At https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.com/2019/09/new-flying-reptile-s… … a new species of pterosaur is among the largest ever flying animals according to a new study from Queen Mary University in London. Its remains were found in Alberta some 30 years ago but paleontologists, at the time, bracketed it with other known species of pterosaur.
Evolution has a strange way of repeating itself – similar traits turning up in quite different species. At https://phys.org/news/2019-09-jaws reveal-australia-ancient-marsupial.html … the so called short faced kangaroo was it seems a marsupial version of the giant panda with jaws adapted to browsing on woody and poor quality vegetation. Pandas feed on bamboo which is first crushed and broken apart before digesting.
AQt https://phys.org/news/2019-09-game-changing-evolution-mysteries.html … game changing research could solve one of the mysteries of evolution – or that is the extravagant claim. Genetic information extracted from a 1.7 million year old rhinoceros tooth are proving interesting as the dental enamel of the specimen contains a complete set of proteins, a protoeme. It is thought the technique being developed will enable scientists to go further back in time to catalogue the process of evolutionary change in animals and humans. It takes research possibilities further than what DNA alone can achieve. DNA has a time limit on its reliability – as more and more generations accumulate only a fraction of them is retained in the DNA clock. These proteins are also more informative than colagen (the only other protein so far retrieved) and we can only hope that such research will find even more reliable sources of ancient genetic data.