Fossil flower of Symplocos kowalewskii (Symplocaceae) from Baltic amber – to date, by far the largest floral inclusion discovered from any amber.
Credit: © Carola Radke, Museum für Naturkunde Berlin

Most fossils you see are of teeth, bones, and shells, but there have been flowers for millions of years. Why don’t we see many flower fossils? A fossil is the mark or remains of an organism that lived thousands or millions of years ago. Some of the best-known fossils include leaves, shells, or skeletons that were preserved after a plant or animal died. We don’t see many complete flower fossils because the fossilization process is tough. However, if flowers are preserved in certain materials, the fossil can remain intact. Researchers just found the largest flower preserved in amber in an unorganized museum collection. They believe the flower lived 40 million years ago in the Eocene Epoch in the Paleogene Period.

What does it mean that the flower is in amber? Amber is a hard, yellowish-brown fossilized resin. It comes chiefly from the resins of pine trees that grew in northern Europe millions of years ago. These resins were gummy materials mixed with oils in the trees. When the oils became oxidized (combined with oxygen), hard resins were left. These pine trees were buried underground or underwater, and the resins slowly changed into irregularly shaped lumps of amber. Lumps of amber often contain insects trapped as the resins flowed from the trees. Some lumps have air bubbles. Amber serves as a protection for more delicate materials in the fossilization process.

The largest supply of amber lies in the Baltic Sea area. The Baltic Sea is an arm of the North Atlantic Ocean that extends into northern Europe. It separates the Scandinavian Peninsula from the northern coast of Europe. It links Sweden, Finland, Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland with the North Sea and the Atlantic. The amber comes from a species of pine tree that is now extinct. Some experts consider this amber from the Baltic region the only true amber. This is the amber that preserved this special flower!

The flower in question is an extinct variation in the genus Symplocos. Scientists were able to extract a sample of pollen from the intact reproductive organs and test it. The relatives of this plant today are flowering shrubs in Asia. Today, the relatives of this flower have white or yellow blossoms and live in humid, high-altitude forests.

While the flower is only about 1 inch (2.5 centimeters) across, it is about three times the size of most amber-preserved flowers and larger than half of all amber pieces from the Baltic region. There aren’t many large flowers in amber because it would take covering the entire flower to protect the delicate flower from the fossilization process.

Why does fossilization damage most flowers that lived millions of years ago? Most fossils occur in sedimentary rocks. Such fossils formed from plant or animal remains that were quickly buried in sediments—the mud or sand that collects at the bottom of rivers, lakes, swamps, and oceans. Over time, these sediments became buried under other sediments.  The upper sediments pressed down on the layers of mud and squeezed them into compact rock layers. Crushing and ruining delicate organisms like flowers.

Why is studying fossilized flowers important? Fossils also show how groups of plants and animals became more diverse after they originated. Fossil leaves and pollen grains of the first flowering plants date from the early Cretaceous Period, sometime after 138 million years ago. These fossils record only a small number of species. Fossils from later in the Cretaceous, about 90 million years ago, include a wide variety of flowering plants from many different environments.

Illustration of a Megalodon shark and great white shark shown for scale
Credit: © Christian Darkin, Science Source

Arriving at the tail end of a long de-bait, scientists have figured out what happened to the megalodons that used to swim in our oceans. Megalodons were the largest sharks that ever lived, reaching an estimated 52 feet (16 meters) long. Megalodon, which means big tooth, lived from about 17 million to 2 million years ago. The fate of the megalodon has stumped scientists and enthusiasts for ages. How did such a powerful and monstrous shark die out?

The megalodon was a powerful predator (hunting animal). Its jaws may have reached about 6 1/2 feet (2 meters) across. Scientists believe it had an exceptionally strong bite. Megalodon’s largest teeth measure about 7 inches (17 centimeters) along their edges. They rank as the largest shark teeth known. A new finding made a splash in the headlines, revealing just how this monster shark became extinct. Extinction occurs when every member of a species (kind) of living thing has died.

