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Paleontological Art Available on Internet

From a lifelike painting of a triceratops to exquisitely detailed drawings of ancient mollusk shells, a small gallery of paleontological art can be seen via the Internet.

The Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History has opened a Paleo Art Web page featuring years of artwork from its collections.

The site – http://www.nmnh.si.edu/paleo/paleoart – includes a section discussing the techniques of doing paleontological illustration and a section on protecting and conserving art ... Yahoo! News

Newfound Dinosaur a Transitional Creature

Caught in the act of evolution, the odd-looking, feathered dinosaur was becoming more vegetarian, moving away from its meat-eating ancestors.

It had the built-for-speed legs of meat-eaters, but was developing the bigger belly of plant-eaters. It had already lost the serrated teeth needed for tearing flesh. Those were replaced with the smaller, duller vegetarian variety.

"I doubt seriously this animal could cut a steak with that mouth," said Utah state paleontologist James Kirkland, one of those describing the animal, based on bones found in east-central Utah ... Yahoo! News

Fossils illuminate fish evolution

Fossils of an ancient fish - dating back 450 million years, when the creatures had neither bones nor teeth - have been found in South Africa.

The finds, which are 50 million years older than any other fossil fish in Africa, will help provide a "missing link" in the evolution of early fish ... BBC NEWS

South Dakota fossil yields new dinosaur species

A fossil found in South Dakota is that of a never before seen species of dinosaur, a horse-sized plant eater with spikes on its bony flat head, scientists said on Monday.

"When my colleagues saw a CAT scan of the new fossil, they tore up their family tree diagrams and said, 'Back to the drawing board!' ... We never suspected such a creature existed," said paleontologist Robert Bakker ... Yahoo! News

Exceptional Whale Fossil Found in Egyptian Desert

An American paleontologist and a team of Egyptians have found the most nearly complete fossilized skeleton of the primitive whale Basilosaurus isis in Egypt's Western Desert ... Yahoo! News

Scientists Find T.rex Relative in Georgia

Paleontologists have identified a new dinosaur species, an early relative of Tyrannosaurus rex that probably roamed what is now the Southeastern United States about 77 million years ago ... Red Nova

Researchers find new giant amphibian fossils in Africa

Two new 250 million year-old species of large, meat-eating amphibians have been discovered by researchers, including investigators from McGill University. Their findings published in today's issue of Nature, describe the first and oldest amphibious carnivores from the Republic of Niger in West Africa ... EurekAlert!

Dinosaur Fossil Carries Bird-Like Eggs Inside

A dinosaur who died more than 65 million years ago with two eggs ready to lay shows that the animals were very bird-like, but also resembled reptiles such as crocodiles, researchers said on Thursday ... Reuters.com

Scientists use manufacturing methods to reconstruct mastodon

Combining 13,000-year-old bones with 21st century auto manufacturing techniques, scientists and exhibit preparators at the University of Michigan Exhibit Museum of Natural history are reconstructing a male mastodon skeleton for an exhibit that opens to the public May 21 ... U of M News Service

Great extinction came in phases

The greatest mass extinction recorded in Earth history did not occur as a result of one single cataclysmic event.

A joint UK-Chinese team tell Nature magazine the disaster that befell the planet 250 million years ago must have happened in phases.

Their conclusion is based on the abundance of "organic fossils" found in rocks at Meishan in southern China.

These suggest there were at least two episodes to the mass die-off that saw up to 95% of lifeforms disappear ... BBC NEWS