A large-scale study of nearly 700 species of Neogastropoda provides strong evidence for their single evolutionary origin, identifying four new families and a previously undetected burst of diversification in the early Cenozoic. This finding challenges existing knowledge of marine snail diversity and evolutionary history.
Extraordinary fossils from China confirm that bryozoans were active participants in the Cambrian explosion. The fossils, preserved in three dimensions with soft tissues intact, provide definitive evidence of a bryozoan affinity and rewrite the timeline for the origin of this phylum.
Researchers analyzed centuries-old Swedish newspapers to reconstruct past porpoise distribution patterns in the Baltic Sea. The study found that harbour porpoises once occupied a wider area than they do today, with a loss of about one third of their historic range. Historical records provide valuable insights for conservation efforts.
Fossils from the Lower Triassic of Western Australia confirm a cryptic marine temnospondyl community, showing that earliest sea monsters adapted to life in the sea and radiated rapidly into various ecological niches. The discovery also reveals worldwide dispersal of these ancient animals across supercontinents.
A team of international scientists reconstructed size evolution in ancient sharks using interdisciplinary analysis. The study revealed that modern sharks experimented with enormous body sizes much earlier in their evolutionary history than previously suspected.
The discovery sheds light on marine ecosystems' rapid recovery and complexification after the end-Permian mass extinction. The Spitsbergen fossil deposit reveals diverse marine reptiles, including archosauromorphs and ichthyosaurs, with some species reaching 5m in length.