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Paleontologists have described a new species of the extant bee genus Leioproctus from a fossil specimen found in southern New Zealand.Named Leioproctus barrydonovani, the new species lived during the Middle Miocene epoch, some 14.6 million years ago.The ancient insect belongs to Leioproctus, a large genus within the plasterer bee family Colletidae.Extant Leioproctus species are small, black, hairy bees between 4 and 16 mm in length.They are found in Australasia and South America, and include the most common native bees in New Zealand...The specimen (total length of the body is 6.4 mm) was recovered from the Middle Miocene deposits of the...

There is no single answer to this puzzle. Dinosaurs dominated the planet for around 179 million years and during that time, evolved into an enormous array of different shapes and sizes. Some were tiny, like the diminutive Albinykus, which weighed under a kilogram (2.2lbs) and was probably less than 2ft (60cm) long. Others were among the biggest animals to have ever lived on land, such as the titanosaur Patagotitan mayorum, which may have weighed up to 72 tonnes. They ran on two legs, or plodded on four. And along with these diverse body shapes, they would have produced an equally...

“Why is it that man ever chooses to sin? The answer is that man has fallen away from God (and) his whole nature has become perverted and sinful. Man’s whole bias is away from God. By nature he hates God and feels that God is opposed to him. His god is himself…his own abilities and powers and desires (Man) likes and covets the things which God prohibits, and dislikes the things and kind of life to which God calls him. These are no mere dogmatic statements. They are facts (that) alone explain the moral muddle and the ugliness that characterize...

In two separate incidents at Otay Mesa and San Ysidro, agents discovered a total of 28 parrots and three chickens during suspected smuggling attempts. The first incident unfolded on April 30 at the Otay Mesa port of entry. After the 51-year-old driver exited his vehicle, officers noticed peculiar bulges around his ankles. A safety pat-down revealed a shocking discovery: six live, undeclared parrots crammed inside the man’s boots, according to a CBP release. A further search of the vehicle uncovered six additional parrots, sadly, two of which had died. Just days later, on May 4, at the San Ysidro port...

New work on the skeletal remains of scarlet macaws found in an ancient Pueblo settlement indicates that social and political hierarchies may have emerged in the American Southwest earlier than previously thought. Researchers determined that the macaws, whose brilliant red and blue feathers are highly prized in Pueblo culture, were persistently traded hundreds of miles north from Mesoamerica starting in the early 10th century, at least 150 years before the origin of hierarchy is usually attributed. The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggest that the acquisition and control of macaws, along with other valued...

Meet Mosura fentoni, a bizarre 506-million-year-old “sea-moth” with three eyes, claws, and an abdomen full of gills. This ancient predator sheds light on arthropod evolution and reveals stunning internal anatomy from a fossil site like no other. Credit: Danielle Dufault, © ROM, edited A newly uncovered 506-million-year-old creature called Mosura fentoni is rewriting the story of early ocean life. With three eyes, tooth-lined jaws, and gill-lined abdominal segments, it’s a strange but telling fossil from the Burgess Shale. A New Predator Emerges From Deep Time Paleontologists from the Manitoba Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered an extraordinary...

Scientists have been wondering for years which dinosaur could run the fastest. Now, new simulation models are offering a fresh look at dinosaur speed. This renewed interest has roots in a major discovery from 1964, when paleontologist John Ostrom and his team uncovered Deinonychus—a dinosaur with a lightweight body, long claws, and strong legs. Its features challenged the long-held image of dinosaurs as sluggish reptiles and instead pointed to an active, fast-moving predator. This discovery helped launch what scientists call the “dinosaur renaissance,” a major shift in how experts understood dinosaur behavior. Instead of slow-moving reptiles, some dinosaurs began to...

A newly discovered fossil of a four-legged whale in Peru sheds new light on the evolution of whales and their journey across the oceans. ***************************************************************** A fascinating new discovery has been made off the coast of Peru, where paleontologists have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown four-legged whale species. This remarkable find, which was made about 42.6 million years ago during the middle Eocene, is shedding new light on the evolutionary transition of whales from land-dwelling mammals to the aquatic giants we recognize today. As reported in Current Biology, the whale species, named Peregocetus pacificus, was found in the...

Ants are among the most familiar insects on Earth today, but their origins remain cloaked in deep evolutionary history. Until now, the oldest known ant specimens came from amber deposits in France and Myanmar, dating to the Cretaceous period around 100 million years ago. But a new discovery—published recently in the journal Current Biology—pushes that timeline back even further. “Our team has discovered a new fossil ant species representing the earliest undisputable geological record of ants,” said lead author Anderson Lepeco in a recent statement. “What makes this discovery particularly interesting is that it belongs to the extinct ‘hell ant,’...

Holotype of Sirenobethylus charybdis. Credit: Qiong Wu ***************************************************************************** A 99-million-year-old wasp species used a Venus flytrap-like abdomen to capture prey and may represent a new insect family, revealing unexpected diversity in ancient parasitoid behavior. An extinct lineage of parasitic wasps from the mid-Cretaceous period, preserved in amber, may have used a Venus flytrap-like abdomen to capture and immobilize their prey. According to research published in BMC Biology, fossils of the species Sirenobethylus charybdis, named after the sea monster from Greek mythology known for swallowing and regurgitating water, are approximately 99 million years old and may represent an entirely new family...

