Tag: palaeontology

Trinity the T-Rex claws in more than $6 million

(AFP) Zurich, Switzerland by James RYBACKI A composite Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton called Trinity, made up of bones from three different T-Rexes, sold for 5.5 million Swiss francs ($6.1 million) in a rare auction on Tuesday. The skeleton was sold at the Koller auction house in Zurich after being shipped from the United States in nine giant crates. Trinity fetched a hammer price of 4.8 million Swiss francs, rising to 5.5 million with the buyer’s premium […]

Case cracked: mystery Antarctica fossil is massive prehistoric egg

by Sara HUSSEIN Agence France-Presse TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Scientists had nicknamed it “The Thing” — a mysterious football-sized fossil discovered in Antarctica that sat in a Chilean museum awaiting someone who could work out just what it was. Now, analysis has revealed the mystery fossil to be a soft-shelled egg, the largest ever found, laid some 68 million years ago, possibly by a type of extinct sea snake or lizard. The revelation ends nearly […]

Ticked off: Tiny ‘dracula’ with a taste for dino blood

by Mariëtte Le Roux Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Dinosaurs, the most fearsome creatures ever to walk the Earth, were bugged already 100 million years ago by a paltry pest that still plagues animals today: the bloodsucking tick, scientists have discovered. Preserved for eternity in amber, fossilised tree resin, researchers have found a hard tick — uncannily similar to those we know — clinging to a 99-million-year-old dinosaur feather, a team wrote in the […]

65-million-year-old turtle fossil found in Mexico

SALTILLO, Coahuila, Mexico (Reuters) — The fossilized remains of a turtle thought to be 65 million years old has been discovered in Mexico’s arid north, shedding new light into life into the once lush desert areas of Coahuila. The turtle fossil dubbed the “Yelmochelis rosarioae” is one of the smallest animals to have roamed this ancient area, measuring just 10 centimeters (under 4 inches). Despite its size, the thickness of its shell and its ability […]