A decade-long study of earthquake activity in California has provided the strongest evidence to date that forecasting models can reliably describe patterns of earthquake activity over the following day.
A new prehistoric animal species from Tanzania dating back around 240 million years to the Triassic period has been described by an international team of researchers. Led by the University of Bristol, the new species, named Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda, could help scientists refine the age of one of the world’s most significant fossil sites, and reshape the timeline of early dinosaur evolution.
Towering explosions, flowing bright red lava and heroic scientists battling to save communities at risk have become the defining image of volcanoes in popular culture, from disaster films to epic blockbusters. New University of Bristol-led research has found these cinematic portrayals create a distorted view of how volcanoes behave in the real world.
A pioneering study has revealed that by the turn of the next century at least half a million more people in the UK will be exposed to risk of coastal flooding – a 25% increase compared to now.
Pterosaurs, the first vertebrates to fly, would have had more diverse wing shapes than current scientific reconstructions suggest, according to new University of Bristol-led research. The study is published in the journal Paleobiology today [23 June].
Coral reef ecosystems, widely seen as a climate change bellwether, are more complex than previously understood. A new international study by the universities of Bristol, Wuhan in China and Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany, reveals that the evolutionary advantage of coral-algae symbiosis is not fixed; it depends entirely on environmental context.
Ancient volcanic rocks collected from a mountain in Aotearoa New Zealand and brought to the University of Bristol as geological specimens for analytical research are to be returned home in a landmark example of best practice in the return of culturally sacred research materials.
Scientists have shown conclusively for the first time that tiny marine organisms in polar oceans survived the mass extinction event that wiped out prehistoric dinosaurs because they needed less energy and were more tolerant to darkness.
Even the giant wings of the albatross are not ‘optimally’ shaped for their extraordinary long-distance migrations, according to new University of Bristol research.
Scientists have discovered that deep-water corals in the Galápagos region vanished for more than 1,000 years before eventually recovering. The findings reveal that deep-water coral ecosystems may be more susceptible to climate change than previously thought.
More subjects than ever have been recognised in the global top 20 and the UK top 5 of the QS World University Rankings by Subject 2026.
Scientists studying the fossil remains of giant prehistoric kangaroos have found that even animals weighing more than 200kg may not have been too big to bounce, overturning long-held assumptions about the limits of hopping.
Hundreds of millions of people worldwide live within 100 kilometres of a volcano that has experienced at least one significant eruption. Yet the warning signs that signal a shift from relatively mild activity to a high-impact eruption remain unclear. A major new £3.7 million University of Bristol-led research project aims to change this.
Sponges are among earth’s most ancient animals, but exactly when they evolved has long puzzled scientists. Genetic information from living sponges, as well as chemical signals from ancient rocks, suggest sponges evolved at least 650 million years ago.
Complex life began to develop earlier, and over a longer span of time, than previously believed, a groundbreaking new study has revealed. The research sheds new light on the conditions needed for early organisms to evolve and challenges several long-standing scientific theories in this area.
Crocodiles were not always the aquatic predators we know today. Living crocodiles evolved from ancient lineages that were equally at home on land as water.
A near-complete skeleton collected from the UK’s Jurassic Coast has been identified as a new species of ichthyosaur, a type of prehistoric marine reptile that ruled the ancient oceans.
Paleontologists at the University of Bristol have officially identified a new species of dinosaur from Triassic fossil beds in South Wales, near Penarth – more than 125 years after the specimen was initially reported.
A new fossil from Devon reveals what the oldest members of the lizard group looked like, and there are some surprises, according to a research team from the University of Bristol. The study is published today [10 September] in Nature.
The modern coelacanth is a famous ‘living fossil’, long thought to have died out, but first fished out of deep waters in the Indian Ocean in 1938. Since then, dozens of examples have been found, but their fossil history is patchy. In a new study, Jacob Quinn and colleagues from the University of Bristol and University of Uruguay in Montevideo have identified coelacanths in museum collections that had been missed for 150 years.
New research analysing the bite strength of 18 species of carnivorous dinosaurs has shown that predatory dinosaurs followed different evolutionary paths.
As the climate warms and regional drying becomes more frequent, peatlands – some of the planet’s most important carbon sinks – are increasingly under threat. But a study, led by an international team including scientists from the University of Bristol, has shown peatland ecosystems may have a natural defence through the combined forces of plant changes and microbes.
A new study has uncovered evidence that a giant marine reptile from the Early Jurassic period used stealth to hunt its prey in deep or dark waters – much like owls on land today.
The puzzling behaviour of Titan’s atmosphere has been revealed by researchers at the University of Bristol for the first time.
A new study has shed unprecedented light on the highly variable and climate-sensitive routes that substances from Siberian rivers use to travel across the Arctic Ocean. The findings raise fresh concerns about the increasing spread of pollutants and the potential consequences for fragile polar ecosystems as climate change accelerates.
Two Palaeontology and Evolution students from the University of Bristol have undertaken the first ever study which describes the incredible range of fossils which were sucked into a Neptunian dyke, a deep, fissure like cave on the ancient coastline.
More mammals were living on the ground several million years before the mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, new research led by the University of Bristol has revealed.
Ancient frog relatives survived the aftermath of the largest mass extinction of species by feeding on freshwater prey that evaded terrestrial predators, University of Bristol academics have found.
Sabre-toothed predators – best know from the infamous Smilodon – evolved multiple times across different mammal groups. A new study, published today in Current Biology reveals why: these teeth were ‘functionally optimal’ and highly effective at biting into prey.
Two University of Bristol professors have been presented awards by the Palaeontological Association for their contributions to academia, outreach and human knowledge.
A ground-breaking University of Bristol study has shed light on how lizards and snakes -the most diverse group of land vertebrates with nearly 12,000 species - have evolved remarkably varied jaw shapes, driving their extraordinary ecological success.
A storeroom specimen that changed the origins of modern lizards by millions of years has had its identity confirmed.
A new study highlights how some marine life could face extinction over the next century, if human-induced global warming worsens.
Research led by the University of Bristol shedding new light on how arsenic can be made less dangerous to humans has the potential to dramatically improve water and food safety, especially in the Global South.
The University of Bristol has received a £1million grant from the UKRI Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) to establish a new Centre for Chemical Characterisation in Heritage Sciences – an initiative that will span Arts, Chemistry and Earth Sciences.
The discovery of new cynodont fossils from southern Brazil by a team of palaeontologists from the University of Bristol, alongside colleagues from Argentina and Brazil, has led to a significant breakthrough in understanding the evolution of mammals.
A University of Bristol palaeontologist is among 25 medal and award winners announced by the Royal Society today [Wednesday 28 August].
A new study published in Science Advances reveals how early mammals grew and developed during their pivotal Jurassic radiation. Using a technique called synchrotron X-ray tomography to image growth rings in fossilised tooth roots, the researchers were able to estimate lifespans, growth rates, and even the timing of sexual maturity in these ancient creatures.
The pterosaur likely used all four limbs to propel itself in the air, as seen in bats today, researchers have found.
A team of researchers including scientists from the University of Oxford and the University of Bristol have made an astonishing discovery of a new species of mollusc that lived 500 million years ago. The new fossil, called Shishania aculeata*, reveals that the most primitive molluscs were flat, shell-less slugs covered in a protective spiny armour. The findings have been published today in the journal Science.
Brachiopods were evolving in new directions but this did not turn into evolutionary success in terms of the numbers of species, researchers at the University of Bristol, the Open University, and the China University of Geosciences have found.
An international team of researchers led by the University of Bristol has shed light on Earth’s earliest ecosystem, showing that within a few hundred million years of planetary formation, life on Earth was already flourishing.
A type of extinct kangaroo that lived during the Pleistocene around two and a half million to ten thousand years ago, known as the ‘giant wallaby’, was a poor hopper, a study by scientists at the University of Bristol have found.
Some of the most perfectly preserved trilobite fossils ever found have revealed details of the extinct arthropod unknown until now.
Ammonites were not in decline before their extinction, scientists have found.
Details of an ancient cousin of modern-day mammals have been revealed by modern imaging technology.
The identity of a local prehistoric marine reptile has finally been revealed after experts discovered that some of its remains actually belonged to fish.
A large fossil discovery has helped shed light on the history of dinosaurs in Wales.
Dinosaurs were as smart as reptiles but not as intelligent as monkeys, as former research suggests.
The fossilised remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two metres long has been found on a beach in Somerset.
Research has uncovered important new insights into the evolution of oxygen, carbon, and other vital elements over the entire history of Earth – and it could help assess which other planets can develop life, ranging from plants to animals and humans.
The evolutionary success of the first large predators on land was driven by their need to improve as killers, researchers at the University of Bristol and the Open University suggest.
Dinosaurs’ range of locomotion made them incredibly adaptable, University of Bristol researchers have found.
A new species of pterosaur from specimens found on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, has been announced by scientists from the University of Bristol Natural History Museum, University of Leicester, and University of Liverpool.
Gliding winged-reptiles were amongst the ancient crocodile residents of the Mendip Hills in Somerset, researchers at the University of Bristol have revealed.
A University of Bristol academic who is a world-leading expert in using seismology to understand the deep interior of the Earth and Mars has been chosen by the Royal Astronomical Society (RAS) to give a prominent lecture.
New research has cracked a vital process in the creation of a unique rock type from the Moon. The discovery explains its signature composition and very presence on the lunar surface at all, unravelling a mystery which has long eluded scientists.
A feeding method of the extinct jawless heterostracans, among the oldest of vertebrates, has been examined and dismissed by scientists at the University of Bristol, using fresh techniques.
Fossils of a new group of animal predators have been located in the Early Cambrian Sirius Passet fossil locality in North Greenland. These large worms may be some of the earliest carnivorous animals to have colonised the water column more than 518 million years ago, revealing a past dynasty of predators that scientists didn’t know existed.
Professor Sir Eric Thomas FMedSci, former Vice-Chancellor and President of the University of Bristol, sadly passed away on Friday 10 November 2023 aged 70 following a short battle with cancer. He was Bristol's 12th Vice-Chancellor, and led the University for 14 years between 2001 and 2015 during a period of significant change in higher education.
New research reveals millions of people around the world living in poverty have been experiencing a ‘climate hazard flip’ since the turn of the century.
A University of Bristol palaeontologist has attended a star-studded event in Tinseltown where new independent documentary ‘WHY DINOSAURS?’ was screened for the first time.
A CT scan of an often-overlooked, plant-eating dinosaur’s skull has revealed that it had a unique combination of traits associated with living animals that spend at least part of their time underground, including a super sense of smell and outstanding balance. The work is the first to link a specific sensory fingerprint with this behaviour in extinct dinosaurs.
