Fossil traces of the oldest complex ecosystems are found in precious few locations worldwide, including Australia. Newly dated fossils from Wales now join the ranks.
Puff adders leave linear, sometimes slightly undulating traces.
EcoPrint/Shutterstock
The trace was probably made between 93,000 and 83,000 years ago, almost certainly by a puff adder.
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
Emily Lindsey, University of California, Los Angeles; Lisa N. Martinez, University of California, Los Angeles, and Regan E. Dunn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
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.
Life reconstruction of an Australian pterosaur.
Peter Trusler
While crocodiles are not native to Canada, fossil traces have been found in northern British Columbia that indicate that during the Cretaceous Period, giant crocodiles roamed.
How can researchers tell if male and female dinosaurs, like the stegosaur, were different?
Susannah Maidment et al. & Natural History Museum, London
The lack of large numbers of fossils makes it hard to study sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs. But a new statistical approach offers insight into this question and others across science.
Michael Hannah, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
While current extinction rates remain lower than during previous mass extinction events, the number of species under threat of dying out is growing, reflecting the true scale of loss.
The bodies of comb jellies like Mertensia ovum are soft, meaning they rarely fossilize.
(Alexander Semenov)
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.
Tom Womack, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand’s conservation needs to consider the long-term impact of climate change and focus not only on protecting native species but on preserving ecological richness.
There are no body fossils of elephants from this time period, so the available information of how these gigantic animals moved through the ancient landscapes depends entirely on the track record.
The updated methods are providing a clearer picture of how Earth and its inhabitants evolved over the past 60,000 years - and thus, providing new insight into its future.
The skull of Oculudentavis, found encased in amber, provides new clues into the transition from dinosaurs to birds and may be smallest of either ever found.