A continental jigsaw

Prehistoric flyer

A recent discovery of the 26 million year old fossil of Eomys quercyi , in Enspel, Germany, has revealed that it was a four-inch long gliding animal with a membrane, similar to that of flying squirrels. The elbow on the E quercyi's forelimb had a bony spur which is common to flying squirrels. It extended and supported the membrane like a kite, thus enabling it to sail through the air. Previously, only the teeth and jaw fragments of this ancient rodent had been unearthed.

Shedding new light

New findings by scientists at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, US, and the University of GuizhouinChina, have indicated that a collection of fossils known as Peking Man, is at least 100,000 years older than believed. These discoveries could further explairi the evolutioll of humans in Asia. They suggest that prunitive hominids in Asia may have died before modern humans came irito existence, or they could have evolved into direct ancestors of modern humans. Homil1idsare primates of the family Hominidae that iricludes anatomically modern humans.

The oldest one

British scientist Chris Hill discovered the world's oldest flower recently in 130-million-year-old clay rocks in the south of England. Christened Bevhalstia pebja and belonging to the Cretaceous period, this plant fossil is a 25-cm high herb and has aquatic roots. It combines a primitive fern-like anatomy and leaves with more advanced branching and small reproductive structures (Science, Vo1271, No 5253).

A relic from the past

A fossilised jaw discovered last year in the Yuanqu river basin, in the southern part of China's Shanxi province is probably an early ancestor of the modern monkey, ape and even humans. Scientists at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh, US, and the Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology in Beijing, China, have said that the creature belongs to a previously unknown species. They have named it Eosimias centennicus. After a study of the animal's jaw, the scientists have reached the conclusion 1hat it must have been

Retrieving the past

The Denakil desert of Eritrea in Africa has turned out to be another exploration site for human fossils. In December last year, a team of Eritrean and Italian scientists led by Ernesto Abbate from the University of Florence in Italy, recovered well- preserved parts of a two-million- year-old human fossil (Science, Vol 271, No 5245). The team is quite certain that this is the first ever fossil of a hominid to be recovered in the region. "We have recovered a very large part of the skull, part of a pelvis and a finger bone," says Abbate. But, it is still not clear

Resin truths

A RECENT expedition to New Jersey organised by the American Museum of Natural History in New York, US, returned with a sizable haul from the fossilised world. The team led by David Grimaldi uncovered one of the richest deposits of amber ever found. The deposits found in central New Jersey are estimated to be around 95-65 million years old. "It is scientifically the most important of all amber fossils," says Grimaldi. Around 100 species of insects and plants trapped in the ancient tree sap are unknown to the world. Three tiny flowers - that had perhaps fallen from an

Sounding it off

WITH the recent finding of a rare dinosaur fossil, scientists at the Sandia National Laboratory in Albuquerque, New Mexico, are trying to create a sound that may resemble the call of the dinosaur. Sounds of roars, screeches and grunts of celluloid dinosaurs have been dismissed by palaeontologists as mere works of art rather than an imitation of the original. The fossil of Parasaurolophus, a plant-eating dinosaur, was discovered in

Parental instincts

Even though the discovery of the 80 million-year-old dinosaur fossil in the Gobi desert of Mongolia - by fossil-hunters from the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the Mongolian Academy of Sciences -shows the animal sitting on its nest of eggs, its original name of Oviraptor or egg seizer remains. With the hind legs tucked tightly under its body and the forelimbs encircling the nest protectively, the posture seems to depict a cozy scene. The animal might have been guarding its eggs against predators or warming or shading them from the

Bear truths

THIS is a delightful portrait of the now' extinct Ursus spelaues, largest of the bear family. Known to have coexisted with the Neanderthal human and later, with humans of our own spe Icies during the later part of the Ice Age, the cave bear survived to, or even beyond the end of that age. Although dead and extinct now for thousands of years, fossilised remains of this fascinating species have been found in Europe, Russia and Britain, which palaeontologists have studied over the years.