Musician and field recordist Tom Fisher, who goes by the stage name Action Pyramid, finds magic in the everyday on new album Mardle.
A chance social media post by an eagle-eyed amateur astronomer sparked the discovery of an explosive collision between two giant planets, which crashed into each other in a distant space system 1,800 light years away from planet Earth.
The hunt for the world’s most ancient mammals descended into academic warfare in the seventies, researchers from the University of Bristol have discovered.
Professor Neil Hyatt, an internationally-renowned leader in the field of radioactive waste management, is set to begin a three-year role at the University of Bristol.
A new study shows unprecedented heat is likely to lead to the next mass extinction since the dinosaurs died out, eliminating nearly all mammals in some 250 million years time.
A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the evolution of plant biology, effectively rewriting the history of how they evolved over the past billion years.
Their lengthy necks, used for chasing fast-moving fishes, developed quickly over a five million period around 250 million years ago.
An extremely rare collection of 160-million-year-old sea spider fossils from Southern France are closely related to living species, unlike older fossils of their kind.
A remarkable new fossil from China reveals for the first time that a group of reptiles were already using whale-like filter feeding 250 million years ago.
Small pterosaurs were born with comparatively strong, large wings, which meant they could leave the nest swiftly, while larger, cumbersome baby pterosaurs required parental protection from predators, scientists have discovered.
The material a bird selects for its nest depends on the dimensions of its beak, according to researchers.
A Cretaceous origin for placental mammals, the group that includes humans, dogs and bats, has been revealed by in-depth analysis of the fossil record, showing they co-existed with dinosaurs for a short time before the dinosaurs went extinct.
Pioneering analysis of deep-sea corals has overturned the idea that ocean currents contributed to increasing global levels of carbon dioxide in the air over the past 11,000 years.
The distant ancestors of modern horses had hooved toes instead of a single hoof, which vanished over time, according to researchers.
The earliest reptiles, birds and mammals may have borne live young, researchers from Nanjing University and University of Bristol have revealed.
A team of researchers from the University of Bristol have shed light on the life of the ancient reptile Rhynchosaur, which walked the earth between 250-225 million years ago, before being replaced by the dinosaurs.
A new study has uncovered intriguing insights into the liquid core at the centre of Mars, furthering understanding of the planet’s formation and evolution.
Scientists from the University of Bristol are part of an expedition which has made a ground-breaking discovery of extensive, ancient deep-sea coral reefs within the Galápagos Marine Reserve (GMR).
The diverse swimming techniques of the ancient reptiles that ruled the Mesozoic seas have been revealed for the first time by scientists at the University of Bristol.
Ancestors of modern mammals evolved into one of the most successful animal lineages by starting out small and simple, researchers have found.
A team of researchers will voyage more than a mile beneath the Pacific Ocean in submersible The Alvin, famous for diving to the wreck of RMS Titanic in 1986.
Evidence from past extinctions cannot be used as a definitive way of predicting future biodiversity loss, scientists have found by using AI.
Dinosaur claws had many functions, but now a team from the University of Bristol and the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing has shown some predatory dinosaurs used their claws for digging or even for display.
Biodiversity loss may be the harbinger of a more devastating ecological collapse, an international team of scientists have discovered.
Dolphins working collaboratively are less successful in the presence of sound generated by humans, a University of Bristol-led team of researchers have shown.
A short biography of pioneering scientist Mary Anning, written in the final ten years of her life, has been made public for the very first time.
Professor Heidy Mader passed away on 22 December 2022. Her colleague and friend, Emeritus Professor Steve Sparks FRS, reflects on her life and scientific achievements.
Although most early dinosaurs were vegetarian, there were a surprising number of differences in the way that these animals tackled eating a plant-based diet, according to a new study by scientists from the Natural History Museum and the Universities of Bristol and Birmingham.
The earliest dinosaurs included carnivorous, omnivorous and herbivorous species, according to a team of University of Bristol palaeobiologists.
A specimen retrieved from a cupboard of the Natural History Museum in London has shown that modern lizards originated in the Late Triassic and not the Middle Jurassic as previously thought.
Eighteen University of Bristol academics have been named on Clarivate’s Highly Cited Researchers 2022 list.
A team of leading University of Bristol researchers on hot topics, ranging from climate change policy to adapting to a warming world and ensuring the transition to a net zero economy is fair, are poised to join the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Following two large meteorite impacts on Mars, researchers have observed, for the first time, seismic waves propagating along the surface of a planet other than Earth. The data from the marsquakes was recorded by NASA’s InSight lander and analysed at ETH Zurich in collaboration with the InSight Science Team, revealing new details about the structure of Mars’ crust.
NASA’s InSight lander recorded a magnitude 4 marsquake on Christmas Eve, 2021, but scientists learned only later from orbiter images the cause of that quake: a meteoroid strike estimated to be one of the biggest seen on Mars since NASA began exploring the cosmos. What’s more, it excavated boulder-sized chunks of water ice buried closer to the Martian equator than ever found before – a discovery that has implications for NASA’s future plans to send astronauts to the Red Planet.
A new study has shown milk was used by the first farmers from Central Europe in the early Neolithic era around 7,400 years ago, advancing humans’ ability to gain sustenance from milk and establishing the early foundations of the dairy industry.
Anike Te, Chief Strategy Officer for International Materials company Lucideon, will join the University of Bristol as an Aegis Professor in Engineering Biology this month. This prestigious appointment strongly aligns with Bristol’s identity as a world-leading institution for research and innovation with global impact.
Early Jurassic ichthyosaur juveniles show predatory specialisations, scientists at the University of Bristol have revealed.
A trove of fossils in China, unearthed in rock dating back some 436 million years, have revealed for the first time that the mysterious galeaspids, a jawless freshwater fish, possessed paired fins.
An international team of scientists, including from the Universities of Bristol and Oxford, and the Natural History Museum, have discovered that a well-preserved fossilised worm dating from 518-million-years-ago resembles the ancestor of three major groups of living animals.
The skulls of tetrapods had fewer bones than extinct and living fish, limiting their evolution for millions of years, according to a latest study.
The University of Bristol has signed a new partnership with the National Aerospace University (Kharkiv Aviation Institute) in Ukraine as part of a UK government-backed ‘twinning’ scheme to support higher education institutions affected by the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
An international team of researchers have discovered that a mysterious microscopic creature from which humans were thought to descend is part of a different family tree.
A two storey house designed for future life on Mars has landed on M Shed Square in Bristol, UK as part of ongoing public art project, Building a Martian House.
Researchers at the University of Bristol and Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre have discovered that super-eruptions occur when huge accumulations of magma deep in the Earth’s crust, formed over millions of years, move rapidly to the surface disrupting pre-existing rock.
Modern ocean biodiversity, which is at its highest level ever, was achieved through long-term stability of the location of so-called biodiversity hotspots, regions of especially high numbers of species, scientists have found.
The amount of carbon stored by microscopic plankton will increase in the coming century, predict researchers at the University of Bristol and the National Oceanography Centre (NOC).
Researchers studying ancient sea bed burrows and trails have discovered that bottom burrowing animals were among the first to bounce back after the end-Permian mass extinction.
Palaeontologists in the UK and China have shown that the natural world bounced back vigorously following the End-Permian Extinction.
Scientists have found that a key modern group of reptiles that includes lizards and snakes – known as squamates – diverged in the Jurassic period, 50 million years earlier than previously thought.
Scientists at the University of Bristol have discovered that body size is more important than body shape in determining the energy economy of swimming for aquatic animals.
Three researchers from the University of Bristol have been awarded European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grants totalling around €8 million. This places the University third in the UK in terms of the number of Advanced Grants awarded from the 2021 call.
Researchers at the University of Bristol have found that beetles first roamed the world in the Carboniferous and later diversified alongside the earliest dinosaurs during the Triassic and Jurassic.
Climate cooling associated with sulphur gases directly contributed to the extinction of the dinosaurs, research carried out at the Universities of St Andrews and Bristol has found.
Researchers, led by the University of Bristol, have shown that the earliest jaws in the fossil record were caught in a trade-off between maximising their strength and their speed.
Human-induced climate change is wreaking havoc in nature and affecting the lives of billions of people around the world, despite efforts to reduce the risks. People and ecosystems least able to cope are being hardest hit, according to leading scientists in the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, released today.
Unlike the classic Jules Verne science fiction novel Journey to the Center of the Earth or movie The Core, humans cannot venture into the Earth’s interior beyond a few kilometres of its surface. But thanks to latest advances in computer modelling, an international team of researchers led by the University of Bristol has shed new light on the properties and behaviour of magma found several hundreds of kilometres deep within the Earth.
About 200 million years ago, much of Europe was transformed by a huge flood. What had been land, occupied by early dinosaurs and other reptiles, was covered by shallow seawater, from Poland in the east to Wales and south-west England in the west.
New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed how giant 50-tonne sauropod dinosaurs, like Diplodocus, evolved from much smaller ancestors, like the wolf-sized Thecodontosaurus
A new study has provided the most detailed timeline of mammal evolution to date.
A new extinct reptile species has shed light on how our earliest ancestors became top predators by modifying their teeth in response to environmental instability around 300 million years ago.
Researchers at the University of Bristol have identified the huge impact of flowering plants on the evolution of life on Earth.
Researchers at the University of Bristol have found that fast evolution can lead to nowhere.
Leading atmospheric scientists are measuring emissions of the most dangerous greenhouse gases at COP26 and sharing them live online to highlight how rigorous measurement and detailed data reporting are essential in the fight against climate change.
A team of University of Bristol experts on a wide range of hot topics spanning climate change, environmental justice, emissions, sustainable energy, green finance and the economy are poised to join the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, better known as COP26.
The University of Bristol is among the best places in the country to study Engineering, Education and Medicine.
The SARS-CoV-2 epidemic has already had a major impact on children's education, with schools having been required to implement infection control measures that have led to long periods of absence and classroom closures. With the new school year underway, risk modelling specialists at the University of Bristol have developed a new epidemiological model for SARS-CoV-2 transmission that forecasts primary school infection outbreaks could be more frequent and possibly substantially larger this autumn than in 2020, due to the more transmissive and infectious Delta variant and projected increase in community infection.
Researchers from the University of Bristol and University College London have used cutting-edge techniques to digitally reconstruct the skull of one of the earliest limbed animals.
Newly-hatched pterosaurs may have been able to fly but their flying abilities may have been different from adult pterosaurs, according to a new study.
Dinosaurs were generally huge, but a new study of the unusual alvarezsaurs show that they reduced in size about 100 million years ago when they became specialised ant-eaters.
