How do paleontologists reconstruct environments from the ancient past?
Science Spotlight
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4,000-year-old shaman’s stones discovered near Boquete, Panama
Archaeologists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama have discovered a cluster of 12 unusual stones in the back of a small, prehistoric rock-shelter near the town of Boquete.
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Discovery of new prehistoric mosquitoes reveal these blood-suckers have changed little in 46 million years
Found in well preserved shale deposits the fossils are so detailed that scientists were able to determine they represent two previously unknown species.
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Insect mimic of ginko-like leaf discovered 165 million years after its extinction
Exquisitely preserved in fossil sediments dating from the Middle Jurassic, the insect, newly named Juracimbrophlebia ginkgofolia, was discovered in 165 million-year-old deposits, as was the ginko-like tree, Yimaia capituliformis, the mimicked plant.
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Fossil pollen used to augment climate record of Egypt’s Nile Delta
Ancient pollen and charcoal preserved in deeply buried sediments in Egypt’s Nile Delta document the region’s ancient droughts and fires, including a huge drought 4,200 years ago associated with the demise of Egypt’s Old Kingdom.
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Conrad Labandiera, Smithsonian palentologist, studies fossils to learn how insects got along before flowering plants arrived
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Prehistoric turtle was size and shape of a big car tire
The most peculiar feature of this new turtle is its extremely circular shell, about the size and shape of a big car tire.
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Walrus whale 3-D skull scan
This image shows a 3-D scan of the type specimen of Odobenocetops, the walrus whale, in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. The skull of this fossil dolphin relative was collected in 2011 in...
