Tag Archives: terrestrial

Fossil Trucks Redefine the Story of Terrestrial Animals, Departing from Aquatic Origins

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Tracks that form an impression of artists with lizard-like beings

Marcin Ambrozik

A discovery in Victoria, Australia has unearthed evidence of some of the earliest reptile-like ancestors, which are the forerunners to many modern creatures including birds, reptiles, and mammals. This finding could potentially alter the timeline of when such animals transitioned from aquatic environments to terrestrial habitats, marking a pivotal evolutionary milestone, though opinions remain divided.

In 2021, two amateur fossil hunters stumbled upon a sandstone slab while exploring the banks of a river near Mansfield, Victoria. This slab bore three distinct sets of tracks, believed to belong to the same type of tetrapod—four-legged creatures. Notably, two of these sets exhibited five-digit impressions with curved claws.

Fossils caught the attention of John Long from Flinders University in Adelaide, who, along with his team, dated the slab to around 356 million years ago. This predates the previously known oldest nail fossils by over 35 million years, which were discovered in Nova Scotia, Canada, according to research findings.

“These new trackways clearly illustrate beautiful five-fingered hands and hooked claws,” Long states. He describes these as “remarkable finds,” representing creatures that developed young in amniotic fluid or via egg-laying—this includes reptiles, mammals, and notably, humans.

Moreover, Long eliminates the possibility that these animals were amphibians since early amphibians were characterized by a larval stage of development. “None of the early amphibians possessed well-formed claws.” he affirms.

This implies that the fossilized tracks are likely the earliest known examples of land-dwelling reptiles. “This marks a profound change in evolution, as it suggests that hard-shelled eggs allowed these creatures to move onto dry land and populate new territories,” he explains.

Fossil tracks illustrate front footprints (yellow) and rear footprints (blue)

Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki

Additional evidence indicating that the tracks were made on land, rather than in water, includes the presence of raindrop impressions within the surrounding slabs, according to Long. While researchers remain cautious, he expresses a strong belief that “99% certainty points to early reptiles.”

Blake Dixon from the University of New South Wales in Sydney adds that both images and analyses suggest confidence that the fossils belong to clawed animals. “This represents the earliest evidence we have of advanced terrestrial movement,” he asserts.

However, trackway researchers Stephen Salisbury and Anthony Romilio from the University of Queensland acknowledge the significance of the new fossils but raise questions regarding whether the impressions are true nails or merely pointed digits.

“The discovery is on the cusp of understanding claws,” remarks Romilio. “If they are indeed nail impressions, that positions them closer to reptiles.” Long maintains that he believes these footprints do represent nails.

Salisbury also points out that the presence of raindrop impressions does not definitively indicate when the tracks were made; rather, it reflects conditions of the surface at the time. Long counters, stating, “The fact that raindrops left impressions signifies that they were present before the creature made its tracks, thus ruling out underwater creation.” The implications of these findings are extensive for understanding early terrestrial life.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Fossils of Terrestrial Apex Predators Dating Back Six Million Years Unearthed in the Dominican Republic

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A recent study conducted by the Florida Museum of Natural History reveals that this apex predator is a type of Cebucid crocodile with origins in South America.

The Cebushid crocodile ruled the South American landscape after the dinosaurs vanished, remaining dominant until roughly 11 million years ago. Image credit: Jorge Mackey.

The sebecids were the last survivors of notosuchia, a large and varied group of extinct crocodiles with fossil records that trace back to the era of dinosaurs.

Notosuchians exhibited a wide range of sizes, diets, and habitats, distinguishing themselves from their alligator relatives, as most inhabited terrestrial environments.

The Sevecid behaved like a carnivorous dinosaur, sprinting with four long, agile limbs and tearing flesh with its notorious teeth.

Some species were equipped with protective armor made of bone plates embedded in the skin, reaching lengths of up to 6 m (20 feet).

The catastrophic mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous period, which eradicated non-avian dinosaurs, also nearly led to the extinction of the notosuchians.

In South America, only the Sevecids survived post-dinosaurs, quickly ascending to the role of apex predators.

The open waters separating the Caribbean islands from the South American mainland posed significant challenges for the Sevensids when it came to swimming.

In a new research effort, paleontologist Jonathan Bloch and his colleagues from the Florida Museum of Natural History analyzed vertebrae from fossilized teeth and spinal vertebrae dating back six million years, collected from the Paleopoultry 1 site in Savanna Grande de Boya, Dominican Republic.

“Our first question upon discovering these teeth in the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands was: what could they be?” Dr. Bloch mentioned.

The team also examined 18 million-year-old teeth found in Cuba and 29 million-year-old specimens from Puerto Rico.

