/newsroom/taxonomy/term/6967/all en /newsroom/channels/news/discovery-new-praying-mantis-species-time-dinosaurs-327814 <p><i>Artist’s interpretation of Labradormantis guilbaulti in liftoff among the leaves of a sycamore tree, Labrador, around 100 million years ago. The interpretation is based on fossils (for the wings) and living and extinct relatives (for the rest of the body). Fossilized sycamore leaves have been found in the same deposits as the mantis wings and show that this new insect species would have lived in a lush warm temperate forest during the Cretaceous. CREDIT: A. Demers-Potvin</i></p> Tue, 19 Jan 2021 15:02:08 +0000 katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca 256302 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/when-dinosaurs-disappeared-forests-thrived-327086 <p>It’s known that the primary cause of the mass extinction of dinosaurs, about 66 million years ago, was a meteorite impact. But the exact mechanisms that linked the meteorite impact to mass extinction remain unclear, though climactic changes are thought to have played a part.</p> Tue, 15 Dec 2020 17:35:19 +0000 katherine.gombay@mcgill.ca 253316 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/new-species-ichthyosaur-discovered-museum-collection-323090 <p><i>Hauffiopteryx altera</i> (Latin for <i>different from</i>) has been identified as a new species of Ichthyosaurs by researchers from ƽÌØÎå²»ÖÐ and the State Museum of Natural History Stuttgart in Germany.</p> <p>Ichthyosaurs (‘fish lizards’), a group of tuna-shaped reptiles that inhabited Earth’s seas during the Mesozoic Era, were discovered by scientists in the early 19<sup>th</sup> century. Similar to the modern-day dolphin, ichthyosaurs underwent profound adaptions to aquatic environments including limbs transformed into flippers, a dorsal fin, and a tail fin.</p> Thu, 02 Jul 2020 14:37:17 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 220746 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/ancient-reptile-had-mammal-tooth-enamel-study-shows-322246 <p>A new study by ƽÌØÎå²»ÖÐ and the University of Alberta (UofA) paleontologists shows that one type of ancient reptiles evolved a special type of tooth enamel, similar to that of mammals, with high resistance to wear and tear. The <a href="https://www.cell.com/current-biology/pdf/S0960-9822(20)30278-5.pdf?_returnURL=https%3A%2F%2Flinkinghub.elsevier.com%2Fretrieve%2Fpii%2FS0960982220302785%3Fshowall%3Dtrue">study</a> is the first to report this kind of enamel in a fossil reptile.</p> Tue, 19 May 2020 19:37:24 +0000 frederique.mazerolle@mcgill.ca 211716 at /newsroom /newsroom/channels/news/fossilized-wing-gives-clues-about-labradors-biodiversity-during-cretaceous-320712 <p>A fossilised insect wing discovered in an abandoned mine in Labrador has led palaeontologists from ƽÌØÎå²»ÖÐ and the University of GdaÅ„sk to identify a new hairy cicada species that lived around 100 million years ago.</p> <p><i>Maculaferrum blaisi</i>,<i> </i>described in a study published in <i><a href="https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app006692019.html">Acta Palaeontologica Polonica</a></i>, is the first hemipteran insect (true bug) to be discovered at the Redmond Formation, a fossil site from the Cretaceous period near Schefferville, Labrador.</p> Fri, 21 Feb 2020 15:11:44 +0000 laurie.devine@mcgill.ca 199213 at /newsroom