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Articles on Fossil record

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The fossil deposits at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles have well-preserved remains of many prehistoric animals that got stuck in natural asphalt seeps over the past 60,000 years. Cullen Townsend, courtesy of NHMLAC

A changing climate, growing human populations and widespread fires contributed to the last major extinction event − can we prevent another?

New findings from the La Brea Tar Pits in southern California suggest human-caused wildfires in the region, along with a warming climate, led to the loss of most of the area’s large mammals.
The bodies of comb jellies like Mertensia ovum are soft, meaning they rarely fossilize. (Alexander Semenov)

Finding a rare fossilized comb jelly reveals new gaps in the fossil record

Fossilized comb jellies, or ctenophores, are rare because the creatures are almost completely soft-bodied. Rare fossil finds are helping us learn more about ancient animals and evolution.

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