Elephants and their forebears were pushed into wipeout by waves of extreme global environmental change, rather than overhunting by early humans, according to new research.
The death of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago was caused by the impact of a huge asteroid on the Earth. However, palaeontologists have continued to debate whether they were already in decline or not before the impact.
Pioneering research has shown marine ecosystems can start working again, providing important functions for humans, after being wiped out much sooner than their return to peak biodiversity.
University of Bristol academics Professor Mike Benton, Dr Ellen Brooks Pollock, Professor Tim Cook and Professor Jane Memmott have all received awards in this year’s Queen’s Birthday Honours list which recognises the achievements and service of people across the UK.
The evolution of herbivores is linked to the plants that survived and adapted after the ‘great dying’, when over 90% of the world’s species were wiped out 252 million years ago.
The origins of a pretty smile have long been sought in the fearsome jaws of living sharks which have been considered living fossils reflecting the ancestral condition for vertebrate tooth development and inference of its evolution. However, this view ignores real fossils which more accurately reflect the nature of ancient ancestors.
An amber fossil of a Cretaceous beetle has shed some light on the diet of one of the earliest pollinators of flowering plants.
New research led by the University of Bristol has revealed that crocodiles once flourished on land and in the oceans as a result of fast evolution.
Over the course of Earth’s history, several mass extinction events have destroyed ecosystems, including one that famously wiped out the dinosaurs. But none were as devastating as “The Great Dying,” which took place 252 million years ago during the end of the Permian period.
By closely examining the jaw mechanics of juvenile and adult tyrannosaurids, some of the fiercest dinosaurs to inhabit earth, scientists led by the University of Bristol have uncovered differences in how they bit into their prey.
New research has revealed that the diets of early lizards and snakes, which lived alongside dinosaurs around 100 million years ago, were more varied and advanced than previously thought.
A new study using leading edge technology has shed surprising light on the ancient habitat where some of the first dinosaurs roamed in the UK around 200 million years ago.
The origin of flowering plants famously puzzled Charles Darwin, who described their sudden appearance in the fossil record from relatively recent geological times as an “abominable mystery”. This mystery has further deepened with an inexplicable discrepancy between the relatively recent fossil record and a much older time of origin of flowering plants estimated using genome data.
Organelles continue to thrive after the cells within which they exist die, a team of University of Bristol scientists have found, overturning previous assumptions that organelles decay too quickly to be fossilised.
A PhD student has scored twice at a major international science conference, winning prizes for best talk and best poster.
Trapped in amber for 100 million years, an exceptionally well-preserved, light-producing beetle sheds light on the diversification of bioluminescent beetles in the Cretaceous period and provides the missing fossil link between fireflies’ living relatives.
For the first time ever, a team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, have described in detail a dinosaur’s cloacal or vent – the all-purpose opening used for defecation, urination and breeding.
New research provides a stark warning of the need to address emissions from one of the most potent greenhouse gases - methane.
A pioneering study by University of Bristol researchers finds that the evolution of teeth in the giant prehistoric shark Megalodon and its relatives was a by-product of becoming huge, rather than an adaptation to new feeding habits.
New research by scientists at the University of Bristol explains how a ‘stop-start’ pattern of evolution, governed by environmental change, could explain why crocodiles have changed so little since the age of the dinosaurs.
A new study, led by researchers at the Universities of Bristol, Exeter and Bath, helps to shed light on the winter weather we may soon have in store following a dramatic meteorological event currently unfolding high above the North Pole.
A study of more than 1,400 protein-coding genes of fleas has resolved one of the longest standing mysteries in the evolution of insects, reordering their placement in the tree of life and pinpointing who their closest relatives are.
A pioneering reconstruction of the brain belonging to one of the earliest dinosaurs to roam the Earth has shed new light on its possible diet and ability to move fast.
A new study based on scientific sampling of a rusty carbon sink at a permafrost peatland at Sweden has revealed that iron minerals fail to trap organic carbon, a vast source of CO2 and methane not included in global warming forecasts.
A new study of coprolites, fossil poop, shows the detail of food webs in the ancient shallow seas around Bristol in south-west England. One hungry fish ate part of the head of another fish before snipping off the tail of a passing reptile.
Specially-adapted drones developed by an international team including Bristol scientists have been gathering data from never-before-explored volcanoes that will enable local communities to better forecast future eruptions.
Pterodactyls and related winged reptiles that lived alongside the dinosaurs steadily improved their ability to fly, becoming the deadly masters of the sky, over the course of millions of years.
Experiencing life on Mars could be more than just a fantastical notion, thanks to a new collaboration that has seen artists come together with scientists, architects and engineers to create a full-scale house for the future, in Bristol.
Stromboli, the ‘lighthouse of the Mediterranean’, is known for its low-energy but persistent explosive eruptions, behaviour that is known scientifically as Strombolian activity. This feature has long been an attraction for tourists and volcanologists from all over the world.
The fossilised remains of ancient deep-sea corals may act as time machines providing new insights into the effect the ocean has on rising CO2 levels, according to new research carried out by the Universities of Bristol, St Andrews and Nanjing and published in Science Advances.
A pioneering technique which captures precisely how mountains bend to the will of raindrops has helped to solve a long-standing scientific enigma.
Mammals and birds today are warm-blooded, and this is often taken as the reason for their great success.
Pioneering analysis of 200 million-year-old teeth belonging to the earliest mammals suggests they functioned like their cold-blooded counterparts - reptiles, leading less active but much longer lives.
A team of researchers, led by the University of Bristol, has revealed our most ancient ancestors were ecologically diverse, despite lacking jaws and paired fins.
While dinosaurs ruled the land in the Mesozoic, the oceans were filled by predators such as crocodiles and giant lizards, but also entirely extinct groups such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs.
In a new study of volcanic processes, Bristol scientists have demonstrated the role nanolites play in the creation of violent eruptions at otherwise ‘calm’ and predictable volcanoes.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) used three-dimensional computer modelling to investigate the hindlimb of Euparkeria capensis–a small reptile that lived in the Triassic Period 245 million years ago–and inferred that it had a “mosaic” of functions in locomotion.
It’s not often a new mass extinction is identified; after all, such events were so devastating they really stand out in the fossil record.
To date only the length of the legendary giant shark Megalodon had been estimated but now, a new study led by the University of Bristol and Swansea University has revealed the size of the rest of its body, including fins that are as large as an adult human.
Global warming is dramatically increasing the risk of extreme hurricanes in the Caribbean, but meeting more ambitious climate change goals could up to halve the likelihood of such disasters in the region, according to new research.
A recent study, led by the University of Bristol has uncovered fossils of dwarf reptiles that lived in South Wales 205 million years ago and were closely related to North American animals that lived 15 million years earlier.
The lack of human activity during lockdown caused human-linked vibrations in the Earth to drop by an average of 50 percent between March and May 2020.
A new study led by researchers from the University of Bristol has shown that not all saber-tooths were fearsome predators.
In a new study, published in the journal Nature, an international team of scientists provide the first conclusive evidence directly linking deep Earth’s water cycle with magmatic productivity and earthquake activity.
By analysing the fossilised jaw mechanics of reptiles who lived in the Severn Channel region of the UK 200-million-years ago, researchers from the University of Bristol have shown that they weren’t picky about the types of insects they ate - enjoying both crunchy and less crunchy varieties.
A new study looking at extinct camelids - ancestors of today’s camels and llamas - tells the story of North America’s ancient savannas and highlights how past climatic and environmental conditions influenced the composition of mammalian faunas.
In a new study, University of Bristol geologists show how the Mendip Hills in Somerset were overwhelmed by the ocean more than 200 million years ago.
New research has revealed the evolution of colour vision in elapid snakes following their transition from terrestrial to fully marine environments, and for the first time, provided evidence of where, when and how frequently the species have adapted their ability to see in colour.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the University of Zurich have shown that the Titanichthys – a giant armoured fish that lived in the seas and oceans of the late Devonian period 380-million-years ago – fed in a similar manner to modern day basking sharks.
Bird wings adapted for long-distance flight are linked to their environment and behaviour, according to new research on an extensive database of wing measurements, led by the University of Bristol.
The University of Bristol is today joining forces with the Met Office, together with UCL, to expand and transform an alliance which will strengthen the UK as a world leader in predicting climate hazards and tackling their far-reaching impact.
Pterosaurs were the largest animals ever to fly. They soared the skies for 160 million years - much longer than any species of modern bird. However, until now, these ancient flyers have largely been overlooked in the pursuit of bio-inspired flight technologies.
Liquid metals and alloys have exceptional properties that make them suitable for electrical energy storage and generation applications.
Hormonal changes caused by motorboat noise cause clownfish to hide, skip meals and attack their neighbours - putting damselfish in distress.
Two projects led by scientists from the University of Bristol have received grants totalling more than £5 million from the European Research Council (ERC).
The aetosaurs were heavily armoured reptiles that lived in many parts of the world in the Triassic period, some 225 million years ago. For the first time, a student at the University of Bristol has CT scanned a specimen to understand how the armour worked.
A new study by scientists from the University of Bristol's School of Earth Sciences, shows a well-known group of extinct marine reptiles had an early burst in their diversity and evolution - but that a failure to adapt in the long-run may have led to their extinction.
Darwin’s finches are among the most celebrated examples of adaptive radiation in the evolution of modern vertebrates and now a new study, led by scientists from the University of Bristol, has provided fresh insights into their rapid development and evolutionary success.
The University of Bristol and the Bristol Zoological Society (BZS) are pioneering a new approach to wildlife conservation, involving machine-learning and drone technology, which could impact wildlife conservation projects worldwide.
About 800,000 years ago, the giant straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon migrated out of Africa and became widespread across Europe and Asia.
A new study by an international team of researchers, led by scientists from the University of Bristol and Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology, has discovered that animal-like embryos evolved long before the first animals appear in the fossil record.
New research led by scientists at the University of Bristol has shown that the feedback mechanisms that were thought to keep the marine nitrogen cycle relatively stable over geological time can break down when oxygen levels in the ocean decline significantly.
A big problem with dinosaurs is that there seem to be too many meat-eaters. From studies of modern animals, there is a feeding pyramid, with plants at the bottom, then plant-eaters, and then meat-eaters at the top.
New research by an international team of scientists, led by the University of Cologne and including the University of Bristol, has revealed a lake considered to be the oldest in Europe was first established 1.36 million years ago and has existed continuously ever since.
After resting for decades in the storerooms of the Natural History Museum in London, a fragmentary fossil from the Late Triassic (200 million years ago) has been named as a new species by a Masters’ student at the University of Bristol.
