Tag: Brazil
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Scientists Discover the First-Ever Molecules Preserved Inside a 113-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur Fossil
SciTechDaily has a story about an exceptionally preserved pterosaur wing from Brazil. The animal lived about 113 million years ago, during the middle Cretaceous Period, in what is now northeastern Brazil. Its wing phalanx, which refers to the individual bone segments which make up the finger skeleton supporting the wing, was preserved in 3 dimensions…
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Giant Dinosaurs Were Riddled With a Devastating Disease, Fossils Show
Science Alert has a piece about dinosaurs… sauropods might not have been all that healthy. The animals that lived in what is now Brazil, might have suffered from bone infections caused by bacterium, fungus, virus, or parasite.
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Brazilian researchers discover dinosaur fossil after heavy rains in Rio Grande do Sul
Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain Phys.org brings news of the discovery of what may be one of the most ancient dinosaurs. The specimen was found near a reservoir in the municipality of Sao Joao do Polesine in the southern state of Rio Grande do Sul after heavy rains in May 2024. The bones are thought to…
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Triassic Crocodile-Like Reptile Discovered in Brazil
Artistic representation of a Middle-Late Triassic landscape of southern Brazil: (a) a large Prestosuchus chiniquensis feeds on the carcass of a dicynodont while individuals of Parvosuchus aurelioi compete for scraps; (b) and (c) depict details of individuals of Parvosuchus aurelioi. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes. SciNews has a story about the discovery of a new crocodile-like reptile from Brazil. Whereas the…
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135-Million-Year-Old Footprints Reveal New Dinosaur Species
SciNews has a story about a new dinosaur species. The animal, Farlowichnus rapidus, lived about 135 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. The name Farlowichnus was selected to honor Professor James Farlow, a paleontologist and ichnologist at Purdue University in Indiana. Footprints were found in the Botucatu Formation just outside Sao Paulo, Brazil. The…
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265-million-year-old fossil reveals oldest, largest predator in South America, long before the rise of dinosaurs
Phys.org has a story about a new Permian fossil from Brazil. Pampaphoneus biccai lived about 265 million years ago, during the Permian Period, around what is now São Gabriel in Southern Brazil. It was a dinocephalian, which are related to early mammals. This specimen is the first found in South America. Previously, they were only…
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Researchers find fossilized nonflying precursor to pterosaur in Brazil
Phys.org has a story about a fossil find which sheds light on pterosaur evolution. A team of paleontologists have found an ancestor of pterosaurs in a fossil deposit in Brazil. The site is near Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil and dates to about 230 million years ago in the Triassic Period. The team named a…
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Hollow bones that let dinosaurs become giants evolved at least three times independently, shows study
Phys.org has an interesting story about dinosaur evolution. Dinosaurs had hollow bones, which made it possible for them to grow as large as they did. A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports looked at three Brazilian specimens from the late Triassic and found they had hollow places in their vertebra similar to later…
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Brasilodon is Earliest Known Mammal, New Research Shows
SciNews has a story about the earliest known mammal. The early mammal Brasilodon quadrangularis dates to 225 million years ago. It was found in the Late Triassic outcrops of the Caturrita Formation of Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil and named by J. Bonaparte, A. Martinelli, C. Schultz, and R. Rubert in 2003. New research…
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SciNews: Cretaceous Dinosaur Had Impressive Mane and Shoulder Ribbons
SciNews has a story about a new dinosaur from Brazil. The animal, named Ubirajara jubatus, lived about 110 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period in what is now Brazil. It was about the size of a chicken. This dinosaur was collected from the famous Crato Formation in Northeastern Brazil. It has been described in a…
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We’ve Rarely Seen a Dinosaur Brain Like This Before
The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about a dinosaur brain. The dinosaur in the article is Buriolestes schultzi. It lived about 230 million years ago in what is now modern-day Brazil. This small bipedal animal is distantly related to the large sauropod dinosaurs of the Jurassic. In the paper, which was published…
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Battle-scarred fossils suggest giant turtles fought each other—and crocodiles three times their size
Science Magazine has a story about the discovery of some giant turtle fossils in Columbia and Venezuela. The turtles, called Stupendemys geographicus, lived about 12 million years ago. Males weighed about 1100 kilograms. These new fossils show they bore unusual large horns off the front of their shells, which they probably used to battle with…
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ESCONI January 2020 General Meeting Michelle Wenz – Super Deep Diamonds from Juina, Brazil on January 10, 2020
Electron microscope images of diamonds from the Juína area of Brazil.Credit…Suzette Timmerman The speaker at our January 10, 2020 meeting will be Michelle Wenz, a PhD student from Northwestern University. She is working on an suite of superdeep diamonds from Juina, Brazil, many of which appear to have come from the 400-700 km depth range.…
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Early meat-eating dinosaur revealed via spectacular fossil
National Geographic has a story about a new dinosaur discovery. This new dinosaur, named Gnathovorax cabreirai, dates to about 230 million years ago during the Triassic Period. It represents one of the earliest dinosaurs ever found. This discovery was made near the town of Sao Joao do Polesine in southern Brazil. Details can be found…
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Four-legged snake fossil found
CNN has an interesting video about a 110-million-year-old snake fossil. The was discovered in Brazil and dates to the Cretaceous period. Its most interesting feature… the snake had 4 legs! Scientists hope it sheds light on how and why snakes lost their legs.
