ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

An 18.5 million-year-old fossil found in Panama provides evidence of a new species and is the oldest reliable example of a climbing woody vine known as a liana from the soapberry family. The discovery sheds light on the evolution of climbing plants.

Seals and sea lions are fast swimming ocean predators that use their flippers to literally fly through the water. But not all seals are the same: some swim with their front flippers while others propel themselves with their back feet.

The origins of a pretty smile have long been sought in the fearsome jaws of living sharks which have been considered living fossils reflecting the ancestral condition for vertebrate tooth development and inference of its evolution. However, this view ignores real fossils which more accurately reflect the nature of ancient ancestors.

Early in fetal development, a mass of cells known as the bipotential gonad has the possibility of giving rise either to ovaries or testes, reproductive organs that contribute to many of the characteristics that define a person's sex. In a new study, researchers pinpoint the origins of that precursor gland.

A geoscientific research team led by scientists from the University of Cologne has come a decisive step closer to determining the oxygen levels in the early Earth's history by analyzing the composition of tungsten isotopes.

Sea ice cover in the Southern Hemisphere is extremely variable, from summer to winter and from millennium to millennium, according to a new study. Overall, sea ice has been on the rise for about 10,000 years, but with some exceptions to this trend. Researchers uncovered these findings by examining the chemistry of a 54,000-year-old South Pole ice core.