By analysing the fossilised teeth of some of our most ancient ancestors, a team of scientists led by the universities of Bristol (UK) and Lyon (France) have discovered that the first humans significantly breastfed their infants for longer periods than their contemporary relatives.
New research by a University of Bristol palaeontology post-graduate student has revealed fresh insights into how the braincase of the dinosaur Psittacosaurus developed and how this tells us about its posture.
A new review of silicon cycling in glacial environments, led by scientists from the University of Bristol, highlights the potential importance of glaciers in exporting silicon to downstream ecosystems.
Scientists from the University of Bristol have found a more effective way to predict seismic activity at hydraulic fracturing sites, ensuring that potential earthquake activity remains within safe levels.
The Apollo 11 mission landed on the Moon on July 20, 1969, enabling the first man to walk on its surface the next day - 21 July. The mission returned to Earth a few days later, bringing back safely the astronauts and a precious load of lunar rocks.
Examining fossilised pigments, scientists from the University of Bristol have uncovered new insights into blue colour tones in prehistoric birds.
The findings of a research expedition to coastal Greenland which examined, for the first time, how melting ice is affecting supplies of nutrients to the oceans has been published in the journal Progress in Oceanography.
An international team of scientists – including a volcanologist from the University of Bristol – have uncovered why underwater earthquakes are linked with the tides.
New research, led by the University of Bristol, suggests that feathers arose 100 million years before birds - changing how we look at dinosaurs, birds, and pterosaurs, the flying reptiles.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum in London have reconstructed the evolutionary history of the chelicerates, the mega-diverse group of 110,000 arthropods that includes spiders, scorpions, mites and ticks.
Melting ice sheets in Greenland and the Antarctic, and subsequent sea level rise (SLR) this will cause, is widely recognised as posing a significant threat to coastal communities and ecosystems.
The duck-billed hadrosaurs walked the Earth over 90-million years ago and were one of the most successful groups of dinosaurs. But why were these 2-3 tonne giants so successful? A new study, published in Paleobiology, shows that their special adaptations in teeth and jaws and in their head crests were crucial, and provides new insights into how these innovations evolved.
Palaeobiologists from the University of Bristol and Howard University (USA) have uncovered new evidence that suggests that horses’ legs have adapted over time to be optimised for endurance travel, rather than speed.
Two University of Bristol academics, Professors George Davey Smith and Michael Kendall, have achieved the rare distinction of being elected Fellows of the world's most eminent scientific academy, the Royal Society, for their exceptional contributions to science.
How long will it take our biosphere to recover from the current climate crisis? It’s a question that makes for a sobering examination of Earth’s ongoing destruction.
Ancient aquatic crocodiles fed on softer and smaller prey than their modern counterparts and the evolution of skull shape and function allowed them to spread into new habitats, reveal paleobiology researchers from the University of Bristol and UCL.
New research led by the University of East Anglia (UEA) and co-authored by the University of Bristol reveals that sharp variations of the surface of volcanoes can affect data collected by monitoring equipment.
One of the ocean’s little known carnivores has been allocated a new place in the evolutionary tree of life after scientists discovered its unmistakable resemblance with other sea-floor dwelling creatures.
Using computer simulations and 3D models, palaeontologists from the University of Bristol have uncovered more detail on how Mesozoic sea dragons swam.
Using two partially fragmented fossil skulls, a student at the University of Bristol has digitally reconstructed, in three-dimensions, the skulls of two species of ancient reptile that lived in the Late Triassic, one of which had been previously known only from its jaws.
Understanding the global carbon cycle provides scientists with vital clues about the planet’s habitability.
Palaeobiologists from the University of Bristol have shed new light on a jaw-snapping species of prehistoric worm using half-a-billion-year-old fossils kept at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC.
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, has used satellite technology provided by the European Space Agency (ESA) to uncover why the Agung volcano in Bali erupted in November 2017 after 50 years of dormancy.
Scientists from the University of Bristol will be sharing their expertise as part of two new £20 million UK Research and Innovation Global Research Hubs funded through the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
A study, led by the University of Bristol, has shed some new light on how the beaks of birds have adapted over time.
The nutrient cycles that underpin how carbon is stored and released from two of Greenland’s glaciers is significantly affected by subglacial weathering, a new study has found, shedding further light on the geochemistry of meltwaters.
An international team of palaeontologists, which includes the University of Bristol, has discovered that the flying reptiles, pterosaurs, actually had four kinds of feathers, and these are shared with dinosaurs – pushing back the origin of feathers by some 70 million years.
Iridescence is responsible for some of the most striking visual displays in the animal kingdom. Now, thanks to a new study of feathers from almost 100 modern bird species, scientists have gained new insights into how this colour diversity evolved.
An international group of scientists led by researchers from the University of Bristol have advanced our understanding of how ancient animals saw the world by combining the study of fossils and genetics.
Volcanoes are not fed by molten magma formed in large chambers finds a new study, overturning classic ideas about volcanic eruptions.
The 300-million-mile journey that culminated in NASA’s InSight landing on Mars this week represents a major scientific coup for all involved, including mission participants from the University of Bristol.
A team of scientists and engineers from the Universities of Bristol and Birmingham have returned from Guatemala where they have been teaching local scientists how to use drones to map the Fuego volcano which violently erupted earlier this year.
Dr Juliet Biggs, Dr Claire Haworth and Dr John Russo have each been awarded a Philip Leverhulme Prize for their research.
A team of scientists has shown that rapid CO2 release from the ocean around Antarctica helped end the last ice age.
A new study published today in Nature, using research carried out at the University of Bristol, shows that getting smaller was a key factor contributing to the exceptional evolution of mammals over the last 200 million years.
A new study by scientists at the University of Bristol has shown that ancient global warming was associated with intense rainfall events that had a profound impact on the land and coastal seas.
The Triassic red rocks of the Devon coast around Sidmouth, some 240 million years old and pre-dating the earliest dinosaurs preserve fossil fishes, amphibians and reptiles, and a new specimen, uncovered with help from palaeontologists at the University of Bristol, shows distinct connections with Russia.
A new study led by scientists from the University of Bristol has used a combination of genomic and fossil data to explain the history of life on Earth, from its origin to the present day.
New research led by glaciologists and isotope geochemists from the University of Bristol has found that melting ice sheets provide the surrounding oceans with the essential nutrient silica.
The University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute for the Environment has appointed a new Director.
Scientists at the University of Manchester and the University of Bristol have used powerful X-rays to peer inside the skeletons of some of our oldest vertebrate relatives, solving a 160-year-old mystery about the origin of our skeletons.
A new study led by scientists at the University of Bristol has warned that unless we mitigate current levels of carbon dioxide emissions, Western Europe and New Zealand could revert to the hot tropical climate of the early Paleogene period – 56-48 million years ago.
The oceans are the planet’s most important depository for atmospheric carbon dioxide on time scales of decades to millennia.
A new study carried out by an international team of researchers, using the chemistry of ocean sediments has highlighted a widespread picture of Atlantic circulation changes associated with rapid climate change in the past.
Aust Cliff near Bristol has been known as a rich fossil site since the 1820s. Since then, thousands of people have visited this spectacular location on the banks of the Severn, and collected fossils of ancient sharks and sea dragons.
A newly published experimental protocol, involving University of Bristol scientists, could change the way fossilisation is studied.
An intriguing new exhibition using rocks to represent different aspects and interpretations of climate change will be on display at the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, Wills Memorial Building, from Wednesday 25 July.
A team of palaeontologists, led by University College Cork (UCC) and including the University of Bristol, have discovered new sources of the pigment melanin, calling for a rethink of how scientists reconstruct the colour of fossil birds, reptiles and dinosaurs.
One of the world’s leading authorities on volcanology and risk associated with natural hazards, Sir Stephen Sparks, Professor of Geology at the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, has been awarded a Royal Medal from The Royal Society.
Fossils come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from isolated fragments of bones and teeth to complete skeletons.
A University of Bristol geochemist is to lead an international team of researchers to Greenland’s fjords to find out how glacial meltwaters and coastal sediments are affecting nutrient cycling in the oceans.
The University of Bristol has appointed a new Dean for the Faculty of Science.
An international team of paleontologists, which includes the University of Bristol, have identified the world’s oldest lizard, providing key insight into the evolution of modern lizards and snakes.
Palaeontologists from University College Cork (UCC) in Ireland have discovered 125 million-year-old dandruff preserved amongst the plumage of feathered dinosaurs and early birds, revealing the first evidence of how dinosaurs shed their skin.
A new study, led by scientists at the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) in Beijing, China, including University of Bristol PhD student Zhang Hanwen, examined the feeding habits of ancient elephant relatives that inhabited Central Asia some 17 million years ago.
The seas around the West Antarctic Peninsula have experienced some of the fastest global warming in recent decades, increasing the rate and richness of biological activity in the region. Innovative analytical techniques and collaborative research projects involving scientists from around the world are helping to improve our understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental change.
New research, led by the University of Bristol, has provided fresh insight into how huge volcanic ash plumes, which can critically disrupt aviation and cause major impact on the ground, are transported in the atmosphere.
It is commonly understood that the dinosaurs disappeared with a bang – wiped out by a great meteorite impact on the Earth 66 million years ago.
The University of Bristol has appointed new heads of school for Chemistry, Physics and Earth Sciences.
Scientists from the University of Bristol have re-examined the fossilised remains of a Triassic reptile, currently housed in two separate collections on each side of the Atlantic, and have discovered it is a brand-new kind of beast.
Many of the courses taught at the University of Bristol are among the best in the world, according to an international league table.
A new study on the timescale of plant evolution, led by the University of Bristol, has concluded that the first plants to colonise the Earth originated around 500 million years ago – 100 million years earlier than previously thought.
Scientists from the University of Bristol have revealed that ray-finned fishes are perhaps one of Earth’s most resilient groups of animals, having survived four mass extinction events that wiped out many other groups.
Flowering plants likely originated between 149 and 256 million years ago according to new UCL-led research, co-authored by the University of Bristol.
Fossils found in a quarry near Cardiff in South Wales have been identified by a student and her supervisors at the University of Bristol as a new small species of reptile that lived 205 million years ago.
Man-made earthquakes in Oklahoma, USA, are strongly linked to the depth at which wastewater from the oil and gas industry are injected into the ground, according to a new study led by the University of Bristol.
One of the key effects of the end-Permian mass extinction, 252 million years ago, was rapid heating of tropical waters and atmospheres.
Professor Stephen Sparks FRS CBE from the University of Bristol has been awarded a knighthood in the Queen’s New Year Honours list.