“The fossils suggested evidence supporting the Girllandia hypothesis,” they noted.

This theory posits that a temporary land bridge or chain of islands enabled the migration from South America to the Caribbean.

“If the serrated teeth found in other Caribbean islands also belong to the Sevecid, the history of these giant reptiles stretches beyond just the Dominican Republic.”

“They would have played a significant role in shaping the ecosystems of this region for millions of years. However, today, evidence of large terrestrial predators is scarce.”

“In their absence, smaller endemic predators like birds, snakes, and crocodiles have evolved to fill gaps in the food chain,” he added.

“We could not have predicted this just by studying modern ecosystems,” Dr. Bloch remarked.

“The presence of large predators greatly differs from our previous assumptions, and it’s thrilling to explore what further discoveries might await in the Caribbean fossil record.”

The team’s paper was published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

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Lázaro W. Viñola López et al. 2025. The South American Sevecid from the Miocene of Hispaniola documents the presence of apex predators in the ecosystems of the Early West Indies. Proc. R. Soc. B 292 (2045): 20242891; doi: 10.1098/rspb.2024.2891

Source: www.sci.news

New fossil findings show a variety of terrestrial ecosystems 75,000 years post-Endopermian mass extinction

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Searching for the land refugia is essential for human survival during the hypothetical sixth mass extinction. Studying comparable crises in the past can provide insights, but there is no evidence of fossils of diverse giant fluid ecosystems that survived the most severe biological crisis of the past 540 million years. In a new study, paleontologists have investigated plant and tetrapod fossils and various microfossils in the Permian-Triassic Nantaodonggou section in Xinjiang, China. Their fossil records reveal the presence of gymnasium forests and fern fields in a vibrant area, but marine life has experienced mass extinction.

Artistic reconstruction of the end of Permian mass extinctions based on fossil parinomorphs, plants, and tetrapods, and the end of Permian mass extinctions based on sedimentary data from the Southern Jiang section of China's New Jiang. Image credit: DH Yang.

The mass extinction of Permian, which occurred about 252 million years ago, is widely recognized as the most serious of the five major plant zoic extinctions.

This catastrophic event leads to the extinction of about 80% of known species and is a fact that is well supported by marine fossil records.

Some scientists suggest that volcanic eruptions in Siberia caused widespread terrestrial destruction through wildfires, acid rain and toxic gases.

This evidence includes the continuous extinction of properties. Gigantopteris Flora in southern China Grosso Pteris Flora crossing Gondwanaland around the mass extinction of the Endopermians.

However, other scientists argue that these devastating effects are limited by latitude and atmospheric circulation.

Several fossil discoveries suggest that certain Mesozoic plants exist before extinction events, referring to uninterrupted evolution.

Newly discovered fossils from the southern taodonggou section, located in the Tapan Hami Basin in Xinjiang Province, northwestern China, offer a unique perspective.

“We further confirm that the presence of intact tree trunks and fern stems represents local vegetation rather than transported remains,” said Professor Minli Wang, a researcher at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Although some plant species have disappeared locally, researchers have found that the overall extinction rate for spores and pollen species is probably only about 21%.

This conclusion is based on the discovery of many “missing” species in the early Triassic formations elsewhere, indicating temporary migration rather than permanent extinction.

This stable vegetation base was essential for the rapid recovery of local ecosystems.

Fossil evidence shows that within just 75,000 years after the extinction ended, the region supported a diverse tetrapod, including herbivorous. lystrosaurus And carnivorous chronicers show that they can quickly return to complex food webs.

This finding contrasts with previous understanding that it took more than a million years for the ecological restoration of the Endopermians to follow the extinction.

New evidence suggests that local ecological diversity in this field has recovered more than 10 times faster than in other regions.

Scientists cited the region's stable, semi-humid climate as essential to its biological resilience. According to a Paleosol Matrix analysis, the area received consistent rainfall of approximately 1,000 mm per year during this period.

Its consistent precipitation has provided southern gu with more abundant vegetation and habitable environment than other regions following the mass extinction of Permians, providing important support for migrating migrant animals.

Despite its proximity to the volcanic activity that caused the extinction of the Endopermians, the Tarpanhami Basin provides safe shelter for terrestrial life, indicating that even seemingly dangerous places can harbor important biodiversity.

“This suggests that local climate and geographical factors create an incredible pocket of resilience and hope for conservation efforts in the face of changes in the global environment,” says Professor Feng Shui of Nanjing Geology Institute, the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

“In light of current concerns about a potential sixth large-scale extinction driven by human activity, this discovery of a “life oasis” underscores the importance of identifying and protecting such natural refsias. ”

study Published in the journal Advances in science.

