Warm-blooded sea reptiles of the Jurassic
(PhysOrg.com) -- New evidence shows that reptiles roaming the oceans at the time of the dinosaurs could maintain a constant body temperature well above that of the surrounding water.
View ArticleDinosaurs out in the cold
A major drop in temperature 137 million years ago briefly interrupted the warm, equable climate of the Cretaceous Period. The water temperature in the Arctic Ocean fell from around 13 C to between 4...
View ArticleFirst-known ginglymodian fish found from the middle triassic of Eastern...
The Ginglymodi are a group of ray-finned fishes that make up one of three major subdivisions of the infraclass Neopterygii. Extant ginglymodians are represented by gars, which inhabit freshwater...
View ArticleAncient sea reptile with gammy jaw suggests dinosaurs got arthritis too
Imagine having arthritis in your jaw bones... if they're over two meters long! A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has found signs of a degenerative condition similar to human...
View ArticleTropical collapse caused by lethal heat: Extreme temperatures blamed for...
Scientists have discovered why the 'broken world' following the worst extinction of all time lasted so long – it was simply too hot to survive.
View ArticleGiant fossil predator provides insights into the rise of modern marine...
An international team of scientists has described a fossil marine predator measuring 8.6 meters in length (about 28 feet) recovered from the Nevada desert in 2010 as representing the first top predator...
View ArticleThe placodonts are fellow Europeans
Placodonts were among the first marine reptiles. With their trademark crushing teeth, they fed on shellfish and crustaceans. However, when and where these highly specialized marine reptiles originated...
View ArticleA new thalattosaur found from the Upper Triassic of Guanling, Guizhou, China
Thalattosaurs, literally meaning "ocean lizard", are a group of prehistoric marine reptiles living during the Triassic Period in North America and Eurasia. They bore a superficial resemblance to...
View ArticleFossil saved from mule track revolutionizes understanding of ancient...
An international team of scientists have revealed a new species of ichthyosaur (a dolphin-like marine reptile from the age of dinosaurs) from Iraq, which revolutionises our understanding of the...
View ArticleAncient reptile birth preserved in fossil
Ichthyosaur fossil may show the earliest live birth from an ancient Mesozoic marine reptile, according to a study published February 12, 2014 in PLOS ONE by Ryosuke Motani from the University of...
View ArticleNew ichthyosaur graveyard found
In a new study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin, geoscientists Wolfgang Stinnesbeck of the University of Heidelberg and colleagues document the discovery of forty-six...
View ArticleOne of the world's most significant finds of marine reptile fossils from the...
The cache of skeletal ichthyosaurs stumbled upon ten years ago in Chile turns out to be one of the world's most significant fossil finds of marine reptiles from the Cretaceous period, containing many...
View ArticleNewly discovered paddle prints show how ancient sea reptiles swam
Trackways formed on an ancient seabed have shed new light on how nothosaurs, ancient marine reptiles that lived during the age of the dinosaurs, propelled themselves through water. The evidence is...
View ArticleFirst amphibious ichthyosaur discovered, filling evolutionary gap
The first fossil of an amphibious ichthyosaur has been discovered in China by a team led by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The discovery is the first to link the dolphin-like...
View ArticleNew Jurassic species of marine reptile identified from fossils in Scotland
A new species of marine reptile from the Jurassic era has been identified from fossils found on the Isle of Skye.
View ArticleBone eating worms dined on marine reptile carcasses
A species of bone-eating worm that was believed to have evolved in conjunction with whales has been dated back to prehistoric times when it fed on the carcasses of giant marine reptiles.
View ArticleBrain of ancient sea creature reconstructed by undergraduate researcher
The world's first study into the brain anatomy of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, has shed light on how the reptilian brain adapted to life in the oceans....
View ArticleNew species of flying reptile identified on B.C. coast
Persistence paid off for a University of Alberta paleontology researcher, who after months of pondering the origins of a fossilized jaw bone, finally identified it as a new species of pterosaur, a...
View ArticleNew Triassic Diapsid reptile found in Southwestern China
Paleontologist LI Chun, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP), Chinese Academy of Sciences, and his research team, reported a new genus and species of marine reptile,...
View ArticleOil sands digger uncovers dinosaur
A heavy equipment operator unearthed what appears to be a nearly complete plesiosaur while digging in Canada's oil sands, Syncrude announced Thursday.
View ArticleExploding dinosaur hypothesis implodes
Exploding carcasses through putrefaction gases - this is how science explained the mysterious bone arrangements in almost fully preserved dinosaur skeletons for decades. Now a Swiss-German research...
View ArticleThe amazing amphioxus: Evolutionary leap over 500 million years ago gives new...
(Phys.org) -- An evolutionary leap made at the bottom of the ocean over 500 million years ago gives new insights into the causes of human diseases such as diabetes, cancer and neurological disorders,...
View ArticleNew archosaur found from the marine triassic of Southwestern China
Paleontologist Li Chun at Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) and his research team, reported a new genus and species of archosaur, Diandongosuchus fuyuanensis, a...
View ArticleUnique feeding mechanism among marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs
Among the many groups of marine reptiles from the Age of Dinosaurs, elasmosaurs are famous for their necks, which can have up to 76 vertebrae and make up more than half the total length of the animal....
View ArticleNew insights into the family tree of modern turtles
Today's sea turtles are the sole survivors of a once diverse ecosystem of marine reptiles from the age of dinosaurs. Sea turtles first appeared during the Cretaceous period, 130-140 million years ago...
View ArticleRapid rise of the Mesozoic sea dragons
In the Mesozoic, the time of the dinosaurs, from 252 to 66 million years ago, marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were top predators in the oceans. But their origins and early rise to...
View ArticleMarine life quickly recovered after global mass extinction
Reptiles rapidly invaded the seas soon after a global extinction wiped out most life on Earth, according to a new study led by University of California, Davis, researchers.
View ArticleHunter's find leads to discovery of prehistoric sea creature
A fossil found by an elk hunter in Montana nearly seven years ago has led to the discovery of a new species of prehistoric sea creature that lived about 70 million years ago in the inland sea that...
View ArticleHow the plesiosaurs were able to swim with just flippers
A team of researchers from the U.K. and Hungary has solved the mystery of how the dinosaur-era plesiosaurs were able to swim. In their paper published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the group...
View ArticleIt's all in the ears: Inner ears of extinct sea monsters mirror those of...
A new study led by Oxford University Museum of Natural History has revealed that an extinct group of marine reptiles called sauropterygians evolved similar inner ear proportions to those of some modern...
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