Volcanic eruptions are the most spectacular expression of the processes acting in the interior of any active planet.
Everyone wants to be with their family for Christmas, but spare a thought for a group of orphan fossils that have been separated from their parents since the dawn of animal evolution, over half a billion years ago.
New research led by the University of Bristol has resolved evolutionary biology’s most-heated debate, revealing it is the morphologically simple sponges, rather than the anatomically complex comb jellies, which represent the oldest lineage of living animals.
After analysing a database of geological records dated within the last 100,000 years, a team of scientists from the University of Bristol has discovered the average time between so-called volcanic super-eruptions is actually much less than previously thought.
A University of Bristol-led study has revealed new details about dinosaur feathers and enabled scientists to further refine what is potentially the most accurate depiction of any dinosaur species to date.
A new study, led by a University of Bristol earth scientist, has shown that recently reported unexpected behaviour on Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, is due to its unique atmospheric chemistry.
Applications are now open for funded places on an exciting range of projects offered to PhD students at the University of Bristol on the themes of solid earth, living world and changing planet under the NERC GW4+ Doctoral Training Programme.
The classification of the dinosaurs might seem to be too obscure to excite anyone but the specialists.
BBC Two Astronauts finalist Tim Gregory will join one of Europe’s top space exploration experts at a special event in memory of Colin Pillinger - the Bristol-born scientist best known for leading the Beagle 2 mission which landed on Mars.
Researchers from the University of Bristol have revealed how a small feathered dinosaur used its colour patterning, including a bandit mask-like stripe across its eyes, to avoid being detected by its predators and prey.
Three academics from the University of Bristol will explore Mars and the microgravity environment, thanks to funding from the UK Space Agency in the latest round of the Aurora Science Programme and the Human Spaceflight and Microgravity programme.
Researchers have analysed a well-preserved preening gland in a 48-million-year-old bird fossil and discovered original oil and wax molecules within it.
The recent intense hurricanes in the Atlantic have sharply focused attention on how climate change can exacerbate extreme weather events. Scientific research suggests that global warming causes heavier rainfall because a hotter atmosphere can hold more moisture and warmer oceans evaporate faster feeding the atmosphere with more moisture.
Scientists from the University of Bristol have conducted experiments to accelerate degradation in keratinous tissues such as feathers, scales and hair in order to simulate the processes that occur over deep time as something becomes a fossil.
Building on existing information and databases relating to volcanic fatalities, scientists from the University of Bristol have, for the first time, been able to classify victims by activity or occupation and look at the distance of their death from the volcano.
Analysing a mixture of earth samples and meteorites, scientists from the University of Bristol have shed new light on the sequence of events that led to the creation of the planets Earth and Mars.
A group of international researchers have returned from a highly successful expedition to the Labrador Sea and coastal Greenland, led by scientists at the University of Bristol.
A new study has shed light on the swimming style of a prehistoric sea creature by creating a robot to mimic its movements.
A Bristol PhD student has made the cut for a brand-new TV programme to find out who has what it takes to be an astronaut. The programme, called Astronauts Do You Have What It Takes? will air on BBC Two on Sunday [20th August] at 9pm.
A new study, led by the University of Bristol, has shed new light on the origin, timing and habitat in which the chloroplast first evolved.
Detailed analysis of the fossilised skin of a newly discovered species of dinosaur has revealed that despite being the size of a tank and heavily protected with armour, it was still hunted by savage predators.
Over the course of the Neolithic period, secondary products from cattle such as milk, manure and animal power became more important.
New research by the University of East Anglia (UEA), and co-authored by the University of Bristol, shows that ‘shadow networks’ linking volunteers with authorities can help keep some of the millions of people living near dangerous volcanoes safer.
Scientists at the University of Bristol have shed new light on the evolution of flowers in research published today in the Royal Society journal Proceedings B.
Understanding modern biodiversity and extinction threats is important. It is commonly assumed that being large contributes to vulnerability during extinction crises.
A team of scientists, led by the University of Bristol, is preparing to take part in research expedition to coastal Greenland where they will examining, for the first time, how melting ice is affecting supplies of nutrients to the oceans.
A team of students and staff from the University of Bristol are designing a volcano monitoring satellite as part of the University's satellite programme. The group of 17 students and academics have been given unique access to the Concurrent Design Facility at the Science and Technology Facilities Council's (STFC) RAL Space, to design the University's first CubeSat.
The origin of animals was one of the most important events in the history of Earth. Beautifully preserved fossil embryos suggest that our oldest ancestors might have existed a little more than half a billion years ago.
A team of scientists led by the University of Bristol has provided new insights into the origins of the Archaea, the group of simple cellular organisms that are the ancestors of all complex life.
Three subjects taught at the University of Bristol have been ranked the best in the country, according to the Guardian University Guide 2018.
Four University of Bristol academics have achieved the rare distinction of being elected Fellows of the world’s most eminent and oldest scientific academy in continuous existence, the Royal Society.
A team of researchers, led by the University of Bristol, has uncovered that ancient fossils, thought to be some of the world’s earliest examples of animal remains, could in fact belong to other groups such as algae.
Sites around Bristol Parkway Station have produced an unexpected fossil haul – the first sea lily and squid remains from the British Triassic period.
A team of volcanologists and engineers from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge have collected measurements from directly within volcanic clouds, together with visual and thermal images of inaccessible volcano peaks.
World Parkinson's Disease Day [11 April] is held every year on Parkinson's birthday to raise awareness of the disease and the research being done to alleviate it. To mark 200 years since James Parkinson first identified the condition named after him, a new biography of this forgotten man has been published.
Living birds have a more crouched leg posture compared to their dinosaurian ancestors, which generally are thought to have moved with straighter limbs - similar to the postures of humans.
We know a lot about how carbon dioxide (CO2) levels can drive climate change, but how about the way that climate change can cause fluctuations in CO2 levels?
Many of the courses taught at the University of Bristol are among the best in the world, according to an international league table.
A team of researchers from the University of Bristol studying the ‘living fossil’ Sphenodon - or tuatara - have identified a new way to measure the evolutionary rate of these enigmatic creatures, giving credence to Darwin’s theory of ‘living fossils’.
A previously undiscovered species of an extinct primordial giant worm with terrifying snapping jaws has been identified by an international team of scientists.
The first ever evidence of live birth in an animal group previously thought to lay eggs exclusively has been discovered by an international team of scientists, including a palaeontologist from the University of Bristol.
Scientists from the University of Bristol have uncovered a 480-million-year-old slug-like fossil in Morocco which sheds new light on the evolution of molluscs – a diverse group of invertebrates that includes clams, snails and squids.
A new interdisciplinary project led by researchers at the University of Bristol aims to develop resilience and research capacity in the Himalayan Kingdom of Bhutan to cope with earthquakes and their cascading effects on the country's environment, business, infrastructure, and society.
The University of Bristol’s quiz team faces a crucial quarter-final tie against Corpus Christi, Oxford, on Monday [23 January] as its University Challenge journey continues.
A team of scientists from the University of Bristol has suggested that we need to use a fresh approach to analyse relationships in the fossil record to show how all living and extinct species are related in the 'tree of life'.
The University of Bristol has secured substantial funding in all three large grants recently awarded under an initiative to strengthen ties between the UK and China.
The Queen has bestowed a special honour on a University of Bristol professor whose volcanology research has helped to protect people living on the Caribbean island of Montserrat.
It has been a well-established fact that, as they get older, ocean islands slowly sink.
Researchers from China, Canada, and the University of Bristol have discovered a dinosaur tail complete with its feathers trapped in a piece of amber.
Ocean variability and realistic marine regional projections should be included in Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports to better inform policy-makers, state researchers from the University of Bristol and University of Tasmania.
Scientists from the University of Bristol and partner universities in Germany, France, Canada and Wales, have discovered a huge magmatic lake, 15 kilometres below a dormant volcano in Bolivia, South America.
The legacy of a University of Bristol graduate will continue in the form of a new scholarship, designed to help Ethiopian people better understand the threat volcanoes pose to life, livelihood and the landscape.
The hugely popular Dinosaur Takeover event is set to return to Bristol Museum and Art Gallery for one week this month.
Dr Juliet Biggs, Reader in the School of Earth Sciences, has been awarded the British Geophysical Association’s (BGA) Bullerwell Lecture for 2017.
Years of research on the evolution of ancient life, including the dinosaurs, have been questioned after a fatal flaw in the way fossil data is analysed was exposed by scientists from the universities of Reading and Bristol.
Scientists at the University of Bristol are working with the energy industry to develop an 'early warning tool' to predict the sudden, en masse appearance of jellyfish swarms which can cause serious problems by clogging the water intakes of coastal power plants.
Scientists examining naturally occurring uranium levels in ancient deep sea corals have discovered new insights into how the major northern ice sheets retreated during the last major deglaciation on Earth.
A new species of British ichthyosaur has been identified using skeletal remains which have been on display at the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences for many years.
Three academics from the University of Bristol have been awarded University Research Fellowships by the Royal Society.
Scientists have found evidence of microfibers ingested by deep sea animals, revealing for the first time the environmental fallout of microplastic pollution.
Fresh evidence from a series of expeditions to North Greenland have led palaeontologists to solve an age-old mystery about a distinctive group of arthropods.
Habitat degradation poses a greater risk to the survival of turtles and tortoises than rising global temperatures, according to new research.
After reconstructing the colour patterns of a well-preserved dinosaur from China, researchers from the University of Bristol have found that the long-lost species Psittacosaurus (meaning "parrot lizard", a reference to its parrot-like beak) was light on its underside and darker on top.
A research team led by the University of Bristol has found magma build-up beneath Japan's Aira caldera and Sakurajima volcano may indicate a growing threat to Kagoshima city and its 600,000 inhabitants.
An international team of researchers have shown that vulnerable coral populations in the eastern tropical Pacific have been completely isolated from the rest of the Pacific Ocean for at least the past two decades.
Scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Málaga have proposed that the long extinct marsupial lion hunted in a very unique way - by using its teeth to hold prey before dispatching them with its huge claws.
Scientists have discovered macabre fossil evidence suggesting that 300 million-year-old sharks ate their own young, as fossil faeces of adult Orthacanthus sharks contained the tiny teeth of juveniles.
Research on rocks beneath one of the West Country's busiest motorway junctions has revealed unexpected evidence of major flooding events across southern England millions of years ago.
New fossil finds from China push back the origins of deep soils by 20 million years, new research published today has uncovered.
How can we ever know what ancient animals ate? For the first time, the changing diets of elephants in the last two million years in China have been reconstructed, using a technique based on analysis of the surface textures of their teeth.
