August 2017

Part of Borealopelta markmitchelli fossils (Image courtesy Royal Tyrrell Museum)

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An article published in the journal “Current Biology” describes the study of the exceptionally preserved fossils of an armored dinosaur that was named Borealopelta markmitchelli. Classified as part of the nodosaurid (Nodosauridae) family, according to researchers at MIT, Newcastle University, University of Bristol and Royal Tyrrell Museum that examined it despite its armor it was being hunted by predators.

Male and female of common house spider

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An article published in the journal “BMC Biology” describes a genetic research that shows a whole genome duplication (WGD) during the evolution of arachnids. An international team of researchers in collaboration with the Human Genome Sequencing Center at Baylor College of Medicine analyzed the DNA of the common house spider (Parasteatoda tepidariorum) and the Arizona bark scorpion, Centruroides sculpturatus, concluding that they descended from a common ancestor that lived more than 450 million years ago.

Corythoraptor jacobsi's fossils and drawings (Image courtesy Lü Junchang et al.)

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An article published in the magazine “Scientific Reports” describes a research on a feathered dinosaur that shows not the usual generic similarities to birds but a remarkable resemblance to the cassowary with a crest on its head and long legs. A team of paleontologists led by Lü Junchang called it Corythoraptor jacobsi and it was a dinosaur belonging to the oviraptorid family that lived in the late Cretaceous, between 100 and 66 million years ago, in today’s southern China.