EARLY EARTH - INDO DAILY

Mollusk graveyards are time machines to oceans' pristine past

Mar 03, 2017 (SPX)

A University of Florida study shows that mollusk fossils provide a reliable measure of human-driven changes in marine ecosystems and shifts in ocean biodiversit...

Did seaweed make us who we are today?

Mar 01, 2017 (SPX)

Millions of years ago something happened, allowing early Homo sapiens to branch out from the primitive hominoid family tree. Was this crucial turn in human evol...

Ancient fossil reveals first evidence of live birth in animals thought to lay eggs

Mar 01, 2017 (SPX)

The first ever evidence of live birth in an animal group previously thought to lay eggs exclusively has been discovered by an international team of scientists, ...

The oldest fossil giant penguin

Mar 01, 2017 (SPX)

Together with colleagues from New Zealand, Senckenberg scientist Dr. Gerald Mayr described a recently discovered fossil of a giant penguin with a body length of...

New Questions on How Earth's Atmosphere and Oceans Formed

Feb 28, 2017 (SPX)

A new study led by The Australian National University (ANU) has found seawater cycles throughout the Earth's interior down to 2,900 km (1,800 miles), much deepe...

Earth probably began with a solid shell

Feb 28, 2017 (SPX)

Today's Earth is a dynamic planet with an outer layer composed of giant plates that grind together, sliding past or dipping beneath one another, giving rise to ...

Trilobite eggs in New York

Feb 28, 2017 (SPX)

Despite a plethora of exceptionally preserved trilobites, trilobite reproduction has remained a mystery. No previously described trilobite has had unambiguous e...

New study gives weight to Darwin's theory of 'living fossils'

Feb 24, 2017 (SPX)

A team of researchers from the University of Bristol studying the 'living fossil' Sphenodon - or tuatara - have identified a new way to measure the evolutionary...

Rare fossil discovery raises questions

Feb 24, 2017 (SPX)

Adult and juvenile remains of a giant rodent species (Isostylomys laurdillardi) have been uncovered by researchers, in the Rio de la Plata coastal region of sou...

400 million year old gigantic extinct monster worm discovered in Canadian museum

Feb 22, 2017 (SPX)

A previously undiscovered species of an extinct primordial giant worm with terrifying snapping jaws has been identified by an international team of scientists. ...

Fossil discovery rewrites understanding of reproductive evolution

Feb 15, 2017 (SPX)

A remarkable 250 million-year-old "terrible-headed lizard" fossil found in China shows an embryo inside the mother - clear evidence for live birth. Head of The ...

A kiss of death - mammals were the first animals to produce venom

Feb 14, 2017 (SPX)

Africa is a tough place. It always has been. Especially if you have to fend off gigantic predators like sabre-toothed carnivores in order to survive. And, when ...

MBL study illuminates the origin of vertebrate gills

Feb 10, 2017 (SPX)

What did the last common ancestor of the vertebrate animals - a very small, soft-bodied marine organism that lived about 600 million years ago - look like? Whil...

Genetic 'switch' offers clues to evolutionary origins of fine motor skills

Feb 10, 2017 (SPX)

Researchers have identified a genetic signature found exclusively in the nerve cells that supply, or innervate, the muscles of an organism's outermost extremiti...

Fossil treasure-trove reveals post-extinction world ruled by sponges

Feb 10, 2017 (SPX)

New deposits with exceptionally well-preserved fossil communities are always exciting, but some are more interesting than others. Windows into particularly impo...

Syracuse University geochemist breathes new life into 'Great Oxidation Event'

Feb 10, 2017 (SPX)

A researcher in the College of Arts and Sciences is providing fresh insights into the "Great Oxidation Event" (GOE), in which oxygen first appeared in the Earth...

Deeper origin of gill evolution suggests 'active lifestyle' link in early vertebrates

Feb 10, 2017 (SPX)

A new study has revealed that gills originated much deeper in evolutionary history than previously believed. The findings support the idea that gills evolved be...

NASA team looks to ancient earth first to study hazy exoplanets

Feb 10, 2017 (SPX)

For astronomers trying to understand which distant planets might have habitable conditions, the role of atmospheric haze has been hazy. To help sort it out, a t...

This spiny slug blazed a trail for snails

Feb 07, 2017 (SPX)

Reach back far enough in the family tree of a snail or a clam and you'll find a spiny little slug with tiny teeth, wearing a helmet. Scientists have unearthed t...

Spiny, armored slug reveals ancestry of molluscs

Feb 07, 2017 (SPX)

Scientists from the University of Bristol have uncovered a 480-million-year-old slug-like fossil in Morocco which sheds new light on the evolution of molluscs -...