The build-up of magma six kilometres below El Salvador's Ilopango caldera means the capital city of San Salvador may be at risk from future eruptions, University of Bristol researchers have found.
Plant-eating dinosaurs had several bursts of evolution, and these were all kicked off by innovations in their teeth and jaws, new research has found.
The University of Bristol's quest to prove its quizzing prowess begins on Monday [11 July], when its team takes on Sheffield University, in a match which kicks-off the new series of University Challenge
A study of how crystals moved in magma under the Mount St Helens volcano before the 1980 eruption may have signalled that an eruption was probable. Scientists say that similar measurements may indicate the possibility of eruption in some other, well-studied volcanoes, but caution that this is not a technique which could be applied to every volcano.
Two new specimens of tiny bird wings trapped in amber from rocks have been uncovered in China. The fossil wings seem to have come from baby birds that got trapped in the sticky sap of tropical trees 100 million years ago.
A team from the University of Bristol has shed new light on the creatures that inhabited the tropical seas surrounding Britain at the start of the age of the dinosaurs.
An ancient basin hidden beneath the Greenland ice sheet, discovered by researchers at the University of Bristol, may help explain the location, size and velocity of Jakobshavn Isbræ, Greenland's fastest flowing outlet glacier.
The first detailed study of a Stegosaurus skull shows that it had a stronger bite than its small peg-shaped teeth suggested.
In the Mesozoic, the time of the dinosaurs, from 252 to 66 million years ago, marine reptiles such as ichthyosaurs and plesiosaurs were top predators in the oceans. But their origins and early rise to dominance have been somewhat mysterious.
PhD researcher Sam Briggs successfully summed up his research into the chemical origins of life to win the University of Bristol’s Three Minute Thesis competition, which challenges postgraduate students to present years of work that go into a PhD thesis in just three minutes.
Katharine Cashman, Professor of Volcanology in the School of Earth Sciences, and Professor David Lodge, Visiting Fellow in the School of Physiology and Pharmacology, have achieved the rare distinction of being elected Fellows of the world’s most eminent and oldest scientific academy in continuous existence: the Royal Society.
How birds’ beaks evolved characteristic shapes to eat different food is a classic example of evolution by natural selection.
Dr Kate Hendry, Royal Society Research Fellow in the School of Earth Sciences, has joined an EU-funded project to examine the ecology and diversity of deep-sea sponge ecosystems in the North Atlantic.
Dinosaurs were already in an evolutionary decline tens of millions of years before the meteorite impact that finally finished them off, new research has found.
A study of a ten-million-year-old fossilised snake has shown for the first time that mineralised tissues can preserve evidence of colour, shedding new light on how ancient organisms would have looked.
Many of the courses taught at the University of Bristol are among the best in the world, according to an international league table.
Jon Blundy, Professorial Research Fellow in Petrology, has been awarded the Geological Society’s prestigious Murchison Medal for 2016.
Geoffrey Eglinton FRS, member of the School of Chemistry from 1968 to 1993 and Emeritus Professor and Senior Research Fellow in Earth Sciences at Bristol, sadly passed away on Friday 11 March.
Professor Hugh Brady, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bristol, Denis Burn, Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Professor Katharine Cashman, leader of Bristol's Volcanology Group have been presented with the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education on behalf of the University in a ceremony held at Buckingham Palace yesterday [25 February].
Long before the dinosaurs, hefty herbivores called pareiasaurs ruled the Earth. Now, for the first time, a detailed investigation of all Chinese specimens of these creatures – often described as the ‘ugliest fossil reptiles’ – has been published by a University of Bristol palaeontologist.
An international team of scientists, led by the China University of Geosciences in Beijing and including palaeontologists from the University of Bristol, has shed new light on some unusual dinosaur tracks from northern China. The tracks appear to have been made by four-legged sauropod dinosaurs yet only two of their feet have left prints behind.
The roots of the mammalian family tree have long been shrouded in mystery – when did the placental mammals go their separate ways? Now, researchers led by Dr James Tarver at the University of Bristol say they’ve found where the family tree of placental mammals first branched apart – and when it happened.
Bristol Museum & Art Gallery will be celebrating British Science Week (11-20 March 2016), with a Dinosaur Takeover. Bristol Museums have partnered with dinosaur experts at the University of Bristol to deliver an exciting half day experience for school groups in the region, packed with thrilling dinosaur-related activities.
Dr Tom Scott and Dr Oliver Payton, with Bristol spin-out company ImiTec Ltd, took their Advanced Airborne Radiation Monitoring System to Dubai and took on 1017 entrants from 165 countries.
Ocean acidification (the ongoing decrease in the pH of the Earth’s oceans, caused by the uptake of CO2 from the atmosphere), is affecting the formation of the skeleton of coralline algae which play an important part in marine biodiversity, new research from the University of Bristol has found.
Dr Brian Hawkins, former Reader in Engineering Geology, died in January. His colleague Dr David Nash offers a remembrance.
Fossils from around the world will be displayed in an online ‘computer game museum’ designed to help teach pupils about the evolution of life on earth. The Virtual Natural History Museum, a project which is being led by a team of palaeontology experts at the University of Bristol, will provide a unique resource to teachers – offering digital access to specimens rarely seen outside of academia.
Not only is Greenland's melting ice sheet adding huge amounts of water to the oceans, it could also be unleashing 400,000 metric tons of phosphorus every year – as much as the mighty Mississippi River releases into the Gulf of Mexico, according to a new study.
Dr Kate Hendry and Professor Jon Blundy – both members of the University of Bristol’s Cabot Institute and School of Earth Sciences – have won two of the three awards bestowed this year by the European Association of Geochemistry (EAG).
Researchers at the University of Bristol have discovered new insights into previously hidden parts of the earth’s carbon cycle. The team found that carbon recycling extends into the deep mantle by plate subduction, but is still primarily constrained to upper mantle depths, above 700km. The researchers made the discovery that certain rare diamonds are formed when carbon that was sequestered from seawater into the Earth’s shifting tectonic plates reacts with the mantle after the plate is subducted – a process by which it moves under another tectonic plate and sinks into the mantle as the plates converge.
University of Bristol Cabot Institute researchers and their colleagues today published research that further documents the unprecedented rate of environmental change occurring today, compared to that which occurred during natural events in Earth’s history.
Our understanding of evolution can be enriched by adding fossil species to analyses of living animals, as shown by scientists from the University of Bristol.
Researchers from the University of Bristol have uncovered one of the reasons for the evolutionary success of flowering plants.
Bristol study reaffirms classical view of early animal evolution. Whether sponges or comb jellies (also known as sea gooseberries) represent the oldest extant animal phylum is of crucial importance to our understanding of early animal evolution.
Computer simulations have allowed scientists to work out how a puzzling 555-million-year-old organism with no known modern relatives fed, revealing that some of the first large, complex organisms on Earth formed ecosystems that were much more complex than previously thought.
Two academics from the University of Bristol will be swapping a lab coat for legislation when they visit the House of Commons for a week in Westminster. The week (23-26 November) is part of a unique pairing scheme run by the Royal Society- the UK’s national academy of science, with support from the Government Office for Science.
The University of Bristol has been awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education – the highest accolade for any academic institution – in recognition of its world-leading research in volcanology.
A muscly fossil fireworm, discovered by scientists from the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum, has been named Rollinschaeta myoplena in honour of punk musician and spoken word artist, Henry Rollins.
The Andes have been a mountain chain for much longer than previously thought, new research from the University of Bristol suggests.
The University of Bristol is delighted to announce the arrival of a new radiocarbon accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facility in the UK.
Just how bad was T-rex’s bite? New research from the University of Bristol has found that the feeding style and dietary preferences of dinosaurs was closely linked to how wide they could open their jaws.
Scientists have used computer simulations to reconstruct feeding in the common ancestor shared between humans and starfish, which lived over half a billion years ago.
The inner workings of a tiny fossil have been studied using X-ray microscopy, revealing evidence of the digestive system for the first time. Researchers from the University of Bristol, Appalachian State University, the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the Paul Scherrer Institut analysed the unique fossil specimen using high-energy X-rays at the Swiss Light Source in Switzerland.
Some of the most ancient birds were capable of performing aerodynamic feats in a manner similar to many living birds, according to a new study of the fossil wing of a primitive bird, led by a PhD student at the University of Bristol.
Four Bristol academics have been made Royal Society University Research Fellows.
A pre-historical sudden collapse of one of the tallest and most active oceanic volcanoes on Earth — Fogo, in the Cape Verde Islands – triggered a mega-tsunami with waves impacting 220 metres (721 feet) above present sea level resulting in catastrophic consequences, according to a new University of Bristol study published today [02 Oct] in Science Advances.
The coelacanth fish, found today in the Indian Ocean, is often called a ‘living fossil’ because its last ancestors existed about 70 million years ago and it has survived into the present – but without leaving any fossil remains younger than that time. Now, some much older coelacanth remains have been uncovered in a fossil deposit near Bristol by a student at the University of Bristol.
A celebration to mark the bicentenary of the publication of the very first geological map of England and Wales – created by local canal engineer and surveyor William Smith (1769-1839), known as the ‘Father of Geology’ – takes place this October at the University of Bristol.
What colour were the animals that roamed the Earth 50 million years ago? For the first time, the original colour of a fossil mammal has been described by scientists from the University of Bristol, UK and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, US.
In a paper published today in Science, researchers from the University of Bristol describe how they used radiocarbon measured in deep-sea fossil corals to shed light on carbon dioxide (CO2) levels during the Earth’s last deglaciation.
Ways to improve monitoring of carbon capture and storage (CCS) sites are being investigated by three University of Bristol seismologists as part of a new international collaborative research initiative.
A sophisticated imaging technique has allowed scientists to virtually peer inside a 10-million-year-old sea urchin, uncovering a treasure trove of hidden fossils.
Everyone is excited by discoveries of new dinosaurs – or indeed any new fossil species. But a key question for palaeontologists is ‘just how good is the fossil record?’ Do we know fifty per cent of the species of dinosaurs that ever existed, or ninety per cent or even less than one per cent? And how can we tell?
Professor Daniela Schmidt from the School of Earth Sciences is the recipient of a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award for a project on the future of shelf-sea ecosystems.
A new bone in the skull of an iconic fossil animal that represents the ‘missing link’ between fish and all land-dwelling vertebrate animals has been found by researchers from the University of Bristol.
The diversity of animal life that inhabited the coastlines of South West England 200 million years ago has been revealed in a study by an undergraduate at the University of Bristol.
