The leaf of a much older fossil species Banksieaephyllum acuminatum from Oligocene deposits in the Latrobe Valley closely resembles B. canei in shape, anatomy and vein pattern.
But paleontologists have still had to contend with a slightly embarrassing gap in the fossil record: The oldest known bird fossil, Archaeopteryx, is much older than fossils of its closest dinosaurian relatives.
Although much older mammalian fossils include remnants of hair, Luo notes, those structures are mere impressions and don't preserve the detail seen in the newly described fossil.
It was found in the Kebara Cave in Israel and is very similar to our own, Much older hyoid fossils have also recently been discovered, attributed to the human and Neanderthal relative Homo heidelbergensis.
r8s estimated divergence dates much older that the fossil record (about 40 My) and the BEAST estimates (about 30 My).
Our results for the timing of divergences are largely congruent with previous mitogenomic studies [27], [28], but they are much older than estimates from fossil records [29], [30], [31] and timescales based on the nuclear RAG1 gene [32], [33].
Our estimates for them are both much older than the existing fossil record [ 65, 66].
Moreover, molecular dating estimates are much older than the first neobatrachian fossils (dated in the Early Cretaceous; [ 105]), indicating either that currently available fossils might be a poor indicator of this particular branching event [ 105] or that the molecular dating could be overestimated [ 106].
It was once claimed that they survived until 10,000 years ago, based on finds in Florida, but it turned out that these fossils were much older than first thought.
