Fossil Hunting Is Entering a New Technological Age

Thanks to newly recovered fossils and breakthrough technologies, paleontologists can now reveal how life returned after the dinosaurs. This episode is made courtesy of PBS: https://to.pbs.org/3fhtghS

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We're able to digitally pull out each individual element to see how everything is then connected. We're able to bring these animals back to life unlike we've ever been able to do before this technology.

Loxolophus, from the paleocene, is the period of time immediately after the extinction event that wiped out more than half the species on the planet. It’s one of the key pieces to the puzzle of how mammals came to dominate the Earth.

Paleontologist Tyler Lyson unearthed this fossil in 2016, using a method of discovery that had rarely been used in North America. Rather than by looking for bones, he looked for these concretions where he discovered complete mammal skull.

#dinosaurs #fossils #technology #seeker #science #focalpoint

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Colorado Discovery Rocks the World
https://coloradosprings.dmns.org/
“Sixty-six million years ago, a meteorite larger than Mount Everest slammed into Earth and 75 percent of species went extinct in a geologic blink of an eye, including non avian dinosaurs. For decades, scientists worked to determine how the planet and living creatures rebounded, yet continued to know very little about the recovery. Until now.”

How life blossomed after the dinosaurs died
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/10/how-life-blossomed-after-dinosaurs-died
“When the asteroid slammed into Earth, it wiped out 75% of living species, including any mammal much larger than a rat. Half the plant species died out. With the great dinosaurs gone, mammals expanded, and the new study traces that process in exquisite detail.”

Getting under a fossil's skin: how CT scans have changed palaeontology
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/30/getting-under-a-fossils-skin-how-ct-scans-have-changed-palaeontology-dinosaur-lizard
“Scanning is leading to huge breakthroughs. For example, we’ve now found the world’s oldest chameleons and know why giant wombats were air-heads.”

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