ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

At the boundaries between tectonic plates, narrow rifts can form as Earth's crust slowly pulls apart. But how, exactly, does this rifting happen? Does pressure from magma rising from belowground force the land apart? Or is a rift just a rip, created mainly by the pulling motion of tectonic plates that are drifting away from each other? A study explores these questions and sheds new light on how this process works.

Researchers have described the new species of titanosaur dinosaur Abditosaurus kuehnei from the remains excavated at the Orcau-1 site, in the southern Pyrenees (Catalonia, Spain). The semiarticulated 70.5-million-year-old skeleton is the most complete specimen of this herbivorous group of dinosaurs discovered so far in Europe.

Scientists have discovered a new fossil that reveals the origin of gills in arthropods.

Research revises estimates of glacial ice volume, suggesting that there is less ice in the world's glaciers than previously thought. The findings have implications on freshwater and global sea level rise.

A new study leaves large tooth marks in previous conclusions about the body shape of the Megalodon, one of the largest sharks that ever lived.