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Silurian erratic boulder travelling from Thuringia to England

An erratic chert pebble discovered in an exposure of the Pleistocene till in Norfolk, UK, contains graptolites and microfossils preserved three-dimensionally in silica. Graptolites indicate a Silurian (Llandovery) age.

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Science News

Rudists: Extreme climate witnesses

Rudists, extinct bivalves with massive shells,  built vast reefs in the tropical Cretaceous seas. Clumped-isotope analyses of well-preserved shells from Oman, were used to reconstruct seawater temperatures from 75 million years ago.

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Science News

Crinoids with unusual morphology

In the prestigious series Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology, a chapter was released that synthesizes data on the functional morphology and paleoecology of crinoids with unusual morphologies. It illustrates how, over more than 485 million years, they repeatedly deviated from their original body plan: from benthic forms to pelagic species.

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Science News

The direct ancestor of cowries

A taxonomic revision of the extinct genus Zittelia from Jurassic sediments made it possible to trace a gradual evolutionary change in shell morphology: from the earliest species with an oval shell and elevated spire to later ones with a more globular form,

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Science News

Database of fossil turtles

A POLONEZ BIS project, led by Dr. Milan Chroust in collaboration with Dr. Tomasz Szczygielski from the Institute of Paleobiology of the Polish Academy of Sciences, allowed launch of a database of fossil turtles from the territory of modern day Poland and Czechia – Turtle Evolution Database.

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Science News

Manouria morla, a Miocene tortoise

The paper presents a new Miocene species of a tortoise from CzechiaManouria morla. Its specific name refers to Morla the Aged One, a turtle from “The Neverending Story” by Michael Ende.

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