The great white shark, shown here, is one of the most dangerous sharks. It has many sharp, triangular teeth. The great white shark can grow to more than 21 feet (6.4 meters) in length.
Credit: © Shutterstock

A new study has shown that maybe those big teeth didn’t help these large predators out much. After studying zinc isotopes in fossils of teeth from great white sharks and megalodons, the scientists reported that great white sharks and megalodons competed for food. Zinc isotopes in teeth reveal where the animal lies on the food chain. When teeth have low levels of zinc, that means the animal is higher on the food chain. The great white shark and megalodon tooth fossils had the same range of zinc isotopes. The two sharks were not chums, they were biting into the same prey! In a feeding frenzy, the great white sharks won, leaving the great big megalodons hungry.

While the great white shark is one of the most dangerous sharks, they can only grow to a little more than 21 feet (6.4 meters) in length. So the megalodon had about 30 feet (9 meters) on them! Unlike most other sharks, great white sharks have warm blood and warm muscles. These characteristics make them faster and stronger than most other sharks. Great white sharks have sharp, triangular teeth with jagged edges. They can rip chunks of flesh from seals and sea lions, two of their favorite prey. It looks like baby shark beat out the bigger shark!

Stegouros elengassen.
Credit: Luis Enrique Pérez López (licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0)

Looking at plant-eating dinosaurs is like browsing a Medieval armory. Helmets (dome-headed pachycephalosaurs), whips (sauropods), shields (Stegosaurus and ceratopsians—though those of the latter probably weren’t used for defense), spears (Stegosaurus, Triceratops), clubs, and thick armor (both ankylosaurs). Now, paleontologists (scientists who study ancient life) have added a sword to the list of prehistoric weaponry. 

A team led by Sergio Soto-Acuña, a paleontology student at the University of Chile, discovered a dinosaur they named Stegouroselengassen. The dinosaur lived between 75 and 72 million years ago in what is now Patagonia. The team published their findings in the scientific journal Nature. 

The new dinosaur is an ankylosaur, a member of the group that includes Ankylosaurus and other armored plant-eating dinosaurs. Stegouros was lightly-armored for an ankylosaur, possessing several rows of knobby plates—called scutes—that ran down its back and sides. It was relatively small, only about 6 feet (2 meters) long. It also had thin limbs and an unusually short tail. 

The tail of Stegouros has attracted the most attention. Some ankylosaurs possessed tail clubs to defend themselves against predators. But Stegouros had a different tail weapon. Its scutes became larger and sharper down the tail, fusing into a large, bladelike weapon at the tip. 

Stegouros’s tail resembles a macuahuitl, a weapon used in the Aztec empire. The macuahuitl was a heavy wooden club lined with several sharp obsidian blades. As with the macuahuitl and the European broadsword, the sheer weight of the swinging tail made it dangerous, more so than the sharpness of the blade. A well-placed swing would have dealt a slicing, shattering blow to the legs of any predator that was trying to catch it. 

In paleontology, as in other sciences, one discovery often sheds light on others. The ankylosaur Antarctopelta was discovered in 1986 on James Ross Island, just off the coast of Antarctica. It had unusual vertebrae at the base of its tail, but the rest of the tail was not found. These basal tail vertebrae closely resemble those of Stegouros, so scientists now think Antarctopelta had a similar tail sword.  

Soto-Acuña and his colleagues suggest that these two strange dinosaurs, along with another named Kunbarrasaurus from Australia, formed a part of a separate group of ankylosaurs. This group diverged from the main ankylosaur lineage early in its history and lived for tens of millions of years in relative isolation near the South Pole. 

An artist’s recreation shows (top to bottom) the skeleton, muscles, and living appearance of Deinosuchus.
Credit: © Tyler Stone

Paleontologists (scientists who study prehistoric life) learned more about a terrible crocodile this summer. A study by Adam Cossette of the New York Institute of Technology and Chris Brochu of the University of Iowa examined newly discovered fossil remains of the extinct crocodilian Deinosuchus. Crocodilians are group of reptiles that includes crocodiles, alligators, gavials, and caimans. The scientists published a revised description of the animal in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Deinosuchus lived from about 82 million to 75 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous Period. Its closest living relatives are alligators. In most ways, it looked much like a modern alligator, except that it was enormous. Deinosuchus grew to a length of 33 feet (10 meters) or more and weighed about 8,000 pounds (3,600 kilograms). In comparison, the largest crocodilian alive today, the saltwater crocodile, reaches lengths of about 23 feet (7 meters) and weighs 2,200 pounds (1,000 kilograms).

