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White rot fungus may put an end to the development of Coal deposits?

Mon, 02/07/2012 - 16:49 by Minnie Mahendru

Scientists feel that the development of coal deposits may have seen an end due to the evolution of the white–rot fungus. The study findings state that, it took nearly 60 million long years for the coal deposits to be formed but the fungi has the caliber to split down its organic polymer lignin. It is this polymer lignin that keeps the plant cell walls upright and rigid. This was an online study research mentioned in edition of Science on the 29th of June.

Bulldozer driver discovers Ice Age fossils

Sun, 21/11/2010 - 01:38 by Anter Prakash Singh

Scientists from Denver Museum of Natural Science discovered fossils of mammoths, mastodons and other Ice Age creatures, courtesy a bull dozer driver working on a municipal project.

Ancient seaweeds could be oldest plants

Fri, 19/11/2010 - 09:46 by Prince damin

Fresno, Calif. -- Two kinds of ancient seaweed growing more than 650 feet under the ocean surface are "living fossils," a U.S. researcher says.

Frederick Zechman of California State University, Fresno, says they represent previously unrecognized ancient forms of algae and could belong to the earliest of all known green plants, diverging up to 1 billion years ago from the ancestor of all plants.

Zechman's team studied the genetic makeup of the two algae belonging to the scientific groups called Palmophyllum and Verdigellas.

They discovered that both types of algae belong to a distinct new group of green plants, one that is incredibly ancient.

Fossils double age of humans in Asia

Wed, 27/10/2010 - 10:24 by Rakhi

Beijing -- New fossil evidence suggests modern humans could have reached East Asia much earlier than previously believed, researchers say.

Chinese and U.S. researchers have analyzed fossilized teeth and part of a jaw unearthed in southern China in 2007 and say the fragments belonged to a "modern" human who lived 100,000 years ago, the BBC reported Tuesday.

The result is likely to generate controversy, as the earliest humans previously known in East Asia were just half that age, the BBC said.

If the age of the fossils is confirmed it means modern humans co-existed with our closest relatives -- Neanderthals and Neanderthal-like people -- across Asia, one researcher said.

Fossils of oldest plants found

Thu, 14/10/2010 - 10:35 by Rakhi

Buenos Aires -- Fossils of the earliest land plants have been discovered in Argentina, putting back by 10 million years the date when plants colonized land, researchers say.

Researchers from the Argentine Institute of Snow, Ice and Environmental Research discovered the fossils in sediments in the Central Andean Basin of northwest Argentina, the BBC reported Wednesday.

The fossils, dating from between 471 million and 473 million years ago, are from liverworts, very simple plants that lack stems or roots that are likely the ancestors of all land plants, the researchers say.

Fossils of spores from five different types of liverwort, a primitive kind of plant believed to have evolved from freshwater green algae, were found, the research leader said.

New fossils could be oldest animals

Thu, 19/08/2010 - 22:09 by Prince damin

Princeton, N.J. -- U.S. researchers say they found what may be the oldest fossils of fully developed animal bodies, pushing evidence of animal life into an earlier geologic time.

The newly discovered fossils, resembling sponges, are in rocks between 635 million and 659 million years old from a time when most of the Earth was covered by ice, a geologic period known as the Cryogenian, ScienceNews.org reported Wednesday.

Princeton University scientists found fossils in south Australia of what might be ancient marine sponges in the rocks between mounds of fossilized bacterial mats, or stromatolites.

T. Rex skeleton still up for sale

Mon, 05/10/2009 - 16:05 by Neka Sehgal

Las Vegas, October 4 -- The third most complete fossilized Tyrannosaurus T-Rex skeleton discovered to date failed to make a sale when it went under the hammer in Las Vegas, as the bids were too low.