Physicists from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have succeeded in detecting a time-resolved supernova signal in the Earth’s microfossil record. As the group of Prof. Shawn Bishop could show, […]
Fossils & Paleontology
Posted inFossils & Paleontology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Earliest Evidence of Reproduction in a Complex Organism
A new study of 565 million-year-old fossils has identified how some of the first complex organisms on Earth possibly some of the first animals to exist reproduced, revealing the origins […]
Posted inBiogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Cryobiology, Extinction events, Fossils & Paleontology, Icy Worlds, Status Report
Fossils Explain How Life Coped During Snowball Earth
Researchers have discovered what they think are fossils of a unique red algae species that lived about 650 million years ago during a brief respite between some of the most […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
Ancient Rocks Show Life Could Have Flourished on Earth 3.2 Billion Years Ago
A spark from a lightning bolt, interstellar dust, or a subsea volcano could have triggered the very first life on Earth. But what happened next? Life can exist without oxygen, […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology, Press Release
550 Million Year Old Fossils: New Clues About Fossil Formation
A new study from University of Missouri and Virginia Tech researchers is challenging accepted ideas about how ancient soft-bodied organisms become part of the fossil record. Findings suggest that bacteria […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology, Origin & Evolution of Life, Press Release
New Evidence of Ancient Multicellular Life Sets Evolutionary Timeline Back 60 Million Years
A Virginia Tech geobiologist with collaborators from the Chinese Academy of Sciences have found evidence in the fossil record that complex multicellularity appeared in living things about 600 million years […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology
New Home for an Evolutionary Misfit
One of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever found – a worm-like creature with legs, spikes and a head difficult to distinguish from its tail – has found its place in […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology, Origin & Evolution of Life
How Some of Earth's Earliest Animals Lived and Died
New three-dimensional reconstructions show how some of the earliest animals on Earth developed, and provide some answers as to why they went extinct. A bizarre group of uniquely shaped organisms […]
Posted inFossils & Paleontology
Fossilized Embryos More Than 500 Million Years Old
The Cambrian Period is a time when most phyla of marine invertebrates first appeared in the fossil record. Also dubbed the “Cambrian explosion,” fossilized records from this time provide glimpses […]
Posted inBiosignatures & Paleobiology, Fossils & Paleontology, Genomics, Proteomics, Bioinformatics, Mars, Plant Biology
Ancient Cellular Fossils: Indications Of What May Wait on Mars?
When we send probes to other worlds (such as Mars) to look for evidence of past life, we are sending them to look for fossils. Often times a fossil preserves […]