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☆ Ancient reptile fossil revealed as a forgery
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-20 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —A 280 million-year-old fossil thought to be a well-preserved specimen of an ancient reptile is largely a forgery, according to new research. The fossil appeared in book and article citations over the decades, but no one ever studied it in detail. A new, detailed analysis has revealed that the dark color of the fossil isn’t preserved genetic material — it’s just black paint covering a couple of bones and carved rock. When the specimen was discovered, researchers thought the fossil might provide a rare glimpse into reptilian evolution. It’s not the first time a fossil forgery has been uncovered, but Rossi said this particular style of forgery is unusual.

Persons: antiquus, ”, Valentina Rossi, ” Rossi, Rossi, Mariagabriella Fornasiero, Evelyn Kustatscher, It’s, Fabrizio Nestola, ” Nestola Organizations: CNN, University of Padua’s Museum of Nature, University College Cork, Museum of Nature, Tyrol Nature Museum, University Center, Museums, University of Padua Locations: Italian, Italy, Ireland, Tyrol, Bolzano

☆ BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition 2023 reveals nature's more obscure side
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Issy Ronald | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A photo of a bright orange fungus growing on deadwood, with its striking color resplendent against the darkness, has been crowned winner of this year’s BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition. The image competition showcases the “intersection between art and science,” organizers said, in all its weird and wonderful forms. An image depicting an embryonic dinosaur developing within an egg between 72 million and 66 million years ago won the Paleoecology category. It was submitted by Jordan Mallon from the Candian Museum of Nature and created by Wenyu Ren from Beijing, China. A selection of the winning and runner-up images can be viewed in the gallery above.

Persons: Cornelia Sattler, palaeontologists, Roberto García, João Araújo, Victor Huertas, Jordan Mallon, Wenyu Ren Organizations: CNN, BMC, Macquarie University, University of Lund, New, Botanical Garden, James Cook University, Australia, Coral, Candian Museum of Nature Locations: deadwood, Australia, Roa, Sweden, Guinea, Beijing, China

☆ A herd of orphan elephants could be the key to bringing back the woolly mammoth
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-22 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Editor’s note: A version of this story appeared in CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. But a key question is whether such animals could survive if they roamed the Arctic tundra as their ancestors did thousands of years ago. Eventually, the bonded herd will make its way into the wild, where its progress can be monitored for the next decade. Sign up here to receive in your inbox the next edition of Wonder Theory, brought to you by CNN Space and Science writers Ashley Strickland and Katie Hunt. They find wonder in planets beyond our solar system and discoveries from the ancient world.

Persons: paleobiologist Jordan Mallon, It’s, Esme Ashe, Jepson, Katie Jones, J, Robert Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s, “ Oppenheimer, ”, Ashley Strickland, Katie Hunt Organizations: CNN, Canadian Museum of Nature, University of Cambridge, Southern Resident, for Whale Research, Virgin Galactic’s, CNN Space, Science Locations: Botswana, China, Ottawa, Chile, Chicago . Wild, Pacific Northwest, North America

☆ Dramatic fossil shows pugnacious mammal attacking a dinosaur
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Will Dunham | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/3] Fossilized skeletons dating to about 125 million years ago from China showing the entanglement of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis and the mammal Repenomamus robustus are seen in this 2022 handout photograph. A dramatic fossil unearthed in northeastern China shows a pugnacious badger-like mammal in the act of attacking a plant-eating dinosaur, mounting its prey and sinking its teeth into its victim's ribs about 125 million years ago, scientists said on Tuesday. Dating to the Cretaceous Period, it shows the four-legged mammal Repenomamus robustus - the size of a domestic cat - ferociously entangled with the beaked two-legged dinosaur Psittacosaurus lujiatunensis - as big as a medium-sized dog. "Here, we have good evidence for a smaller mammal preying on a larger dinosaur, which is not something we would have guessed without this fossil," Mallon added. The researchers discounted the idea that the Repenomamus and Psittacosaurus fossil showed a mammal merely scavenging a carcass.

Persons: Read, paleobiologist Jordan Mallon, Mallon, Xiao, chun Wu, Psittacosaurus, Repenomamus, Will Dunham, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: dinos, Canadian Museum of Nature, Thomson Locations: China, WASHINGTON, Ottawa, Liaoning Province, Mongolia

☆ A new fossil shows a prehistoric badger-like mammal and a dinosaur locked in 'mortal combat'
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Jenny Mcgrath | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

A new fossil shows a badger-like mammal biting into a dinosaur. A new paper in Scientific Reports describes a fossil of the cat-sized mammal, Repenomamus robustus, locked in "mortal combat" with a Psittacosaurus that was three times as large. The newer fossil has quite a bit of evidence suggesting that the mammal was attacking the dinosaur. "I think the clincher is just the fact that the hind leg of the mammal is trapped within the folded hind leg of the dinosaur," Mallon said. "The question that comes up is, what is a mammal doing attacking a dinosaur that's so much larger than itself?"

Persons: Jordan Mallon, Michael Skrepnick, Mallon, Han Organizations: Service, Canadian Museum of Nature Locations: Wall, Silicon, China's Liaoning Province

☆ Fossil reveals the moment a cat-size mammal took on a dinosaur three times its size
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-18 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Sometime during the Cretaceous Period, 125 million years ago, a feisty mammal the size of a domestic cat encountered a dinosaur three times its size and thought it looked like a tasty meal. “The inherited wisdom has been that the ecological interactions were unilateral: The bigger dinosaurs ate the smaller mammals. What makes this fossil exceptional is that the mammal is caught in the moment of attacking the almost fully grown dinosaur. A detail of the fossil shows the left forepaw of Repenomamus robustus wrapped around the lower jaw of the dinosaur. Gang HanPredator vs. scavengerThe fossil shows R. robustus gripping onto the lower jaw of Psittacosaurus with its left forepaw.

Persons: CNN —, paleobiologist Jordan Mallon, Michael W, Skrepnick, ”, Mallon, “, —, ” Mallon Organizations: CNN, Canadian Museum of Nature Locations: China, China’s Liaoning province

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Persons: —, You'll, you'll Organizations: Bank, America's, of America, Bank of America, Service, Bank of America's, Anchorage Museum, Museum of Modern Art, Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Bank of America Private Bank, The Bank of America Locations: United States, Alaska, New York City, Colorado, Bank

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