Three University of Bristol volcanologists – Professor Steve Sparks, Dr Susanna Jenkins and Dr Sarah Brown – are lead editors and authors of a new book, Global Volcanic Hazards and Risks, published this month.
How some of the first complex organisms on Earth – possibly some of the first animals to exist – reproduced has been identified in a new study of 565 million-year-old fossils by researchers from the Universities of Cambridge, Bristol and Oxford.
Hidden secrets about life in Somerset 190 million years ago have been revealed by researchers at the University of Bristol and the Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) in a new study of some remarkable fossils. Thanks to exceptional conditions of preservation, a whole marine ecosystem has been uncovered – and yet it was already known 150 years ago.
The world’s first study into the brain anatomy of an ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, has shed light on how the reptilian brain adapted to life in the oceans. The work, led by University of Bristol undergraduate Ryan Marek, is out this week in the journal Palaeontology.
Postgraduate researcher Catherine Gilmore successfully summed up her research into the placenta to be crowned the University of Bristol’s winner of the Three Minute Thesis - a competition challenging postgraduate researchers to present their 80,000-word theses in just three minutes.
Scientists have shed light on how the origin of vascular plants, more than 400 million years ago, changed the surface of our planet forever.
Ever wondered what kind of research postgraduate students are working on at Bristol? Find out when eight take to the stage next Wednesday (10 June) to present their 80,000-word theses in just three minutes.
Fossils found in a quarry in Gloucestershire have been identified by a student and her supervisors at the University of Bristol as a new small species of reptile with self-sharpening blade-like teeth that lived 205 million years ago. Part of the name chosen for the new species – Clevosaurus sectumsemper – takes inspiration from a spell cast in the Harry Potter books.
The National Soapbox Science Festival comes to Bristol this Sunday [7 June], bringing 12 inspirational local female scientists to the streets to share their research, engage the public and inspire the next generation of scientists.
Four University of Bristol academics have been elected Fellows of the world’s most eminent and oldest scientific academy in continuous existence: the Royal Society. Professor Philip Donoghue (Earth Sciences), Professor Jens Marklof (Mathematics), Professor John Rarity (Electrical and Electronic Engineering) and Professor Alan Roberts (Biological Sciences) join a Fellowship of some 1,400 outstanding individuals representing science, engineering and medicine: a global scientific network of the highest calibre.
The first convincing evidence for sexual differences in a species of dinosaur has been described by University of Bristol MSc student, Evan Saitta, in a study of the iconic dinosaur Stegosaurus, published today in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.
New analysis of world-famous 3.46 billion-year-old rocks by researchers from the University of Bristol, the University of Oxford and UWA (the University of Western Australia) is set to finally resolve a long running evolutionary controversy.
New geological fieldwork in China has changed our understanding of a famous dinosaur fossil site. Up to now, the site at Lujiatun, in Liaoning Province, northeast China, was called the ‘Chinese Pompeii’ because it was assumed the animals had been killed by volcanic gases and buried at the same time under clouds of ash from erupting volcanoes.
Tiny, burrowing reptiles known as worm lizards became widespread long after the breakup of the continents, leading scientists at the universities of Bristol, Bath, Yale and George Washington to conclude that they must have dispersed by rafting across oceans soon after the extinction of the dinosaurs, rather than by continental drift as previously thought.
A place in the semi-finals of University Challenge is at stake tonight [16 March], when the University of Bristol’s quiz team faces a crucial quarter final tie against Magdalen College, Oxford.
The first 3D reconstruction of the skull of a 360 million-year-old near-ancestor of land vertebrates has been created by scientists from the Universities of Bristol and Cambridge.
Tours of one of Bristol’s tallest and most iconic buildings have raised an impressive £20,000 towards caring for sick babies and children in the city.
The link between volcanism and the formation of copper ore has been discovered by researchers from the University of Bristol. Their findings, published today in Nature Geoscience, could have far-reaching implications for the search for new copper deposits.
Professor Stephen Sparks of the University of Bristol, a geologist whose work has improved understanding of how volcanoes work and our ability to forecast deadly volcanic eruptions, will receive the 2015 Vetlesen Prize, an award considered to be the Nobel Prize of the earth sciences.
The University of Bristol’s journey on University Challenge continues tonight [19 January], when its team goes head-to-head with the University of Liverpool in the quarter finals.
Two University of Bristol academics are part of a UK consortium, led by the British Geological Survey (BGS), which will carry out research at two proposed hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) sites in Lancashire.
The feeding habits of an unusual 200-million-year-old fish have been uncovered by a University of Bristol undergraduate in a groundbreaking study which has been published in Palaeontology, a leading scientific journal, this week – a rare achievement for an undergraduate student.
A study of tooth enamel in mammals living today in the equatorial forest of Gabon could ultimately shed light on the diet of long extinct animals, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 has ranked Bristol among the UK’s top research universities.
The Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 has ranked Bristol among the UK’s top research universities. Our research is shown to have top quality and major impact on society and the economy, according to this assessment of research at every UK university. REF2014 will decide how around £2 billion in research funding will be allocated each year from 2015-16.
The University of Bristol’s quest to prove its quizzing prowess continues on Monday [8 December], when it takes on the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in the second round of University Challenge.
A research paper published earlier this year in Nature Communications has been awarded a Science of Risk prize by Lloyd’s at a ceremony last week [27 November].
The deliberate, large-scale intervention in the Earth’s climate system is not a “quick fix” for global warming, according to the findings of the UK’s first publicly funded studies on geoengineering.
A rare dinosaur fossil has been restored by an international team of scientists, led by Dr Stephan Lautenschlager from the University of Bristol, using high-resolution X-ray computed tomography (CT scanning) and digital visualisation techniques. The work is described this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.
Dr Brian Hawkins of the Department of Civil Engineering has been awarded the first Marcel Arnould Medal by the International Association for Engineering Geology and the Environment (IAEG).
The likelihood and potential impacts of volcanic ash on nuclear generating sites in the UK will be investigated by researchers from the University of Bristol in partnership with EDF Energy, thanks to a £150,000 grant from the Natural Environmental Research Council (NERC).
How the largest animals to have ever walked the Earth fed, and how this allowed them to live alongside one another in prehistoric ecosystems is the subject of new research from the University of Bristol and the Natural History Museum, London.
Britain's best-known natural history film-maker Sir David Attenborough has officially opened the University of Bristol’s new £56.5 million Life Sciences building.
Gigantic polar clouds of hydrogen cyanide roughly four times the area of the UK are part of the impressive atmospheric diversity of Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, a new study led by Leiden Observatory, the Netherlands Institute for Space Research and the University of Bristol has found. The research is published today in Nature.
New light has been shed on one of the biggest volcanic eruptions in the last 500 years – the so-called 'Unknown eruption' – thanks to an unusual collaboration between a historian and a team of earth scientists at the University of Bristol.
Scientists today unveiled what appears to be the first truly semiaquatic dinosaur, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus. New fossils of the massive Cretaceous period predator reveal it adapted to life in the water some 95 million years ago, providing the most compelling evidence to date of a dinosaur able to live and hunt in an aquatic environment.
Do all the millions of fossils in museums around the world give a balanced view of the history of life, or is the record too incomplete to be sure? This question was first recognised by Charles Darwin and has worried scientists ever since.
New analyses of tiny fossil mammals from South Wales are shedding light on the function and diets of our earliest ancestors, a team led by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Leicester report today in the journal Nature.
The ancestors of today's crocodiles colonised the seas during warm phases and became extinct during cold phases, according to a new Anglo-French study which establishes a link between marine crocodilian diversity and the evolution of sea temperature over a period of more than 140 million years.
Little known volcanoes in one of Africa’s most stunning locations are to be explored in a bid to understand the threat they pose to life, livelihood and the landscape. Researchers are to assess largely uncharted volcanoes in the East African Rift Valley, home to vast mammal migrations, mountain gorillas, spectacular peaks and fertile plains.
The first ever example of a plant-eating dinosaur with feathers and scales has been discovered in Russia. Previously only flesh-eating dinosaurs were known to have had feathers so this new find indicates that all dinosaurs could have been feathered.
The University of Bristol’s quest to prove its quizzing prowess begins on Monday, when they take on the Courtauld Institute of Art in the first round of the new series of University Challenge.
Scientists from NASA's InSight mission to Mars have been checking out the lowest vibration sites across the UK in order to find somewhere quiet enough to calibrate the seismometer that will be travelling to the Red Planet in 2016.
A new special volume documenting volcanology research developed at Montserrat, West Indies and including major contributions from University of Bristol researchers is published this month by the Geological Society of London.
A new book, the first in-depth focus on the lives of peregrines in towns and cities, is published this month by a researcher at the University of Bristol.
A new study by researchers at the University of Bristol and Plymouth Marine Laboratory has shed light on how different species of marine organisms are reacting to ocean acidification.
Trackways formed on an ancient seabed have shed new light on how nothosaurs, ancient marine reptiles that lived during the age of the dinosaurs, propelled themselves through water. The evidence is described by a team from Bristol and China in Nature Communications today.
New techniques for visualizing fossils are transforming our understanding of evolutionary history according to a paper published by leading palaeontologists at the University of Bristol.
A network of integrated greenhouse gas measurements in the UK and Ireland – the first of its kind in Europe – has been awarded renewed funding of £918,000 for continued operation.
How claw form and function changed during the evolution from dinosaurs to birds is explored by a new University of Bristol study into the claws of a group of theropod dinosaurs known as therizinosaurs.
Michael Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology in the School of Earth Sciences, has achieved the rare distinction of being elected Fellow of the world's most eminent and oldest scientific academy in continuous existence: the Royal Society.
Using satellite imagery to monitor which volcanoes are deforming provides statistical evidence of their eruption potential, according to a new study led by the University of Bristol published today in Nature Communications.
Members of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II will publish their first update in seven years on the scale of impacts, adaptations and vulnerabilities to climate change at a meeting in Yokohama, Japan today.
Ancient, giant marine animals used bizarre facial appendages to filter food from the ocean, according to new fossils discovered in northern Greenland. The new study, led by the University of Bristol and published today in Nature, describes how the strange species, called Tamisiocaris, used these huge, specialized appendages to filter plankton, similar to the way modern blue whales feed today.
A study of the jaws of one of the earliest known limbed vertebrates shows the species still fed underwater, not on land.
The key characteristics of birds which allow them to fly – their wings and their small size – arose much earlier than previously thought, according to new research from the Universities of Bristol and Sheffield into the Paraves, the first birds and their closest dinosaurian relatives which lived 160 to 120 million years ago.
Katharine Cashman, Professor of Volcanology in the School of Earth Sciences, is one of 21 new Wolfson Research Merit Award holders. The prestigious awards are conferred by the Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science.
