Tag - paleontology

 
 

PALEONTOLOGY

Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 30, 2019
Idaho artifacts show human presence in Americas 16,600 years ago during Ice Age
Artifacts including stone tools and animal bone fragments found in Idaho dating back about 16,600 years represent what may be the oldest evidence of humans in the Americas and offer insight into the routes people took as they spread into the New World.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 16, 2019
Genetic study implicates humans in demise of prehistoric cave bear 20,000 years ago
Genetic research that reconstructed the past population dynamics of the cave bear, a prominent prehistoric denizen of Europe, implicates Homo sapiens rather than climate cooling in the Ice Age extinction of these brawny plant-loving beasts.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jul 19, 2019
Gulp! Jurassic mammal was the first one able to eat politely
A shrew-like primitive mammal that inhabited China 165 million years ago represents a milestone in mammalian evolution, scientists said on Thursday, boasting a key anatomical trait in its throat that helped usher in the era of polite table manners.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Apr 17, 2019
Life-size skeletal replica of Japan's largest dinosaur restored
What is believed to be Japan's largest fossilized dinosaur skeleton has been restored as a life-size replica, researchers and officials from the town of Mukawa, in Hokkaido, where the original discovery was made, said Wednesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Feb 14, 2019
Tanzanian 'beast' sheds light on gigantic dinosaur group
A relatively complete skeleton of a long-necked, long-tailed plant-eater excavated from a rocky cliff above a Tanzanian river is providing insight into the early evolution of a dinosaur group that later included Earth's largest-ever land animals.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 25, 2019
Odd duckbilled sea reptile thrived after ancient global calamity
In shallow warm seas about 247 million years ago in what is now China, an oddball marine reptile flourished in the aftermath of Earth's worst mass extinction, possessing a duckbilled snout and unusually small eyes that made it resemble a platypus.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Sep 11, 2018
'World-class' skeleton of herbivorous dinosaur excavated in Hokkaido
Announcing the completion of time-consuming "cleaning" work, a research team in Hokkaido has unveiled what it claims is the largest dinosaur skeleton ever found in Japan.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 1, 2018
Scientists hunt down genes behind humankind's big brain
Scientists have pinpointed three genes that may have played a pivotal role in the evolution of the striking increase in brain size that helped define what it means to be human.
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 19, 2018
'Chibanian' data falsification claim halts IUGS screening for naming geological era
An international organization weighing a proposal to name a geological period after Chiba Prefecture has suspended the process due to an allegation of data falsification, a Japanese research team said.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Apr 10, 2018
Jaw fossil from English beach belongs to monstrous marine reptile
A jawbone fossil found on a rocky English beach belongs to one of the biggest marine animals on record, a type of seagoing reptile called an ichthyosaur that scientists estimated at up to 26 meters (85 feet) long — approaching the size of a blue whale.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Mar 29, 2018
Fossils of 'badass' Argentine meat-eating dinosaur unearthed
On a semiarid Patagonian landscape 85 million years ago, a formidable meat-eater called Tratayenia rosalesi reigned as the apex predator, part of an enigmatic dinosaur group that menaced South America and Australia for tens of millions of years.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jan 25, 2018
Analysis finds shape of human brain evolved over time to accommodate key advances in function
An analysis of fossils including the oldest-known Homo sapiens specimen has revealed that brain shape in our species evolved over time to become less elongated and more globular, a change that appears to have accommodated key advances in its function.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Dec 13, 2017
Amber discovery shows 'Dracula' sucked blood of feathered dinosaurs
Ticks, the notorious disease-spreading parasites, have been making life miserable far longer than human beings have walked the Earth. Even dinosaurs felt their blood-sucking wrath.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Oct 27, 2017
Fossil footprints reveal existence of large dinosaur predator in early Jurassic Period
A trail of fossilized three-toed footprints that measure nearly 2 feet (57 cm) long shows that a huge meat-eating dinosaur stalked southern Africa 200 million years ago at a time when most carnivorous dinosaurs were modest-sized beasts.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Aug 10, 2017
How the first airborne mammals took off, 100 million years before bats
In dense Chinese forests populated by dinosaurs 160 million years ago, two furry critters resembling flying squirrels glided from tree to tree, showing that even in such a perilous neighborhood early mammals had succeeded in going airborne.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
Jul 18, 2017
Fossilized dinosaur teeth unearthed in Nagasaki Prefecture
Fossilized teeth belonging to a plant-eating dinosaur have been discovered in Nagasaki Prefecture, offering fresh clues about the reptile and the ecosystem 81 million years ago, a local museum said Tuesday.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 8, 2017
Moroccan fossils shake up understanding of human origins
The understanding of human origins was turned on its head on Wednesday with the announcement of the discovery of fossils unearthed on a Moroccan hillside that are about 100,000 years older than any other known remains of our species, Homo sapiens.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
Jun 7, 2017
Scientists hope to show humankind originated in Mediterranean
A team of excavators in Bulgaria has resumed a search for fossils of an ape-like creature that may be the oldest-known direct ancestor of man and whose discovery has challenged the central hypothesis that humankind originated in Africa.
Japan Times
JAPAN / Science & Health
May 19, 2017
Japan's oldest human skeleton found in Okinawan cave
A human skeleton thought to be the oldest in Japan has been found in a collapsed cave in Okinawa, a local museum said Friday, adding that it appears to be around 27,000 years old.
Japan Times
WORLD / Science & Health
May 10, 2017
Who you gonna call? Dinosaur named for 'Ghostbusters' beast Zuul
It was more of a leg buster, but scientists have named a spiky, tank-like dinosaur that wielded a sledge-hammer tail after the fanciful beast Zuul from the blockbuster film "Ghostbusters" that menaced Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd and friends.

Longform

When trying to trace your lineage in Japan, the "koseki" is the most important form of document you'll encounter.
Climbing the branches of a Japanese family tree