Scientists have discovered the oldest fossilized evidence of sexual reproduction and locomotion in animals at a remote site in Canada’s Northwest Territories that dates back 567 million years to the Ediacaran period, according to a study published on Wednesday in Science Advances. According to researchers, the finding pushes the origins of animal sex back by 5-10 million years.

The remains of a previously unknown dinosaur species, dubbed Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, has been excavated in Thailand, according to a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. Scientists estimate the long-necked herbivore weighed as much as nine adult Asian elephants and is the largest ever found in Southeast Asia.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/8330341

The ancient cephalopod, Nanaimoteuthis haggarti, appears to have been an apex predator that rivaled mosasaurs to rule prehistoric seas.

Mesozoic seas were full of marine monsters. There were snaggle-toothed fish, shell-crushing sharks, and, of course, enormous mosasaurs.

Now, researchers have revealed another dangerous denizen of the ancient deep, one that wielded eight arms, grew to mythic proportions, and likely bit prey with a bone-breaking beak.

Enter the "Cretaceous kraken": Nanaimoteuthis haggarti.

Paleontologists recently examined a trove of fossilized beaks from octopuses that lived between 100 and 72 million years ago. Using the jaws, they estimated the size of the creatures. They found that N. haggarti stretched to about 60 feet long, longer than a city bus and surpassing the largest known giant squid by nearly 20 feet. That makes these ancient octopuses among the largest invertebrates to have ever lived.

The study, which was published Thursday in Science, also suggests that prehistoric vertebrate predators — such as sharks, plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs — may have met their match in these spineless cephalopods.

“It challenges the common view of an ‘age of vertebrates’ in marine ecosystems,” says Yasuhiro Iba, a paleontologist at Hokkaido University in Japan and an author of the new paper. He thinks these octopuses used their massive size, flexible arms, and powerful bites to achieve apex predator status in the ancient ocean.

A close inspection of 27 fossil jaws from finned octopuses challenge the longstanding belief that the apex oceanic predators of the Cretaceous were all vertebrates.

New rhynchosaur species described.

Link for actual paper: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/rsos/article/13/4/260176/481336/A-new-hyperodapedontine-rhynchosaur-from-a?searchresult=1

Study

Intro:

• The animal resembled a reptilian greyhound, with a slender build adapted for speed

• It has been named Galahadosuchus jonesi in honor of schoolteacher David Rhys Jones

Fast Land-Dwelling Crocodile Relative Discovered in Triassic UK

Scientists have identified a new species of early crocodile relative from the Triassic period in Gloucester, UK. Unlike modern crocodiles, this animal lived entirely on land and had a body built for speed. With long, slender legs and a lightweight frame, it likely moved quickly through vegetation, hunting small reptiles, amphibians, and early mammals. At the time, this region was an elevated landscape surrounded by hot, dry plains.

The species name combines a nod to Arthurian legend with a personal tribute. The first part references Galahad, a knight known for his upright and noble character, reflecting the animal's upright posture. The second part honors David Rhys Jones, a schoolteacher at Ysgol Uwchradd Aberteifi in Cardigan, Wales, who taught the study's lead author.

At a remote and barren Sahara desert site in Niger, scientists have unearthed fossils of a new species of Spinosaurus, among the biggest of the meat-eating dinosaurs, notable for its large blade-shaped head crest and jaws bearing interlocking teeth for snaring slippery fish.

It prowled a forested inland environment and strode into rivers to catch sizable fish like a modern-day wading bird — a “hell heron,” as one of the researchers put it, considering it was about 40 feet long and weighed 5-7 tons.

cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7699401

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/29285

A fossil on display at Montana State University's Museum of the Rockies reveals how dinosaurs in the Tyrannosaurus genus may have subdued prey, and the specimen is the focus of a new collaborative research publication between scientists at MSU and the University of Alberta in Canada. The giant carnivorous dinosaur Tyrannosaurus roamed the region that is now Montana at the end of the Age of Dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago. It lived alongside other large dinosaurs, including plant-eaters like Triceratops and the duck-billed Edmontosaurus.

In 2005, a nearly complete Edmontosaurus skull was found in the Hell Creek Formation of eastern Montana on lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The skull is now housed in the paleontology collection at Museum of the Rockies, and it contains a telling detail: lodged inside its face is the tooth of a tyrannosaur.

Now on display in the museum's Hall of Horns and Teeth, the skull became the focus of a collaboration between University of Alberta doctoral student Taia Wyenberg-Henzler and Museum of the Rockies' Curator of Paleontology John Scannella. The results of their research are published in the journal PeerJ.

"Although bite marks on bones are relatively common, finding an embedded tooth is extremely rare," said Wyenberg-Henzler. "The great thing about an embedded tooth, particularly in a skull, is it gives you the identity of not only who was bitten but also who did the biting. This allowed us to paint a picture of what happened to this Edmontosaurus, kind of like Cretaceous crime scene investigators."

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cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/7487509

cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/23531

Australian and New Zealand scientists have unearthed the remains of ancient wildlife in a cave near Waitomo on Aotearoa's North Island, the first time a large number of million-year-old fossils have been found—including an ancestor of the large flightless Kākāpō parrot.

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