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Huiping Peng et al. 2025. Refludium in the abandoned indid: Unearthing the lost flora that escaped the mass extinction of Permians. Advances in science 11 (11); doi:10.1126/sciadv.ads5614

Source: www.sci.news

Research finds that pterosaurs were well-suited for diverse terrestrial lifestyles

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A new study by palaeontologists from the Universities of Leicester, Birmingham, and Liverpool John Moores University shows that pterosaur limbs had an unexpectedly high degree of variation, comparable to that observed in living birds. The discovery demonstrates that pterosaurs were not limited to a life in the air but were also adapted to a wide range of terrestrial lives, from tree-climbing in early species to more terrestrial lives in later species.

Pterosaurs have adapted to a surprisingly wide range of non-aerial locomotion ecologies. Early small, long-tailed pterosaurs (not pterosaurs) showed extreme changes in hand and foot proportions, indicating a climbing lifestyle. In contrast, the hands and feet of later short-tailed pterosaurs (Pterosaurians) typically exhibit morphologies consistent with a more ground-based locomotor ecology. (A) Non-pterosaur antiquities restoration Scaphognathus crassirostris (Late Jurassic) in scansorial mode, with autosufficiency characterized by short proximal elements and elongated distal elements. (B) Restoration of Pterodactylis-type antiquities Balaenognathus maeuseri (Late Jurassic) In the terrestrial mode, the autopodia are characterized by an elongated proximal element and a shortened distal element. (C) Reconstruction of Scaphognathus (left) and Baleonognathus (Right) Rear view showing major flight surfaces. (D) Simplified pterosaur phylogeny showing the major taxa used in the study. Image credit: Smith others., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014.

Pterosaurs, the first true flying vertebrates, played an important role in Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems.

However, our current understanding of their terrestrial locomotion abilities, and more broadly their terrestrial paleoecology, is limited.

Robert Smith, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Leicester, said: “Early pterosaurs were highly specialized for climbing and had extreme modifications to their limbs, similar to those seen in today’s climbing lizards and birds such as woodpeckers. It’s the same,” he said.

“Holding on to a vertical surface with your fingertips for long periods of time is a difficult task, but it’s much easier for smaller, lighter animals.”

“These early pterosaurs were likely restricted to arboreal habitats, and as a result, their body size was small.”

“However, during the mid-Jurassic period, a major evolutionary change occurred, and pterosaurs’ hands and feet changed to more closely resemble those of land-dwelling animals.”

“These adaptations to terrestrial locomotion have opened up new ecological opportunities and given rise to a wide variety of feeding strategies.”

Freed from the size constraints imposed by vertical living, some pterosaurs were able to evolve to gigantic sizes with wingspans of up to 10 meters.

Dr David Unwin, a researcher at the University of Leicester, said: “In early pterosaurs, the hind limbs were connected by a flight membrane, which severely hindered walking and running.”

“In later, more advanced pterosaurs, this membrane separated along the midline, allowing each hindlimb to move independently.”

“This was an important innovation, and together with the changes in the hands and feet, it greatly increased the maneuverability of pterosaurs on land.”

“These later pterosaurs were freed from the constraints of climbing and were able to grow to enormous sizes, making some species the true giants of the Mesozoic Era.”

In early pterosaurs, the bones at the base of the fingers and toes were relatively short, and the parts farther from the body were very long, terminating in large, curved claws. These improvements created a strong grip, making it ideal for climbing trees.

In contrast, later, more evolved pterosaurs showed the opposite pattern. That is, the bones at the base of the fingers and toes were much longer, and those closer to the tips were shorter.

Their claws are also flatter and less curved, suggesting they are better suited for walking than climbing.

“These discoveries highlight the need to examine all aspects of pterosaur locomotion, not just flight, to fully understand pterosaur evolution. It’s just part of our history,” Smith said.

“By studying how they lived in trees and on the ground, we can begin to understand the role they played in ancient ecosystems.”

“When pterosaurs arrived on Earth, it was already inhabited by a wide range of animals, including dinosaurs and many other reptiles.”

“Pterosaurs cleverly avoided competition with these established groups by exploiting ecological niches that required both the ability to fly and walk.”

“This resulted in some strange feeding strategies, including the evolution of hundreds of thin, needle-like teeth used for filter feeding.”

“This surprising feature is similar to the feeding method of modern flamingos and appeared at least 120 million years before the first flamingos evolved.”

of study Published in a magazine current biology.

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Robert S.H. Smith others. Morphology of limbs showing the invasion of terrestrial environments by pterosaurs in the mid-Mesozoic era. current biologypublished online on October 4, 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014

Source: www.sci.news