In 2023, scientists uncovered 100-million-year-old dinosaur and stingray fossils in a Maryland park. A group of paleontologists and volunteers discovered a theropod shinbone, the fossils of a Priconodon, an Ornithominmoid, a Deinonychus, and the remains of the oldest stingray in North America. The variety of the discoveries allowed researchers to classify the site as a “bonebed,” or a geologic layer that contains the remains of more than one species that existed during the same time period and in the same climate. This is the first bonebed (which are often considered the ultimate find in paleontology circles) discovered in Maryland since 1887. What does the text most strongly suggest about the site discovered by the researchers?The variety of fossils found at this site is unusual for the area and marks an important discovery. eliminateExcavations where this many species are found are more typical of the West Coast.eliminateMost East Coast excavations had only found isolated fossil discoveries, like individual claws and teeth of dinosaurs.eliminateThe bonebed was uncovered thanks to the help from members of the public.

In 2020, 11-year-old Ruby Reynolds and her dad, Justin, were walking around Blue Anchor Beach in England. That’s when they discovered a fragment of an ancient sea beast.They spotted a four-inch-long, oval-shaped fossil. Then Ruby found a second piece of fossilized bone about twice as big. Fossils are the remains of plants, animals and other tiny living things that have been replaced by rock material.Zoom inAn interpretive illustration shows what the Ichthyotitan severnensis might have looked like when it swam the seas. Illustration: Gabriel Ugueto/Washington PostRuby and Justin returned home to do some research. They concluded that the fossil was from an ichthyosaur. This was an ancient marine reptile. It was shaped like a modern-day dolphin.Next, Ruby and her dad emailed Dean Lomax. He’s a paleontologist at the University of Manchester in England. Paleontologists are scientists who use fossils to study the history of life on Earth.Lomax said he gets a couple of hundred messages a year from people sending photos of potential prehistoric fossils.“[Most] of the time, it turns out to be an odd-shaped rock. You have to politely and gently let them down,” Lomax said. But Justin and Ruby’s email was a rare exception.Ruby and Justin were right: The fossil did come from an ichthyosaur. In fact, it was a new species of ichthyosaur. A species is a group of similar living things that can mate and reproduce successfully to make offspring.This particular ichthyosaur lived about 202 million years ago. The father-daughter duo helped describe the prehistoric creature in a new study. In April, scientists published the study in a scientific journal.A Mysterious Gap In The Fossil RecordRuby and her dad only found pieces of the animal’s lower jawbone. But paleontologists estimate that the entire creature could have stretched 80 feet. That’s 24 meters. It could be the biggest marine reptile ever discovered.Ichthyosaurs were marine reptiles that swam the seas during the age of dinosaurs. They emerged about 250 million years ago. There were at least 150 different types of ichthyosaurs.Zoom inLilstock Beach and Blue Anchor Beach are roughly 8 miles (13km) apart. Fragments of the ichthyosaur were found at both locations. Map: Newsela staffIn 2018, Lomax and colleagues made a similar discovery in nearby Lilstock Beach. They found fragments of a jawbone of a different giant ichthyosaur there. It also lived about 202 million years ago.Scientists have not found many other ichthyosaur fossils from this time period. That’s why the discovery is important. It helps scientists fill in a gap in the fossil record. The fossil record is the collection of all fossils that document the history of life on Earth.Finding two fossils from a similar time period gave the scientists the confidence to say it is a newly identified species. They named it Ichthyotitan severnensis.A Very Large IchthyosaurTo figure out the size of the new specimen based on its jaw alone, scientists made comparisons with other giant ichthyosaurs. But that still leaves some uncertainty.Lars Schmitz is a paleontologist at Claremont McKenna College in California. He said that he doesn’t care whether this newly discovered creature is the largest ichthyosaur ever found. What matters is that it is very big.The fossil’s large size provides a clue about how these marine reptiles evolved. Evolution is a process by which species undergo changes over time. These changes usually result in a new type of creature that is better suited for its environment than the earlier type.Ichthyosaurs evolved their large body size relatively quickly, but a mass extinction event about 201 million years ago seems to have wiped out the giants. A mass extinction event is when species go extinct, or disappear permanently, much faster than they are replaced. So far, only smaller ichthyosaurs appear to have survived the mass extinction event.Lomax hopes this new fossil discovery will make fossil hunters in the region revisit their collections and keep their eyes open. They might turn up bones from other giant ichthyosaurs.Ruby, who is now 15, says she’d love to find the rest of the fossil.

For many years, there was no evidence of small plant-eating dinosaurs in modern-day North Texas. In fact, dinosaur fossils from about 100 million years ago in North America have been something of a rarity, making the history of the Mesozoic Era on the continent unclear. In a discovery that both disproves the conclusion that small plant-eating dinosaurs never lived in Texas and provides clarity on this era in the area, scientists from the Perot Museum of Nature and Science discovered a jawbone fossil near Lake Grapevine, Texas and determined it belonged to a small herbivorous dinosaur.According to the text, why was the Perot Museum’s discovery of the jawbone fossil significant?The jawbone fossil constitutes the first evidence found by scientists that herbivorous dinosaurs lived more than 100 million years ago.eliminateThe jawbone fossil helps establish that plant-eating dinosaurs’ defining features were their jawbones.eliminateThe jawbone fossil helps establish a more accurate timeline of the evolution of herbivorous dinosaurs in North America.eliminateThe jawbone fossil constitutes the first evidence found by scientists that small herbivorous dinosaurs existed in North Texas and gives a clearer picture of the Mesozoic Era in North America.

Dinosaur fossils have been found in the town of Winton. They are around 9595 million years old. State whether this is older or younger than the fish fossils of Gogo Station. Older1Younger2

Approximately how far back do the oldest fossils that we KNOW are actual fossils date to?Group of answer choicesA half billion years after the Archaean eonA half billion years before the Hadean eonA half billion years into the Hadean eonA half billion years after the Hadean eon

Proof Found in Australia Links Humans to DinosaursThe Australian Society for the Study of Subcutaneous Cultures (ASSSC) today released information about the discovery of a previously unknown species of human that could provide more insight to when humans first walked the earth. A complete skeleton found on the Coast Plains, near Melbourne, has anthropologists excited about the possibility of adding another link to the chain of human history. Scientist Peter L. Reilly describes the find: "This mammal, which we have named Homo jurassicus parkus, appears to share several similarities with both modern humans and Jurassic-era dinosaurs. The skull shape, for instance, measures only 1/15th of a centimeter larger than the common Homo sapiens skull, and the metatarsal bones of the feet share a distinctive pattern with those identified from fossils belonging to Compsognathus, a genus of small, bipedal, carnivorous dinosaurs that are believed to have lived over 150 million years ago." Researchers have been flocking to the Canady site in hopes of finding more proof that dinosaurs and humans share a deeper connection than previously thought.Why might people accept this article as fact?A.It refers to the names of real people and places.B.It quotes a scientist who seems to know a lot about the topic.C.It includes information that people find interesting.D.It uses short sentences that give a lot of information.SUBMITarrow_backPREVIOUS