Researchers have discovered the fossils of what might be the earliest known dinosaur.
The fossils of the dinosaur, Nyasasaurus parringtoni, were part of a collection at the Natural History Museum in London.
The study hinges on the analysis of existing fossils found in western North America, from Canada through to the south-west of the US, where the fossils of small reptiles are much better preserved than in other parts of the world.
Some researchers think Homo erectus evolved in East Africa, where many of the oldest fossils have been found, but the discovery in the 1990s of equally old Homo erectus fossils in the country of Georgia has led others to suggest an Asian origin.
Evolutionists also cite the many fossils of early golfers found in the rough of several Scottish links course.
Most tellingly, she says that rock cores taken recently from the crater itself show a band of sediment above the impact that contains fossils of tiny creatures that became extinct only at the end of the Cretaceous.
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He said the variation was due to the type of limestone the fossils were excavated from, which can reduce the level of detail - or resolution - of the specimens.
The Society of Vertebrate Paleontology categorically opposes the private ownership of fossils, and many museums shun collectors' specimens, yet scientifically valuable information is regularly uncovered by private companies.
The team is now debating how the fossils fit into the history of life.
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Such confusion has bedevilled the interpretation of the human fossils found near Lake Turkana.
Mongolia enacted laws in 1924 criminalizing the exportation of dinosaur fossils from the country.
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Dr Niewoehner's evidence, published in the current edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, comes from fossils dug up in the Middle East.
Deciphering the very distant past on the basis of fossils and animals that are around today is inherently a subjective business.
In December 2006 and October 2007, Customs and Border Patrol agents inspecting shipments through the Chicago O'Hare International Mail Facility found three parcels containing the collection of fossils.
"This is one of the most important repatriations of fossils in recent years, " said ICE Director John Morton.
Sponsors participate at every stage of the paleontological process, side-by-side with a site scientist: from the use of hammer and chisel to free fossils from hard rock, to the moulding of bone replicas for display at the on-site laboratory.
The Peking Man fossils are a vital component of the Out of Africa 1 migration theory, which proposes that Homo erectus first appeared in Africa around two million years ago before spreading north and east (modern humans, Homo sapiens, would follow much later and supplant all other Homo species).
For now, however, part of the allure of Shanghai for Deco aficionados is the general dilapidation of many buildings, which can give explorers the feeling at times of unearthing architectural fossils.
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All of the fossils date back to 183 million years ago during the Jurassic period.
You don't have to squint too hard to picture a 10-year-old Myhrvold scrabbling for fossils in the canyons of the Santa Monica, Calif. mountains, his bored mother waiting helplessly on the hillside.
The fossil record also shows an apparent lack of dinosaur fossils in the last few million years leading up to the impact.
"Comparative anatomy" - in which, for example, the forelimbs of a number of fossils are compared to establish which are most closely related - was the entire toolbox for the earliest palaeontologists.
However, the new fossils come from a very different part of the dinosaur family tree.
The fossils are the oldest collection of dinosaur embryos ever found, the researchers said.
Once a smuggler gets fossils out of the country, the shipment need only make it past customs.
But it looks like the weight of events may finally crush resistance from the fossils at Shell.
"If you understand the distribution of these structures in the skin of a prey animal, you can understand something about predator-prey interactions, and it might explain some of the hadrosaur fossils we see with these bite marks, " he said.
The new dinosaur was found in an area of the Isle of Wight where pieces of the cliff have been falling into the sea, exposing hidden fossils.
Mongolia has laws that protect fossils - they are the property of the state and their export is banned.
We are pleased that we can now begin the process of returning these prehistoric fossils to their countries of origin.
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