What does it take to have a nice smile? First of all, jaws and teeth are required. Although all vertebrates today have these two anatomical elements, until recently it was thought that the first animals with backbones lacked teeth, and only had hideous scissor-shaped jaws to capture their prey. A study published in the journal Nature reveals, however, that this hypothesis was wrong.
Australian scientists have carried out a study that determines that all the links in the DNA chain, preserved at the ideal temperature of 5 degrees Celsius, would be completely destroyed after 6.8 million years, which is incompatible with the idea of finding intact genetic material in a dinosaur fossil from 80 million years ago.
In the Cerro de Batallones (Madrid) sites, the remains of a vertebrate have been found that, according to scientists, is a direct ancestor of the current red panda, a threatened species that lives in Asian forests. The bones found at the site are of special importance as they will allow scientists to complete the family tree of the red panda.
Pterosaurs were reptiles that diversified during the Mesozoic (between 250 and 65 million years ago) modifying their body design for flight in a very different way from birds and bats. A new species of these ancient flying reptiles has recently been discovered at the Las Hoyas site (Cuenca), and has just been described in the journal PLoS ONE by a Spanish team of paleontologists in which experts from France and Brazil also participate.
47 million years ago, nine pairs of turtles of the extinct species 'Allaeochelys crassesculpta' were fossilized while copulating. German paleontologists have found his remains in the Messel sites, a disused quarry near Frankfurt (Germany) where there used to be a lake and which was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO more than 30 years ago.
A team of biologists from the University of Manchester has developed a new technique to accurately measure the weight and size of dinosaurs, discovering that they weren't as heavy as previously thought. The conclusions are published in the journal 'Biology Letters'.
Although it seems clear that hominids originated on the African continent, research in recent years suggests that these first humans evolved from a group of primates of Asian origin. Now, the findings of several remains of teeth of an ancestral primate in Myanmar (Burma) confirm this theory.
Danni Büchner is invited to Sam Dylan's Halloween party. But the "Goodbye Germany" emigrant has no desire for many other party guests. And find clear words.