Marine ecosystems – especially in nutrient-starved areas of the ocean – are very sensitive to abrupt climate change, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
Factors determining the frequency and magnitude of volcanic phenomena have been uncovered by an international team of researchers.
A full-size replica of Bristol's very own dinosaur Thecodontosaurus was unveiled at the University of Bristol's Wills Memorial Building today [Friday 13 December] where it will go on permanent display to the public.
University of Bristol researcher Dr Elena Couce will cycle around one of the most diverse areas of our oceans on a 14 month mission to raise awareness of climate change and marine conservation.
A historic library at the heart of the University of Bristol has been brought into the 21st Century thanks to a £3.1 million refurbishment, which has been unveiled by the UK’s most senior female judge.
Why beaks evolved in some theropod dinosaurs and what their function might have been is the subject of new research by an international team of palaeontologists published this week in PNAS (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences).
The acidity of the world’s ocean may increase by around 170 per cent by the end of the century bringing significant economic losses, according to a major new international report. People who rely on the ocean’s ecosystem services – often in developing countries – are especially vulnerable.
For decades, it was thought that our skeleton and all its characteristic bony tissues originated in the predators, known as ‘conodonts’. However new research, led by the University of Bristol and published today in Nature, shows that they were evolutionary copy-cats who evolved tooth-like structures and tissues independently of other vertebrates. The origin of our skeleton is to be found in the armour of our mud-slurping ancestors who evolved bony armour to protect themselves from such predators.
New research has revealed the hidden past of crocodiles, showing for the first time how these fierce reptiles evolved and survived in a dinosaur dominated world.
Bristol's very own dinosaur Thecodontosaurus will be brought to life on the city's Harbourside this autumn when local artist Robert Nicholls and Pedro Viegas from the University of Bristol build a full-size replica of the beast, based on the very latest scientific discoveries about how it would have looked when it roamed around Bristol 210 million years ago.
The best real estate for coral reefs over the coming decades will no longer be around the equator but in the sub-tropics, new research from the University of Bristol suggests.
The ancient closest relatives of mammals – the cynodont therapsids – not only survived the greatest mass extinction of all time, 252 million years ago, but thrived in the aftermath, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
For the first time, scientists have recreated the journeys of millimetre-sized baby coral through the world’s seas, suggesting some of these tiny adventurers may cross entire oceans. The study, by researchers from the Universities of Bristol and Miami, will help predict how coral reef distributions may change in response to changing oceans.
A collection of important fossil specimens are coming back to their home town in Somerset for an outreach open day, thanks to a partnership between Bath Royal Literary and Scientific Institution (BRLSI) and the University of Bristol.
A new web tool, created by NERC-funded researchers at the University of Bristol, could pave the way for better management of airspace during volcanic crises.
In the aftermath of the largest mass extinction in Earth history, anomodonts –ancient relatives of mammals – did not evolve any fundamentally new features, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B. This suggests that the evolutionary bottleneck they passed through during the extinction constrained their evolution during the recovery.
World-leading research being carried out in Bristol to identify the colour of prehistoric animals is being showcased at the largest science and technology fair in Asia, attracting some 1.2 million visitors each year.
Giant plankton-eating animals first filled the prehistoric seas more than 160 million years ago but they were wiped out in the same event that killed off the dinosaurs, and then replaced by plankton-eating sharks and whales. The question is: just how big did these giant fishes get? New research from the University of Bristol suggests between 12 and16m long.
To implement carbon capture and storage (CCS) successfully, each underground repository will need careful appraisal based on its unique history and setting, according to a new study co-authored by researchers from the University of Bristol.
The Bristol Dinosaur Project, which is based in the University of Bristol’s School of Earth Sciences, has reached the finals of The National Lottery Awards 2013.
The high-tech solution to one of the great mysteries of palaeontology will be revealed by University of Bristol scientists when they showcase their latest research at the prestigious Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition.
Tracking the growth of dinosaurs and how they changed as they grew is difficult. Using a combination of biomechanical analysis and bone histology, palaeontologists from Beijing, Bristol, and Bonn have shown how one of the best-known dinosaurs switched from four feet to two as it grew.
The oldest genome so far from a prehistoric creature has been sequenced by an international team, led by scientists from the Natural History Museum of Denmark and including Bristol's Dr Jakob Vinther
Images taken from space have indicated that some of the world’s unmonitored volcanoes may not be as peaceful as we might like to think. Satellite radar has shown that the surfaces of a number of volcanoes within the East African Rift are deforming – inflating and deflating.
About 55.5 million years ago, geologically rapid emission of a large volume of greenhouse gases at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary (PETM) led to global warming of about 5oC, severe ocean acidification, and widespread extinction of microscopic organisms living on the deep-sea floor (foraminifera). A study of survivors of the extinction provides unique insight into the response of deep-sea calcifiers to past episodes which resemble the potential future consequences of fossil fuel CO2 emissions. The organisms, contrary to expectations from experiments, actually increased the thickness of their shells during ocean acidification, with organisms living buried within the sediment able to survive better than forms living on the sediment surface. The research, by scientists from the University of Bristol (UK) and Yale University (USA), is reported in this week's early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academies of Science.
Eleven research teams in eight of the University's Schools have received grants totalling £170,000 to accelerate the impact of their research. These awards were made through pilot funding schemes from the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and Natural Environment Research Council (NERC).
A new study conducted at the University of Bristol and published online today in the Journal of Evolutionary Biology sheds light on how the brain and inner ear developed in dinosaurs.
Limiting the amount of warming experienced by the world's oceans in the future could buy some time for tropical coral reefs, say researchers from the University of Bristol.
Ghostly tales, dinosaur bones and rare books are just some of the fascinating treasures from the vaults of the University of Bristol which will be shown to the public as part of the Museums at Night initiative – an annual late night festival of art, culture and heritage.
Using information gathered from field-based studies at the Kima’Kho tuya, an extinct subglacial volcano in northern British Columbia, Canada, researchers from the University of British Columbia, Dickinson College and the University of Bristol report how they have determined palaeo icesheet thickness.
The rediscovery of a mystery animal in a museum’s underground storeroom by an undergraduate at the University of Bristol proves that a non-native ‘big cat’ prowled the British countryside at the turn of the last century.
How do we know what colour dinosaur feathers were? Paleontologists are one step closer to solving this long-standing mystery thanks to recreating the fossilisation process to see what effect high pressure and temperatures have on the colour of feathers.
A 320 million-year-old fossilised skull – found in Newsham, Blyth in Northumberland in the 18th century by a local grocer – has undergone state-of-the-art CT scanning by a University of Bristol researcher at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.
Using information gathered from samples of deep sea sediments, researchers from the University of Bristol report new findings regarding the dynamics of the eruption of Mount Tambora, Indonesia in 1815 – one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last 1,000 years. Interpretation and understanding of such past eruptions are important for the assessment of hazards related to future eruptions.
A computational approach which links processes deep below a volcano to potential eruptions is described by researchers at the University of Bristol in a paper published today in the Journal of Geophysical Research. The research could ultimately help scientists to understand magma chamber processes and volcanic eruption timing.
An international research team led by a University of Bristol scientist has explained the preservation of colours in fossil insects for the first time. The discovery explains why colours change and why they are destroyed during fossilisation, revealing hidden gems in the insect fossil record that could help reconstruct the evolution of colours in insects.
An exploration of deep magmatic processes occurring in the Earth's crust beneath volcanoes, which could contribute to linking these physical processes at depth with volcanic eruptions at the surface, has been carried out by researchers from the University of Bristol and the Swiss Federal Institute in Zurich. The experimental study is published in Chemical Geology.
Wetland trees are a significant overlooked source of the potent greenhouse gas methane, according to a new study by researchers at The Open University and the Universities of Bristol and Oxford.
The Royal Society, the UK’s national academy of science, has named Professor Philip Donoghue of the School of Earth Sciences as one of 25 new Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award holders.
Details of around 2,000 major volcanic eruptions which occurred over the last 1.8 million years have been made available in a new open access database, complied by scientists at the University of Bristol with colleagues from the UK, US, Colombia and Japan.
A study of around 100 newly collected specimens of early ammonoids (marine invertebrates with distinctive coiled shells) suggests that the number of species they belong to might have been over-estimated due to the large variability in size and shape within each species.
Multicellularity in cyanobacteria originated before 2.4 billion years ago and is associated with the accumulation of atmospheric oxygen, subsequently enabling the evolution of aerobic life, as we know it today, according to a new study from the University of Zurich involving researchers now at the University of Bristol, and Gothenburg.
Future sea level rise due to the melting of the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could be substantially larger than estimated in Climate Change 2007, the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC, according to new research from the University of Bristol.
A new study of the brain anatomy of therizinosaurs, plant-eating dinosaurs that lived during the Cretaceous Period, has revealed interesting links with their notorious meat-eating 'cousins' Tyrannosaurus rex and Velociraptor.
A new way to learn about dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures, which harnesses some of the cutting edge techniques used by palaeontologists to study fossils, is being pioneered by researchers at the University of Bristol.
Thanks to NASA's Cassini spacecraft, scientists including Dr Nick Teanby, have been able to observe for the first time ever the seasonal atmospheric circulation direction change on Titan – an event which only happens once every 15 years and is never observable from Earth. Their findings are published today in Nature.
A new study looking at the structure of feathers in bird-like dinosaurs has shed light on one of nature’s most remarkable inventions – how flight might have evolved. Academics at the Universities of Bristol, Yale and Calgary have shown that prehistoric birds had a much more primitive version of the wings we see today, with rigid layers of feathers acting as simple airfoils for gliding.
Opsins, the light-sensitive proteins key to vision, may have evolved earlier and undergone fewer genetic changes than previously believed, according to a new study from the National University of Ireland Maynooth and the University of Bristol published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) .
Professor Katharine Cashman, AXA Research Chair, Volcanology Research Group in the School of Earth Sciences has been inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Visitors to the village of Tytherington where the West's very own dinosaur, the Thecodontosaurus, was discovered in the 1970s, will have the opportunity to learn more about this amazing local resident on Wednesday 31 October as part of South Gloucestershire's Discover Festival.
It takes both teeth and jaws to make a pretty smile, but the evolutionary origins of these parts of our anatomy have only just been discovered, thanks to a particle accelerator and a long dead fish. The research, led by the University of Bristol, is published today in Nature.
The University of Bristol’s Palaeobiology and Biodiversity Research Group is celebrating the fact that 250 students have now completed its MSc in Palaeobiology, with its first reunion event for former and current Bristol palaeobiologists.
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