News at a glance: Climate summit booed, a big dino bite, and a diamond-hard discovery

PALEONTOLOGY Near-perfect pliosaur skull hints at big bite A U.K. team that includes amateur fossil hunters is studying the recently discovered skull of a pliosaur, a large, carnivorous marine reptile that dominated ancient oceans about 150 million years ago, news media reported last week. The specimen was found in 2022 embedded in a cliff along Dorset’s famed Jurassic Coast, where the pioneering 19th century amateur fossil hunter Mary Anning once discovered skeletons of other marine dinosaurs. Scientists are calling the new skull, about 2 meters long, one of the most complete of its kind. After measuring it, paleontologist Emily Rayfield of the University of Bristol calculated the creature’s bite force could have reached 33,000 newtons—about double that of modern-day crocodiles. Other studies have estimated that some pliosaurs’ entire bodies measured up to 12 meters long. The fossil has not yet been described in a scholarly article or preprint but is to be featured in a BBC documentary debuting on 1 January 2024. FORENSICS Scientists help clear mother An appeals court in Australia last week officially struck down the convictions of an Australian woman, Kathleen Folbigg, for killing her four young children decades ago. A jury found Folbigg guilty in 2003 for the deaths despite a lack of direct evidence. Since 2019, geneticists and other researchers have gathered and publicized data suggesting her children likel...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research