NewsBite

Palaeontology

Advertisement
Left: Professor Mike Archer with the preserved pub that inspired his de-extinction program in 2000. Right: Dr Anna Gillespie recovering a thylacine fossil from a boulder using acetic acid.

Scientists dissolved a boulder in acid – and a thylacine jumped out

The bone-crushing fossilised jaws were one of three Tasmanian tiger ancestors uncovered by palaeontologists, amid a contentious effort to resurrect the marsupial carnivore.

  • Angus Dalton

Latest

An artist’s impression of a species of Jaekelopterus, the largest type of sea scorpion that dominated ancient oceans as the apex predator like modern-day sharks.

Giant ‘sea scorpions’ hunted Australian waters like sharks

Two new species that ruled the ancient oceans as crocodile-sized apex predators have been uncovered in NSW.

  • Angus Dalton
‘Apex’ the stegosaurus skeleton at Sotheby’s New York in New York.

$67 million stegosaurus upends the dinosaur hierarchy

A billionaire hedge fund founder has splashed around nine times Sotheby’s presale estimate for a stegosaurus skeleton, making it the most valuable fossil sold at an auction.

  • Chris Bryant
Scientists have unveiled three new species of monotreme, including the enigmatic “echidnapus”.

Meet the ‘echidnapus’, a bizarre blend of the world’s strangest creatures

Scientists led by Tim Flannery have unearthed evidence for a previously unknown “age of monotremes” when egg-laying mammals dominated Australia.

  • Angus Dalton
The recreated head of Shanidar Z, based on 3D scans of the reconstructed skull, made by the Kennis brothers for the Netflix documentary Secrets of the Neanderthals.

No more ‘Homo stupidus’: Why Neanderthals are getting a makeover

They were shrewd, complex and creative, and we shared the planet with them (and other types of humans) for thousands of years. So why did the Neanderthals die out and not us?

  • Angus Holland
A microCT scan revealed the details of the self-cloning brittle star.

Starfish cousin caught in the act of cloning itself

A recently discovered fossil in Germany pushes the origin of cloning sea stars back more than 150 million years in first-ever evidence for the phenomenon.

  • Jack Tamisiea
Advertisement
A 50,000-year-old fossil - discovered by a recreational caver in Victoria - is one of the most complete ever found.

In an undiscovered cave, Josh came face-to-face with a human-sized skull

One of Australia’s most complete fossils to date has emerged from a labyrinth in regional Victoria.

  • Angus Dalton
Katrina Gill searches for fossils at Beaumaris.

The hidden Melbourne beach teeming with rare fossils

Mega sharks and a bird with a six-metre wingspan graced our shoreline 5 million years ago, and urban explorers can still uncover traces of them at this bayside beach.

  • Petra Stock
An artist impression of a group of G. blacki within a forest in southern China

We now know what killed humans’ largest relative – and it’s eerie

By analysing fossils from Chinese caves, Australian scientists have helped uncover one of palaeontology’s biggest mysteries.

  • Angus Dalton
A chunk of whale jaw excavated from the banks of the Murray River a century ago has re-written the evolution story of history’s most enormous creatures.

A Murray River fossil rewrites the history of earth’s biggest creatures

The pale-white slab was locked away for a century. New analysis has redefined the history of the ocean and all the creatures that depend on it – including humans.

  • Angus Dalton

Original URL: https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/topic/palaeontology-1ne7