Fossil Found in Cave

Source: http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/fossil-find-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-scientists-20100715-10bty.html

The discovery of a remarkable 15-million-year-old Australian fossil limestone cave packed with even older animal bones has revealed almost the entire life cycle of a large prehistoric marsupial, from suckling young in the pouch still cutting their milk teeth to elderly adults.

UNSW researchers have found hundred's of fossils of the marsupial Nimbadon lavarackorum. Other fossils were also found, such as kangaroos, bandicoots, etc.

Details of the find is published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, by a team led by Dr Karen Black, of the UNSW School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences.

"The animals appear to have plunged to their deaths through a vertical cave entrance that may have been obscured by vegetation and acted as a natural pit-fall trap. These animals - including mothers with pouch young - either unwittingly fell to their deaths or survived the fall only to be entombed and unable to escape."

Sources:
http://www.physorg.com/news198350634.html

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/queensland/fossil-find-the-tip-of-the-iceberg-scientists-20100715-10bty.html

Large predatory fish fossil found near Isisford

The fossil of a large, fast-swimming predatory fish, similar to the modern day Indo-Pacific tarpon, has been found near Isisford, central-western Queensland.

                           

Interesting Pet found

A University of Leicester archaeologist has discovered a bone belonging to a late19th-century tortoise from Stafford Castle, Staffordshire - believed to be the earliest archaeological evidence of a tortoise kept as a family pet.

 Full Article: http://www.physorg.com/news198168237.html

Fossil track of Diatryma found!

Source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/12/97373/fossil-track-of-giant-bird-found.htm

This Flightless bird standing 7 feet tall walked the Earth 50 million years ago. It is called Diatryma.

After the landslide in Deming in 2009, this fossil was found. The 1,300-pound slab was flown by helicopter then driven to WWU. Where it will be open for viewing and studied.

It is said to be the first undisputed track print of a Diatryma ever found.

The new track is necessarily being compared to a track found east of Auburn 18 years ago. That's when John Patterson of Maple Valley found a larger, three-toed track in a slab of siltstone that had fallen from a cliff in the Green River gorge.

Researchers disagreed then, and now, whether that track was left by a Diatryma, by another creature, or perhaps by someone playing a hoax.

Sources:
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2010/07/12/1522882/wwu-researchers-retrieve-fossil.html

bellinghamherald.com
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/07/12/97373/fossil-track-of-giant-bird-found.htm

Roman Canal discovered!

Aerial photograph of the excavations undertaken by the Portus Project
Photo: www.portusproject.org

Scholars discovered the 100-yard-wide (90-metre-wide) canal at Portus, the ancient maritime port through which goods from all over the Empire were shipped to Rome for more than 400 years.

The archaeologists, from the universities of Cambridge and Southampton and the British School at Rome, believe the canal connected Portus, on the coast at the mouth of the Tiber, with the nearby river port of Ostia, two miles away.

 

"Portus must be one of the most important archaeological sites in the world," said Prof Keay. "The great thing about Portus is that most of it has been preserved and there is much more to learn about the important role it played in Rome's success." 

Full Article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/7883996/Biggest-canal-ever-built-by-Romans-discovered.html

Earliest Known Multicellular Life

Source: http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+(Wired%3A+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))

A newly discovered group of 2.1-billion-year-old fossil organisms may be the earliest known example of complex life on Earth. They could help scientists understand not just when higher life forms evolved, but why.

The fossils — flat discs almost 5 inches across, with scalloped edges and radial slits — were either complex colonies of single-celled organisms, or early animals.

Either way, they represent an early crossing of a critical evolutionary threshold, and suggest that the crossing was made necessary by radical changes in Earth’s atmosphere.

Read More http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29#ixzz0sQ2yg8yY

Full article:
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2010/06/early-multicellularity/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+(Wired%3A+Index+3+(Top+Stories+2))

Ancient Rubber-Making Masters

A centuries-old latex ball made by the Olmec in what is now Mexico.
Photograph by Kenneth Garrett, National Geographic

3000 years before we started using rubber, Ancient civilizations in Mexico and Central America were making it. This included the Aztec, Olmec and Maya civilizations. They used a natural latex found in some plants.

Ancient rubber makers harvested latex from rubber trees and mixed it with juice from morning glory vines, which contains a chemical that makes the solidified latex less brittle.

The Mesoamerican-rubber paper will appear in an upcoming issue of the journal Latin American Antiquity.

Source:
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/06/100628-science-ancient-maya-aztec-rubber-balls-beheaded/

Fossils show giant plankton-eating fishes in prehistoric seas

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100227171454.htm

In the Science magazine findings reported that new Fossils from Asia, Europe and the US show that there were giant plankton-eating fishes in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.

Over time these fishes reduced the amount of bone in their skeletons and as such only their well-developed fore-fins are routinely found. But a new find in Kansas sheds more light on what was preciously thought off as some kind of swordfish!

This fish was named Bonnerichthys, after the Kansas family who discovered the fossil.

The research team consisted of scientists from Oxford University (UK), DePaul University, Chicago (US), Fort Hays State University, Kansas (US), University of Kansas (US), University of Glasgow (UK), and Triebold Paleontology Inc & Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Centre, Colorado (US).

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100227171454.htm

Ancient Whale found in Peru

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3874018/Ancient-Moby-Dick-ripped-whales-apart

An ancient sperm whale skull and jaw has been found in Peru by scientists. It is said to have bitten huge pieces of flesh out of other whales of its time. It was named Leviathan Melvillei in honor of Herman Melville, author of "Moby Dick", and grew approximately 18 meters long with teeth that were 36 centimeters long.

Sources:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/30/tech/main6633996.shtml
http://www.upi.com/Science_News/2010/06/30/Prehistoric-whale-fossil-found-in-Peru/UPI-23841277927748/
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/3874018/Ancient-Moby-Dick-ripped-whales-apart

Unusual 17th-century Dutch horse burial site found

Source:
http://www.argus-press.com/news/international/article_a6fb1d53-7b61-5537
-977a-9b08d4758ee1.html?mode=image&photo=3

Source: http://www.argus-press.com/news/international/article_
a6fb1d53-7b61-5537-977a-9b08d4758ee1.html?mode=image&photo=3

A grave has been found by Archeologists that contain mass complete skeletons of 51 horses. They were found side by side.

They are thought to come be victims of a 17th century battle that took place over a Dutch river. They were found near the Maas River in Borgharen.

There is evidence that show that these were cavalry horses and that they were French .

Sources:
http://www.argus-press.com/news/international/article_a6fb1d53-7b61-5537-977a-9b08d4758ee1.html
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100630/ap_on_sc/eu_netherlands_horse_skeletons_1
http://www.beeld.com/Wereld