Natural Science Forum / Biology / Paleontology / May 2005

Nothing stays the same
Palaeoanthropologist Chris Stringer pieces together the few
clues we have about the history of humankind and reminds us that
we're not the summit of evolution and that there's more to come

Quick question,
Are Theropods saurischian, ornithischian, or something else, and how
did modern birds evolve from saurischian ancestors, especially when
they are themselves ornithischian?  Any information would be

Over at http://members.aol.com/Waucoba5/ione/ioneproject.html I've
uploaded my new web page, "Fossil Plants Of The Ione Basin,
California." It's all about my many field trips to the leaf-bearing
Middle Eocene Ione Formation of the Ione Basin, Amador County, in the

Here in beautiful, rocky Tennessee, my husband found a fossil of some
sort in the creek bed. Of course, he is the super curious type and has
been bugging me to find out what it is.  Below are photo links.
http://www.therv.net/deb/JoeStuff/beak.jpg

I wanted to know, has any really, truly, non-speculated feather been
found on a Dinosaur?  BIrds theoretically descended from Maniraptors,
but how can we be sure unless feathers were found on these things?  The
feather is a highly derived and extremely specialized character, it can

I'm no academic, but I am fascinated with everything Cambrian/Devonian
since I was very young, the imagery especially. I'm an artist who also
dabbles in 3D representations of life from those periods, outside of
more 'modern' design work. I recently read about 'The Cambrian Fossils

May 4, 2005
Dinosaur 'Missing Link' Found in Utah
By Guy Gugliotta
Washington Post Staff Writer

Just taken my son to the Natural History Museum in London..went
expecting to go off and see some of the museums trilobit collection.
Nothing on the little map - so went to the information desk:
"Could you point us in the direction of any trilobites?"

Could anyone recommend a website that shows how strata build up over time,
and how fossils that were way underground, originally under the ocean, end
up on the surface, on top of a mountain?
We find shells and trilobites here in Eastern Pennsylvania, and my kids want

Carl Zimmer writes of a village about 1km from where the bones were found:
http://www.corante.com/loom/archives/2005/04/29/hobbits_alive.php
http://www.corante.com/loom/archives/cat_hobbits_homo_floresiensis.html
 Rampasasa, made up of 77 families. About 80% of the people were