[Geology2] Paleo news

Japanese cartoonist returns fossil jawbone [I love when that happens]
Xinhua News Agency [China], 2011-04-15
Probactrosaurus gobiensis, an early herbivorous dinosaur that lived in
China about 97.5 to 91 million years ago, got back a fossil of its lower
jawbone on Thursday after having lost it nearly 50 years ago. Nobuyuki
Okada, a Japanese dinosaur cartoonist, accidentally bought the
herbivore's fossilized bone at an international fossil market.
Discovering what he had, he decided to turn it over to Institute of
Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of
Sciences.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english2010/culture/2011-04/15/c_13829875.htm

Long-sought fossil mammal with transitional middle ear found [I love
when THAT happens] PhysOrg.com [USA], April 13, 2011

Paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History and the
Chinese Academy of Sciences announce the discovery of Liaoconodon hui, a
complete fossil mammal from the Mesozoic found in China that includes
the long-sought transitional middle ear. The specimen shows the bones
associated with hearing in mammals � the malleus, incus, and
ectotympanic � decoupled from the lower jaw, as had been predicted,
but were held in place by an ossified cartilage that rested in a groove
on the lower jaw. The new research, published in Nature this week, also
suggests that the middle ear evolved at least twice in mammals, for
monotremes and for the marsupial-placental group.

http://www.physorg.com/news/2011-04-long-sought-fossil-mammal-transitional-middle.html

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