Deinosuchus also lived like modern crocodilians. During the late Cretaceous, much of central North America was covered by a shallow sea. Deinosuchus lived in the vast wetlands on the edges of this sea. Like large crocodilians today, Deinosuchus was an ambush predator. It would swim over to an animal at the water’s edge, lunge out of the water to grab it with its powerful jaws, drag its prey into the water, and drown it. What was on the menu? Just about anything—including dinosaurs.

Numerous fossils of contemporary dinosaurs show bite marks from an animal that could only have been Deinosuchus. It even attacked large, meat-eating theropods (dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus Rex) on occasion. But for the most part, these predators stayed out of each other’s way, much as lions and Nile crocodiles do in modern Africa.

Deinosuchus was not identical to modern crocodilians, however. it had a greatly thickened skull relative to its size. The thickness likely strengthened it for struggle against dinosaurs and other large prey. Deinosuchus also had a bulbous (rounded) snout, with two small openings at its tip. Paleontologists do not yet know what purpose these features served.

Deinosuchus wasn’t the only giant crocodilian. Sarcosuchus, which lived about 110 million years ago, may have reached 40 feet (12 meters) long, about the length of a bus. Another titan was Purussasaurus, which attained similar proportions during the Miocene Epoch, long after the dinosaurs went extinct.

Discovering a new kind of prehistoric animal is great, but learning more about one that has already been discovered is great, too! Deinosuchus is not a recent discovery. In fact, it was first described in 1909. But many of the fossils were incomplete. With the new material, Cossette and Brochu were able to uncover more about the animal’s lifestyle and better differentiate between the small handful of Deinosuchus species. In doing so, they paint a more complete picture of what the world was like tens of millions of years ago—and what a terrifying place it was!

In Peru, a unique conservation effort is taking place near the city of Cusco at the Parque de la Papa (Park of the Potato). Located outside the Andes Mountains town of Pisac (or Pisaq), the park celebrates the Peruvian potato, of which there are some 3,000 varieties. The park is also a living tribute to the cultural heritage of the region’s indigenous (native) communities.

Potatoes originated in the highlands of Peru and nearby areas of the Andes Mountains. Credit: © Shutterstock

The Parque de la Papa is administered and farmed by the local Amaru, Chawaytire, Pampallacta, Paru Paru, and Sacaca indigenous communities. Within its grand boundaries—the park covers over 22,000 acres (9,000 hectares)—are grown more than 1,300 varieties of potato native to that area of the Andean highlands. Many potato varieties in the park are found nowhere else in the world. The cultivation of such rare potatoes helps ensure their existence for future generations, as does the park’s sharing of precious seeds with the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, a long-term seed storage facility in Norway.

The Parque de la Papa demonstrates the ability of potatoes to survive in the region’s harsh but changing conditions. The park sits in the cold and thin air at an altitude of 12,000 feet (3,700 meters) above sea level. Climate change is bringing warmer temperatures, however, forcing farmers still higher to reach the optimum growing environment for some potato varieties.

Peru is home to some 3,000 varieties of potato. Credit: © Shutterstock

Visitors to the park learn about traditional potato cultivation, harvesting, cooking, and storage. They are also treated to delicious local potato dishes. Hiking trails allow people to walk off their meals while also providing panoramic views of the Andean highlands. The Parque de la Papa features a variety of local crafts and products—from cosmetics and teas to medicines and textiles—made from potatoes and other plants native to the area.

A patchwork of potato fields covers this section of the Altiplano, a cold plateau in the Andean highlands. Credit: © Roux Frederic, Shutterstock

The potato originated in the Andes Mountains of South America. Scientists believe cultivated potatoes came from a species that first grew around Lake Titicaca, in what are now Bolivia and Peru. People living there and in surrounding areas were growing potatoes long before Spanish explorers arrived in the early 1500′s. Potatoes were then introduced to Europe and other parts of the world. The nutritious potato became a vital food crop in many regions.

