to 5 million years ago, the rabbit was king. Researchers there have discovered fossils belonging to the biggest-ever member of the bunny family, LiveScience reports. Nuralagus rex, weighing in at some 26 pounds—about six times the size of modern rabbits—had largely...

Scientists Find Fossil of World's Largest Bear

Figure about 11 feet tall and nearly 2 tons

(Newser) - Scientists have uncovered the fossilized remains of the largest bear known to walk the Earth, LiveScience reports. Unearthed in Argentina, the giant short-faced bear was at least 11 feet tall when standing on its hind legs and weighed between 3,500 and 3,855 pounds—almost twice as big as...

High Tech Paints 3D Image of Ancient Beast of the Deep

Aquatic dinosaur had 8-foot skull

(Newser) - The 50-foot monster was the terror of the Earth's oceans some 150 million years ago, with its giant head packing a crocodile-esque jaw and razor sharp teeth that savaged anything in its way. Or at least that's the picture that's emerging of the pliosaur, as imaging scientists and paleontologists use...

Ancient Crocodile Species Discovered

It roamed the planet 100 million years ago

(Newser) - A fossil that had been sitting in a museum has been identified by scientists as that of a previously unknown species of crocodile—which is believed to have lived 100 million years ago, the AP reports. Analysis of the six-inch-long skull fossil, which a scientist stumbled upon in 2006, led...

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