AP – Scientists have discovered a cave filled with 15-million-year-old fossils of prehistoric marsupials in the Outback, a rare find that has revealed some surprising similarities between the creatures and modern-day kangaroos and koalas.

LiveScience.com – A three-horned dinosaur long known as Torosaurus may actually represent an adult Triceratops, according to paleontologists.

AFP – Scientists in Brazil say a fossil of an elephant’s tooth found in the Amazon jungle proves the presence of pachyderms in South America some 45,000 years ago, a report said on Tuesday.

LiveScience.com – A clawed, predatory dinosaur may have been caught in the act
of digging for mammalian prey, scientists now reveal.

SPACE.com – A spot
on Mars called Nili Fossae that is rich in clay mineral-rich rocks could be a prime
spot to search for the fossilized remains of Martian life that may have existed
4 billion years ago, a new study suggests.

The flightless ostrich uses its wings as sophisticated air-rudders and braking aids when running at high speed and may provide valuable information about how its dinosaur ancestors used their feathered forelimbs to move more efficiently. A small leg muscle, if also present in dinosaurs may have reduced the energetic cost of carrying a heavy body.

When Nicholas Longrich discovered a new dinosaur species with a heart-shaped frill on its head, he wanted to come up with a name just as flamboyant as the dinosaur’s appearance. Over a few beers with fellow paleontologists one night, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: Mojoceratops. With the publication of Longrich’s paper describing his find in the Journal of Paleontology, the name is now official.

Triceratops and Torosaurus were the same dinosaur at different stages of growth, according to new research. Since the late 1800s, scientists have believed that Triceratops and Torosaurus were two different types of dinosaurs. Triceratops had a three-horned skull with a rather short frill, whereas Torosaurus had a much bigger frill with two large holes through it.

One of the ocean’s most formidable marine predators, the mosasaur Platecarpus, lived in the Cretaceous Period some 85 million years ago and was thought to have swum like an eel. That theory is debunked in a new article. Scientists have reconceived the animal’s morphology, or body plan, based on a spectacular specimen housed at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

AP – Does a 25-foot-tall, 122-foot-long dinosaur need a permit to avoid extinction?