Tuesday 14 January 2014

extinct shark found and a fossils rear parts show legs.



Shark Species Thought to Be Extinct Found in Fish Market [Slide Show]
After more than a century, the smoothtooth blacktip shark has been rediscovered
By David Shiffman
After his 1902 trip to Yemen, scholar and naturalist Wilhelm Hein returned with a variety of plants and animals, which he donated to the Vienna Museum. One of these specimens, a shark, sat unnoticed for more than 80 years. In 1985 it was identified as the first (and only known) specimen of Carcharhinus leiodon, the smoothtooth blacktip shark. Because no others had ever been found by scientists, Alec Moore, regional vice chair of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Shark Specialist Group’s Indian Ocean group, says that “some suspected it might be extinct or not a valid species.”

Tiktaalik: Iconic fossil's rear parts described
By Jonathan Amos Science correspondent, BBC News
Scientists have finally managed to describe the back end of one of the key fossil finds of the past 10 years.Known as Tiktaalik, the 375-million-year-old creature is considered pivotal because it has many features that look half-way between fish and land animals. As such, it provides insight into life's evolutionary move from water into the terrestrial environment.The first specimens to be detailed only had foreparts, but the new fossils now show important rear elements.Chief among these, reported in the journal PNAS, is the pelvic bone and tail fin.

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