Skull bones constrained the development of the first terrestrial creatures on Earth. According to recent studies, tetrapods' evolution was constrained for millions of years because their skulls contained fewer bones than extinct and current fish.
May 21, 2021 11:00 PM EDT
A Micropholis stowi fossil, an extinct amphibian, has been found for the first time in Antarctica, according to researchers. Micropholis existed during the Early Triassic period, just after the planet s most catastrophic mass extinction. It was historically only known from South African fossils. Its discovery in Antarctica has implications for how amphibians adapted to high-latitude environments during this turbulent time in Earth s history.
(Photo : Wikimedia Commons)
Paleontology During the Pandemic
During the COVID-19 pandemic, paleontologists had to adapt to remain alive. Many fossil excavations had to be postponed, museums had to be temporarily closed, and the next generation of fossil hunters had to be taught online rather than in person.
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(Photo : Max Fleischer, Dave Fleischer and Ovide Decroly on Wikimedia Commons)
Since modern humans left Africa around 50,000 years ago, ancient DNA from Neanderthals and early modern humans revealed that the two groups actually interbred somewhere in the Near East. As a result, anyone outside of Africa carries about 2% to 3% Neanderthal DNA. Those Neanderthal DNA segments grew progressively shorter in modern human genomes over time, and their length can be used to approximate when a person lived.
Furthermore, archeological evidence released last year indicates that modern humans were already present in southeastern Europe 47-43,000 years ago. However, nothing is known about who these early human colonists were - or their connections to ancient and modern human communities - owing to a shortage of reasonably complete human fossils and the absence of genomic DNA.
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