A study published Tuesday in the online journal PLoS Biology suggests that Australian marsupials — kangaroos, wallabies, Tasmanian devils and more — evolved from a common South American marsupial ancestor millions of years ago. The finding, by researchers at the University of Munster in Germany, indicates that the theory that marsupials originated in Australia is incorrect.

Los Angeles Times

An octopus that uses coconut shells as portable armor is the latest addition to a growing list of animals that use tools.

LiveScience

The world’s smallest known orchid — just over 2 millimeters (0.08 inch) across and nearly see-through — has been discovered nestled in the roots of another flower in Ecuador, scientists announced this week.

National Geographic

Slater’s team now reports that the Falklands wolf’s closest living relative is actually the maned wolf — an unusually long-legged, fox-like South American canid. The researchers also found that the four Falklands wolf samples that they examined shared a common ancestor at least 70,000 years ago, which suggests that they arrived on the islands before the end of the last ice age and before humans ever made it into the New World. That rules out the prevailing theory that Native Americans had anything to do with their presence on the islands.

Scientists have known about Gigantopithecus blackii since the accidental discovery of some of its teeth on sale in a Hong Kong pharmacy about 80 years ago. While the idea of a giant ape piqued the interest of scientists – and bigfoot hunters – around the world, it was unclear how long ago this beast went extinct.

Now Jack Rink, a geochronologist at McMaster University in Ontario, has used a high-precision absolute-dating method to determine that this ape – the largest primate ever – roamed Southeast Asia for nearly a million years before the species died out 100,000 years ago during the Pleistocene period. By this time, humans had existed for a million years.

The all-black Banggai Crow (Corvus unicolor), known to science only by two specimens described in 1900, was found again by Indonesian biologists on Peleng Island, off the east coast of Sulawesi, Indonesia, in 2007. Pamela Rasmussen, a Michigan State University zoologist verified the finding.

Scientists now find that the world’s largest living lizard species, the Komodo dragon, most likely evolved in Australia and dispersed westward to its current home in Indonesia.

• Deinotherium bozasi | Hoe Tusker
• Equus quagga quagga | Quagga
• Hippotragus leucophaeus | Bluebuck
• Loxodonta africana pharaoensis | North African Elephant
• Pelorovis antiquus
• Sivatherium giganteum | Shiva Giraffe
• Ursus arctos crowtheri | Atlas Bear
• Xenocyon lycaonoides | African Wolf

Australian Pleistocene Megafauna Names

• Aquila audax | Wedge-Tailed Eagle
• Cygnus atratus | Black Swan
• Diprotodon optatum
• Genyornis newtoni
• Palorchestes azael | Marsupial Tapir
• Procoptodon goliah | Giant Short-Faced Kanagaroo
• Thylacinus cynocephalus | Tasmanian Tiger
• Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis | Tasmanian Emu
• Varanus priscus | Giant Goanna
• Wonambi naracoortensis
• Zygomaturus trilobus

Eurasian Pleistocene Megafauna Names

• Coelodonta antiquitatis | Wolly Rhinoceros
• Elasmotherium sibiricum | Giant Rhinoceros
• Megaloceros giganteus | Irish Elk
• Panthera leo spelaea | Cave Lion
• Ursus spelaeus | Cave Bear

Hawai’i Plistocene Megafauna Names

• Chelychelynechen quassus | Moa Nalo Kaua?i
• Ptaiochen pau | Moa Nalo Maui
• Thambetochen xanion | Moa Nalo O?ahu
• Thambetochen chauliodous | Moa Nalo | Maui Nui

Madagascar Pleistocene Megafauna Names

• Aepyornis maximus | Elephant Bird | Vorompatra
• Archaeoindris fontoynonti | Gorilla Lemur

New Zealand Pleistocene Megafauna Names

• Dinornis robustus | Giant Moa
• Harpagornis moorei | Haast’s Eagle

North American Pleistocene Megafauna Names

• Aiolornis incredibilis | Giant Thunder Bird
• Arctodus simus | Giant Short-Faced Bear
• Bison antiquus
• Bison latifrons | Giant Bison
• Bison occidentalis
• Bootherium bombifrons | Woodland Musk Ox
• Camelops
• Canis dirus | Dire Wolf
• Castoroides ohioensis | Giant Beaver
• Cervalces scotti (Stag Moose)
• Equus scotti | Yukon Horse
• Equus scotti | American Horse
• Euceratherium collinum (Shrub Ox)
• Homotherium serum | Scimitar Cat
• Mammut americanum |American Mastodon
• Mammuthus imperator | Imperial Mammoth
• Mammuthus primigenius | Wooly Mammoth
• Megalonyx jeffersonii | Giant Ground Sloth
• Miracinonyx trumani | American Cheetah
• Panthera leo atrox | American Lion
• Platygonus | American Peccary
• Saiga tatarica | Saiga Antelope
• Smilodon fatalis |Sabre-Toothed Tiger
• Tapirus californicus | California Tapir
• Teratornis merriami | Thunder Bird
• Titanis walleri | Terror Bird

South American American Pleistocene Megafauna Names

• Coelodonta antiquitatis | Patagonian LitoPtern
• Smilodon populator | Sabre-Toothed Tiger

Scientists in Indonesia claim they have unearthed the 200,000-year-old skeleton of a giant elephant that stood more than 13 feet (4 meters) tall.

An ancient fossil crocodile coated in armadillo-like body armor was unveiled yesterday at an environmental museum in Brazil. Dubbed Armadillosuchus arrudai, the newly described species of crocodile roamed the arid interior of Brazil about 90 million years ago, during the late Cretaceous period, scientists said.