[Geology2] Pristine reptile fossil holds new information about aquatic adaptation

I love when that happens . . .

Pristine reptile fossil holds new information about aquatic adaptations
EurekAlert [USA], 16-Nov-2011

Extinct animals hide their secrets well, but an exceptionally
well-preserved fossil of an aquatic reptile, with traces of soft tissue
present, is providing scientists a new window into the behavior of these
ancient swimmers. According to the study published in PLoS ONE's
November 16th issue, the fossil, characterized by a team led by Johan
Lindgren of Lund University in Sweden, is from the mosasaur family, a
group of reptiles that lived between 65 and 98 million years ago. The
fossil was found in Western Kansas, and was submerged under a shallow
sea at the time of the mosasaur's existence.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2011-11/plos-prf111411.php

Also:

Whales in the desert: Fossil bonanza poses mystery
PhysOrg.com [USA], November 19, 2011

More than 2 million years ago, scores of whales congregating off the
Pacific Coast of South America mysteriously met their end. Maybe they
became disoriented and beached themselves. Maybe they were trapped in a
lagoon by a landslide or a storm. Maybe they died there over a period of
a few millennia. But somehow, they ended up right next to one another,
many just meters (yards) apart, entombed as the shallow sea floor was
driven upward by geological forces and transformed into the driest place
on the planet. Today, they have emerged again atop a desert hill more
than a kilometer (half a mile) from the surf, where researchers have
begun to unearth one of the world's best-preserved graveyards of
prehistoric whales. Chilean scientists together with researchers from
the Smithsonian Institution are studying how these whales, many of the
them the size of buses, wound up in the same corner of the Atacama
Desert.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-11-whales-fossil-bonanza-poses-mystery.html

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