Dull teeth, long skulls, specialized bites evolved in unrelated plant-eating dinosaurs

Herbivorous dinosaurs evolved many times during the 180 million-year Mesozoic era, and while they didn’t all evolve to chew, swallow, and digest their food in the same way, a few specific strategies appeared time and time again. An investigation of the skulls of 160 non-avian dinosaurs revealed the evolution of common traits in the skulls … Read more

Long-distance timber trade underpinned the Roman Empire’s construction

The ancient Romans relied on long-distance timber trading to construct their empire, according to a study published December 4, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mauro Bernabei from the National Research Council, Italy, and colleagues. The timber requirements of ancient Rome were immense and complex, with different types of trees from various locations around the … Read more

Justinianic plague not a landmark pandemic?

Led by researchers at the University of Maryland’s National-Socio Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), the international team of scholars found that the plague’s effects may have been exaggerated. They examined diverse datasets, but found no concrete effects they could conclusively attribute to the plague. Their paper appears in the December 2 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy … Read more

New Cretaceous mammal with a new middle Ear

Researchers from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) have reported a new species of multituberculate – a type of extinct Mesozoic “rodent” – with well-preserved middle ear bones from the Cretaceous Jehol Biota of China. The findings were published … Read more

Inbreeding and population/demographic shifts could have led to Neanderthal extinction

Small populations, inbreeding, and random demographic fluctuations could have been enough to cause Neanderthal extinction, according to a study published November 27, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Krist Vaesen from Eindhoven University of Technology, the Netherlands, and colleagues. Paleoanthropologists agree that Neanderthals disappeared around 40,000 years ago – about the same time that anatomically … Read more

Imaging uncovers secrets of medicine’s mysterious ivory manikins

Little is known about the origins of manikins – small anatomical sculptures thought to be used by doctors four centuries ago – but now advanced imaging techniques have offered a revealing glimpse inside these captivating ivory dolls. Researchers using micro-CT successfully identified the material composition and components of several ancient ivory manikins, according to a … Read more

Fossils reveal swimming patterns of long extinct cephalopod

Computational fluid dynamics can be used to study how extinct animals used to swim. Scientists studied 65 million-year-old cephalopod fossils to gain deeper understanding of modern-day cephalopod ecosystems. Three scientists affiliated with the University of Utah’s department of geology and geophysics will present research on the width, coil diameter and the overall structure of the prehistoric cephalopods … Read more