fossil
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Prototaxites Fossils Redefine Early Land Life, Ending 165-Year Debate
New research confirms that Prototaxites, the towering organisms that dominated early land ecosystems, belong to a previously unknown and extinct lineage of complex life, resolving a century-and-a-half-old scientific mystery and challenging previous classifications as fungi or plants.
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Ancient Duck Ancestor Discovered in Antarctica: Rewriting Bird Evolution
Unearthing the Past: 69-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals Surprising Secrets of Early Birds Sixty-six million years ago, a catastrophic asteroid impact wiped out the non-avian dinosaurs. Yet, amidst this mass extinction, the ancestors of modern waterfowl thrived. A new fossil discovery in…
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Soft Tissue from a 183 Million-Year-Old Jurassic Plesiosaur Analyzed
Researchers at Lund University have analyzed the soft tissue from a fossilized plesiosaur for the first time. The results show that the long-necked marine reptile had both smooth and scaly skin. This was likely so it could both swim rapidly…