Tag: paleontology
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Nation & World
‘Croco-salamander’ bones offer clues to how early animals emerged from water
A study overturns the long-held belief that ancient species grew at slow, steady pace, and offers insights into human maturation.
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Nation & World
Why were reptiles such evolution success story?
Fast climatic shifts due to global warming coincided with high rates of morphological change in most reptiles.
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Nation & World
Knowing a big deal when you see it
The fossil was found to belong to a previously unknown species of a lizard-like reptile, representing the earliest evolving member of a lineage that today includes all lizards, snakes, and their closest relatives.
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Nation & World
A second look at evolution
Researchers find clues to evolution in the intricate mammalian vertebral column.
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Nation & World
Fish teeth mark periods of evolution
Based on close examination of thousands of fossilized fish teeth, a Harvard researcher found that, while the asteroid impact that killed off the dinosaurs did lead to the extinction of some fish species, it also set the stage for two periods of rapid evolution among marine life.
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Nation & World
Harvard paleontologist awarded
Fisher Professor of Natural History Emeritus Alfred W. Crompton received the A.S. Romer–G.G. Simpson Medal from the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology.
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Nation & World
Dinosaur protein preserved over time
Ancient protein dating back 80 million years to the Cretaceous geologic period has been preserved in bone fragments and soft tissues of a type of duck-billed dinosaur, according to a…
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Nation & World
Molecular analysis confirms T. Rex’s evolutionary link to birds
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…
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Nation & World
Finding a fossilized needle in an Arctic haystack
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…
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Nation & World
Researchers close in on date of critical rise in Earth’s oxygen
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…
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Nation & World
What killed the dinosaurs?
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…
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Nation & World
Charles Schaff brings knack for finding fossils to field — and Harvard
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…