March 30, 2020

Some 15 million years ago, long after the non-bird dinosaurs and the beasts they lived alongside had gone extinct, giant creatures still walked (or swam) the Earth. Recently, the discoveries of a team of scientists led by Edwin Cadena of Del Rosario University in Colombia have been putting more of a face—or a shell, in this case—on one of these ancient giants. And, not only did the giant have a shell, but the shell had spikes! Meet Stupendemys, the titanic turtle.

Stupendemys lived during the Miocene Epoch, around 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. credit: © Jaime Chirinos

The giant aquatic (water-dwelling) Stupendemys had a big head with a sharp beak. It had four paddlelike limbs and a short tail. It probably could not withdraw its head or limbs into its large shell, as can many turtles. Its shell alone measured about 8 feet (2.4 meters) long. Stupendemys weighed about 2,500 pounds (1,150 kilograms). It and the prehistoric marine turtle Archelon were the largest turtles known to have ever lived.

Stupendemys had been known since the 1970’s from huge pieces of shells and limb bones, but no cranial (skull) material had been positively identified. Cadena’s new trove of Stupendemys fossils included skull fragments, however. Found in Colombia and neighboring Venezuela, the skull pieces matched those of previously unidentified ancient turtle remains discovered in other parts of South America, showing that Stupendemys was fairly widespread.

Some­ of the Stupendemys shells found by Cadena and his team had large forward-pointing horns at the shoulders. The scientists believe this is a case of sexual dimorphism. Sexual dimorphism is a difference in body size or shape between males and females of the same species. Males probably used these horns in combat over mates and territory. Deep gouges were often found near the Stupendemys shell horns, suggesting that males literally locked horns when fighting.

Stupendemys was not the top boss of South American waterways during the Miocene Epoch, a time in Earth’s history that lasted from 23 million to 5.3 million years ago. The turtle was likely a gentle giant, surviving on a diet of hard-shelled mollusks, fruits, and seeds. And its huge size did not grant it complete protection from predators. Giant crocodilians prowled the region at that time, including the 40-foot (12.5-meter) giant caiman Purussaurus. One Stupendemys shell found by Cadena’s team contained an embedded crocodilian tooth! It’s hard to say who came out on top in that encounter, but it was likely an epic struggle.

October 18, 2019

Recent excavations in central Thailand have led to the discovery of a new type of predatory dinosaur, Siamraptor suwati. The ancient creature belonged to a group of giant meat-eaters called carcharodontosaurs, which means shark-toothed reptiles. Siamraptor dates from the Cretaceous Period, a time in Earth’s history from about 145 million years ago to 66 million years ago. The Cretaceous was the last of the three periods that make up the Mesozoic Era, the time when the dinosaurs lived.

Fossils found in Thailand helped scientists reconstruct the skull of the newly identified Siamraptor suwati dinosaur. Credit: Duangsuda Chokchaloemwong, et al/Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University

Siamraptor (Siam is the previous name for Thailand; raptors were carnivorous, bipedal dinosaurs) is the first example of a carcharodontosaur to be found in Southeast Asia. Previous examples came from northern Africa and Europe, and close cousins have been found in Argentina (Giganotosaurus) and the United States (Acrocanthosaurus).

The fossilized bones of Siamraptor were found in 115-million-year-old rocks in the central Thai district of Ban Saphan between 2008 and 2013. Paleontologists from Thailand’s Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University found the fossils—22 in all—while working on a project with Japan’s Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum. The announcement that the fossils belonged to a new type of carcharodontosaur came in October 2019 after years of study. Siamraptor was not the first find for the Japan-Thailand Dinosaur Project. The team earlier identified two new types of plant-eating dinosaurs and an ancient relative of the alligator and crocodile.

Twenty-two fossils aided in the skeletal reconstruction of Siamraptor suwati. Credit: Duangsuda Chokchaloemwong, et al/Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University

The Siamraptor fossils include parts of a single animal’s feet, hands, hips, spine, and skull. The animals’s bones were somewhat porous, containing air sacs that would have made the creature a lighter and more agile hunter. Nearby were also many Siamraptor teeth, suggesting that this animal had not been alone. Like sharks, dinosaurs shed teeth throughout their lives, particularly when they ate, and the Ban Saphan site (a floodplain during the Cretaceous Period) may have been a common feeding ground. Siamraptor probably preyed on plant-eating dinosaurs in the area, using its bladelike serrated teeth—measuring up to 6 inches (15 centimeters) long—to slice through tough dinosaur flesh.

