* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Ancient Marine Reptiles

Blobrana · L

The remains of a Loch Ness-style creature that lived in the English Channel 200 million years ago have been found on a beach.
Archaeologists have spent months piecing together dozens of old bones found encased in limestone on Britain's Jurassic Coast by a fossil hunter.
After nearly completing the jigsaw-like puzzle they have disclosed that the skeleton, which is 70 per cent complete, is that of a 12ft long plesiosaur.

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Blobrana · L

Morden, Manitoba - It's about as far from an ocean as you can get, and one of the last places you might expect to discover the remnants of a prehistoric sea monster that once ruled the marine world.
But some of Canada's richest deposits of marine dinosaurs are found in the sand-like soil of Morden, Manitoba, about 100 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

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Blobrana · L

Isochirotherium

Blobrana · L

RE: Ancient Marine Reptiles

Blobrana · L

A newly discovered fossil from China has shed light on how the turtle's shell evolved.
The 220 million-year-old find, described in Nature journal, shows that the turtle's breast plate developed earlier than the rest of its shell.
The breast plate of this fossil was an extension of its ribs, but only hardened skin covered its back.
Researchers say the breast plate may have protected it while swimming.

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Blobrana · L

The Isle of Sky turtle fossils discovery
The Middle Jurassic (c. 164 million years ago) is a poorly known period in our knowledge of small animals like mammals, lizards, frogs, salamanders, turtles etc. Britain is actually one of only a few places that has yielded information from this period, and given us much of what we know. UCL has been particularly involved with a locality at Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, but rich though this is, it produces only disarticulated material.

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Blobrana · L

Ancient turtle discovered on Skye
The earliest turtles known to live in water have been discovered on a Scottish island.
The 164 million-year-old reptile fossils were found on a beach in southern Skye, off the UK's west coast.

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Blobrana · L

Around 164 million years ago the earliest aquatic turtles lived in lakes and lagoons on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, according to research published today.
Recent scientific fieldwork led by researchers from UCL and the Natural History Museum on Skye, an island off the north-western coast of Scotland, discovered a block of rock containing fossils that have been recognised as a new species of primitive turtle Eileanchelys waldmani. Months of work at the Natural History Museum freed these skeletons from the rock, revealing four well-preserved turtles and the remnants of at least two others. These remains, and a beautiful skull found nearby, represent the most complete Middle Jurassic turtle described to date, offering substantial new insights into the early evolution of turtles and how they diversified into the varied forms we see today.

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Blobrana · L

A 75-million-year-old fossil of a pregnant turtle and a nest of fossilised eggs that were discovered in the badlands of southeastern Alberta by scientists and staff from the University of Calgary and the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology are yielding new ideas on the evolution of egg-laying and reproduction in turtles and tortoises.
It is the first time the fossil of a pregnant turtle has been found and the description of this discovery was published today in the British journal Biology Letters.

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