Extremely rare fossil of an ancient scorpion unearthed at China's Jehol Biota. The scorpion would've been a key species in the Cretaceous ecosystem, scientists say.A known treasure trove of Early Cretaceous fossils has turned up a never-before-seen species of scorpion that lived around 125 million years ago.The venomous scorpion was larger than many ancient -- and modern -- scorpion species. Researchers believe it would’ve been a key species in the food chain, gobbling up spiders, lizards and even small mammals that lived in its ancient ecosystem.It is just the fourth terrestrial scorpion fossil to be found in China and the...

A bizarre new genus and species of ornithomimid dinosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains found in 2014 in Coahuila, Mexico. Life reconstruction of Mexidracon longimanus. Image credit: Ddinodan / CC BY 4.0. The newly-identified dinosaur species roamed Earth during the Late Cretaceous epoch, some 73 million years ago. Named Mexidracon longimanus, the ancient creature was around 3 m (10 feet) in length. It belongs to Ornithomimidae, a family of theropod dinosaur that evolved a toothless beak and were likely omnivorous or herbivorous, superficially resembling living ostriches. “Ornithomimosaurs are a clade of ostrich-like theropod dinosaurs characterized by relatively small...

LONDON — The mystery of dinosaur origins has taken an unexpected turn toward the equator. While paleontologists have long searched southern regions for clues about where these magnificent creatures first evolved, new research suggests we may have been looking in the wrong latitude altogether. A new study indicates that the first dinosaurs may have emerged in Earth’s ancient tropics, forcing scientists to reconsider long-held theories about their origins. For years, paleontologists believed dinosaurs originated in what is now southern South America and southern Africa, since the oldest unequivocal dinosaur fossils come from late Carnian rock formations (around 230 million years...

Someone posted a thread about a 'Dinosaur superhighway.' It got me thinking, and that's never going to turn out well. Imagine if dinosaurs drove cars and had those Burma Shave signs. ================================= No matter how hard You sweat and toil See, in the end You’ll become oil. BURMA SHAVE ================================= When it comes to rocks Don’t be annoyed Just watch out for That asteroid. BURMA SHAVE ================================= You may think yourself An apex creature, But no matter what, T.Rex will eat’chya. BURMA SHAVE =================================Your turn. 😂😮😁😉🤣😁😮😂😊😍

The human ability to walk and run efficiently on two feet arose around 2 million years ago with our Homo erectus ancestors. But our earlier relatives, the australopithecines, were also bipedal around 4 million years ago. Given the long arms and different body proportions of species like Australopithecus afarensis, though, researchers have assumed that australopithecines were less capable of walking on two legs than modern humans. In a study published online Dec. 18 in the journal Current Biology, a team of researchers modeled the skeletal and muscular anatomy of Lucy to determine her maximum running speed, the energetic costs associated...

Lizard Skull Fossil Closeup One of the Thalassotitan skulls. (University of Bath) The discovery of incredible fossils of a giant marine lizard reveals how this ancient extinct beast would have ruled the sea 66 million years ago. The beast is a newly discovered species of mosasaur, giant marine reptiles that hunted the oceans during the Late Cretaceous. It's called Thalassotitan atrox, and wear on its teeth along with other remains found at its excavation site suggest that this intimidating animal was no gentle giant – but feasted on difficult prey such as sea turtles, plesiosaurs, and other mosasaurs. Other mosasaurs...

Scientists identified the specimen as a horned lark, which they believe could be an ancestor to two lark species alive now. Love Dalén - An intact 46,000-year-old bird was found for the first time in the Siberian permafrost. Archaeologists have uncovered many remarkable, ancient specimens from the Siberian permafrost. This time they found the mummified remains of a whole bird — and it still had its feathers and talons intact. According to CNN, the 46,000-year-old bird has been identified as a horned lark, or Eremophila alpestris, and scientists believe it could be a prehistoric predecessor to two subspecies alive today,...

The Louisiana Department of Health said on Friday it has detected the first presumptive positive human case of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI), or H5N1, in the US state.

More than 1.5 million years ago, two different species of ancient human crossed paths on a lakeshore, perhaps locking eyes with each other. These early forerunners of Homo sapiens wandered in a landscape teeming with wildlife, including giant maribou storks that stood 2 meters (6.5 feet) tall...The first part of the find occurred in July 2021 during an excavation at Koobi Fora, on the eastern shore of Lake Turkana in Kenya, where the skeletal remains of several ancient human relatives have been found. That excavation revealed one hominin footprint, alongside several other tracks made by large birds. The team decided...

The collagen of a 68-million-year-old T. rex painted a curious family portrait. Image credit: David Shayani Photography / Shutterstock.com There’s an incredible meme that depicts a chicken looking to the skies Simba style and being met with a Tyrannosaurus rex saying “Remember who you are.” It’s a fantastic visual and one that carries some truth, because the closest living relative to T. rex could well be a chicken, or possibly an ostrich. This was the big news that followed a 2008 study that used proteins extracted from dinosaur bones to see how closely the molecular data compared to living animals....