Scientists classify Carcharodontosaurus with other meat-eating dinosaurs in a large group known as theropods. These animals make up one of two main groups of saurischian (lizard-hipped) dinosaurs. Saurischians include such famous dinosaurs as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor. Although Carcharodontosaurus is classified in the same main group as Tyrannosaurus and Velociraptor, it was not closely related to them.

Tyrannosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus shared such traits as big heads, long bodies, and short arms, but the animals’ snouts were quite different. Tyrannosaurus had a broad head and a wide mouth with teeth made for crushing bone and pulling away flesh. Carcharodontosaurus had a much narrower head and a more precise bite with sharper teeth meant for slicing flesh. The two apex predators (at the top of the food chain) appear to have coexisted in several areas, which probably made for some rather interesting confrontations.

September 30, 2019

Last month, in late August, scientists published a description of a 3.8-million-year-old fossil skull, allowing people to gaze into the face of perhaps our earliest ancestor, Australopithecus anamensis. According to one researcher, the remarkable fossil is the most complete skull of the “oldest-known species” of the human evolutionary tree. The important fossil helps define the ancient human evolutionary family, but it also brings more questions to the often cloudy relationships among that family’s members.

Paleontologists discovered the near-complete skull of Australopithecus anamensis in Ethiopia in 2016. Credit: © Dale Omori, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

A. anamensis belongs to the hominin group of living things that includes human beings and early humanlike ancestors. A team of paleontologists led by Yohannes Haile-Selassie from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History found the hominin skull in 2016 at a site called Woranso-Mille in the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil, officially known as MRD-VP-1/1 (MRD for short), was discovered in two halves that fit together, making up a nearly complete skull. The skull’s position in volcanic sediments enabled scientists to determine its age—3.8 million years—with great precision. The anatomical features of the skull helped identify it as A. anamensis, one of the earliest known hominin species. This species was first identified from a handful of fossil skull fragments and other bones discovered at Lake Turkana in northern Kenya in the 1990’s. Those specimens are between 4.2 million and 3.9 million years old.

Scientists used the fossilized Australopithecus anamensis skull to create this image of one of humankind’s earliest ancestors. Credit: © John Gurche/Matt Crow, Cleveland Museum of Natural History

The MRD skull shows that A. anamensis had a small brain, a bit smaller than that of a modern chimpanzee. The skull more closely resembles an ape than a modern human, with a large jaw and prominent cheekbones, but the canine teeth are much smaller and more humanlike. And, like humans, A. anamensis walked upright on two legs. Sediments and other fossils show that the region where the skull was found was arid, but the ancient creature died in a vegetated area near a small stream that entered a lake.

The site in Ethiopia where MRD was discovered is not far from the village of Hadar, where fossils of another early hominin, Australopithecus afarensis, were first discovered in 1974. A. afarensis is known mainly from the partial skeleton of an adult female, the famous “Lucy,” found in deposits dating to about 3.2 million years ago. Other A. afarensis fossils date to nearly 3.8 million years ago, which suggests Lucy and her kind may have coexisted with A. anamensis.

Most scientists, however, think that Lucy and her kind evolved from A. anamensis, and that the transition occurred as one species disappeared and the other took over. Scientists now understand that A. anamensis could still be ancestral to Lucy, but that other A. anamensis populations continued to thrive unchanged as her neighbors. The prehistoric landscape of East Africa had many hills, steep valleys, volcanoes, lava flows, and rifts that could easily have isolated populations over many generations. Over time, the populations eventually diverged. Scientists think that one of these species eventually gave rise to Homo, the human genus.

August 26, 2019

In New Zealand, a newly identified species of ancient giant penguin—or “monster” penguin as dubbed by the Canterbury Museum in Christchurch—has added to the southwest Pacific island nation’s roster of extinct oversized animals. The leg and foot bones of Crossvallia waiparensis, a 5-foot, 3-inch (1.6-meter) tall, 180-pound (80-kilogram) penguin, were found in Waipara, North Canterbury, on New Zealand’s South Island.

This illustration shows the ancient giant penguin Crossvallia waiparensis alongside a modern human. Credit: © Canterbury Museum

The ancient “monster” penguin bones were discovered in 2018 at Waipara Greensand, a geological formation that has produced significant penguin fossils before. Researchers from the nearby Canterbury Museum and the Senckenberg Natural History Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, studied the penguin fossils, and they named C. waiparensis as a new species in the Aug. 12, 2019, issue of Alcheringa: An Australasian Journal of Palaeontology.

C. waiparensis, which lived during the Paleocene Epoch between 66 million and 56 million years ago, was roughly four times larger than the emperor penguin, the largest of all modern penguins. During the time of C. waiparensis, New Zealand was still attached to Australia, which was once connected to Antarctica. A related prehistoric giant penguin, Crossvallia unienwillia, was discovered in Antarctica’s Cross Valley in 2000. The leg bones of both giant penguins suggest their feet were more adapted for swimming than those of modern penguins, and they may not have stood upright as modern penguins do.

Emperor penguins, seen here in Antarctica, are the largest living penguins. They stand about 3 feet (1 meter) tall and weigh as much as 100 pounds (45 kilograms). (Credit: © Shutterstock)

Prior to the discovery of C. waiparensis, New Zealand’s legacy of ancient giant critters already included the world’s largest parrot (Heracles inexpectatus), a massive eagle (Hieraaetus moorei), a dog-sized burrowing bat (Vulcanops jennyworthyae), the more than 6-foot (2-meter) tall moa, and other giant penguins.

July 8, 2019

Since prehistoric times, people have depicted animals in their artwork. Ancient paintings and drawings of horses, oxen, and other animals appear on the ceilings, walls, and entrances of caves and rock shelters around the world. In more modern times, animals have continued to be a source of artistic inspiration. Many cultures have shown animals in artistic representations of rural life, as livestock, prey, or pets, or to illustrate legends and myths. Many cultures, too, include animals in art simply for their beauty or for their intimate connections with humans. At the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., a new exhibition is detailing “The Life of Animals in Japanese Art.”

These wooden sacred foxes are part of the “Life of Animals in Japanese Art” exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Credit: Sacred Foxes (Nanbokuch periods, 14th century), wood with pigments by unknown artist; National Gallery of Art

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art is the first exhibition devoted solely to animals at the National Gallery of Art. The exhibition shows animals—some real, some imaginary, some sacred, some merely beloved—in a wide variety of artistic mediums. The more than 300 works in block prints, ceramics, decorative arts, lacquerware, paintings, sculptures, and textiles span from the A.D. 400′s to the present day. The artworks—including seven designated as “Important Cultural Property” by the Japanese government—come from public and private collections in both Japan and the United States. The exhibition began on June 2, 2019, and runs through August 18.

These 1,000-year-old sacred monkeys are included in the “Life of Animals in Japanese Art” exhibition. Credit: Pair of Sacred Monkeys (Heian period, 11th century), wood with traces of pigment by unknown artist; Los Angeles County Museum of Art/National Gallery of Art

The sprawling exhibit occupies 18,000 square feet (1,700 square meters) of the National Gallery of Art’s East Building Concourse, and it is divided into various themed sections. The credited artists (many older works are unattributed) include the Zen Buddhist monk Sesson Shūkei (1504-1589), the painter Itō Jakuchū (1716-1800), and the painter and woodblock printer Katsushika Hokusai (1760-1849). Such modern artists as Kusama Yayoi (1929-…), the clothing designer Issey Miyake (1938-…), and the painter and sculptor Murakami Takashi (1960-…) are also represented.

The Life of Animals in Japanese Art is part of a series of events included in Japan 2019, an initiative to promote Japanese culture in the United States. Earlier Japanese art exhibitions took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City and the Cleveland Museum of Art. The animal art exhibition will move to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in September, and a number of Japan-themed concerts, festivals, and performances are taking place in the United States throughout 2019.