Paleontology News

Spiral arranged leaves can be identified at the shoot tip of Asteroxylon mackiei. Image credit: Turner et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adg4014.

407-Million-Year-Old Fossil Overturns Thinking on Evolution of Leafy Plants

Jun 20, 2023 by News Staff

Aerial parts of plants arrange their organs around stems, and this arrangement defines their structure. In most existing plant species, organs emerge at...

An artist’s impression of Nihohae matakoi. Image credit: Daniel Verhelst.

Oligocene-Period Dolphin Had Procumbent Tusk-Like Teeth

Jun 19, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Nihohae matakoi’s tusk-like teeth suggest adaptive advantages for horizontally procumbent teeth in ancient dolphins. An artist’s impression of Nihohae...

An artistic rendition of the decapitation scene of Tanystropheus hydroides. Image credit: Roc Olivé, Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont / FECYT.

Triassic Reptiles with Extraordinarily Long Neck were Decapitated by Predators, Paleontologists Say

Jun 19, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have studied the unusual necks of two species of Tanystropheus, a type of aquatic reptile that lived during the Triassic period some 242...

Vectipelta barretti. Image credit: Stuart Pond.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Ankylosaur

Jun 16, 2023 by News Staff

A new genus and species of armored ankylosaurian dinosaur has been identified from fossils found on the Isle of Wight, the United Kingdom. Vectipelta barretti....

A group of Australopithecus afarensis. Image credit: Matheus Vieeira.

Paleoanthropologist Reconstructs Missing Soft Tissues of 3.2 Million-Year-Old ‘Lucy’

Jun 14, 2023 by News Staff

Soft tissues rarely preserve in the fossil record, rather scientists are mostly left with just the skeletal material. Yet, muscles animate the body. They...

Life reconstruction of Tiliqua frangens. Image credit: Katrina Kenny.

Giant Armored Skinks Once Roamed Australia

Jun 14, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

There are more species of lizards and snakes alive today than any other order of land vertebrates, yet their fossil record has been poorly documented compared...

An artist’s impression of Nombe nombe (right) and other prehistoric animals from Nombe Rockshelter, Papua New Guinea. Image credit: Peter Shouten.

Ancient Kangaroos Didn’t Hop, Paleontologists Say

Jun 13, 2023 by News Staff

In a new study, paleontologists from the United Kingdom and Sweden reviewed the fossil evidence of locomotion of kangaroos and their relatives (wallabies,...

An eastern snake-necked turtle (Chelodina longicollis) peering from its shell on the road to Carnarvon Gorge, Queensland, Australia. Image credit: Damien Naidoo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

First Side-Necked Turtle Ever Discovered in United Kingdom

Jun 13, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The Dortokidae are a group of poorly known ancient pan-pleurodiran turtles, endemic to Europe with a range from the Early Cretaceous to the Paleogene....

Reconstruction of the small-bodied theropod dinosaur Fukuivenator paradoxus, a sister taxon of Migmanychion laiyang. Image credit: Piotr Menshikov / Sci.News.

New Species of Theropod Dinosaur Identified in China

Jun 12, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of maniraptoran dinosaur has been described from the fossilized skeletal material found in Inner Mongolia, China. Reconstruction...

Life reconstruction of the extinct bear-dog Amphicyon ingens, a very distant relative of Eoarctos vorax. Image credit: Roman Uchytel.

Oligocene-Period Raccoon-Like Mammal Had Mollusk-Based Diet

Jun 8, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in the United States have identified a new genus and species of early arctoid from an exquisitely preserved skeleton found in North Dakota’s...

Eukaryotic life appears to have flourished surprisingly late in the history of Earth. This view is based on the low diversity of diagnostic eukaryotic fossils in marine sediments of mid-Proterozoic age (around 1.6 billion to 800 million years ago) and an absence of steranes, the molecular fossils of eukaryotic membrane sterols. This scarcity of eukaryotic remains is difficult to reconcile with molecular clocks that suggest that LECA had already emerged between around 1.2 and more than 1.8 billion years ago. LECA, in turn, must have been preceded by stem-group eukaryotic forms by several hundred million years. Brocks et al. report the discovery of abundant protosteroids in sedimentary rocks of mid-Proterozoic age. Image credit: Arek Socha.

Molecular Remains of Ancient Complex Life Found in 1.6-Billion-Year-Old Rocks

Jun 8, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have detected abundant protosteroids — traces of ancient life forms — in 1.6-billion-year-old sedimentary rocks that had formed...

Life reconstruction of Iani smithi. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

New Iguanodontian Dinosaur Unearthed in Utah

Jun 7, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new species of iguanodontian dinosaur from a partial skeleton found in the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, the United...

Life reconstruction of Bohra illuminata, a species of giant tree-kangaroo that lived in Nullarbor region, Australia, 250,000 years ago. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Giant Tree-Kangaroos Were Once Widespread across Australia

Jun 7, 2023 by News Staff

Tree-kangaroos (genus Dendrolagus) today are found only in tropical forests of Queensland and New Guinea, but between 3.5 million and 250,000 years ago,...

The only known dinosaur adapted to life in water, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus swam the rivers of North Africa about 95 million years ago. Image credit: © Davide Bonadonna / National Geographic magazine.

Fossil Reveals Hidden Spinosaurid Dinosaur Diversity in Cretaceous Britain

Jun 7, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new analysis of an isolated spinosaur tooth from East Sussex shows that several distinct spinosaur lineages inhabited Britain during the Cretaceous period. Spinosaurus...

Macroevolution of pollination modes across angiosperms, showing the proportional marginal likelihood of pollination mode at the ancestral nodes for each angiosperm order. Image credit: Stephens et al., doi: 10.1111/nph.18993.

Study: Earth’s Earliest Flowering Plants Were Insect Pollinated

Jun 6, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Most living angiosperms (flowering plants) are pollinated by insects, and the new reconstruction of the ancestral pollination mode of angiosperms suggests...

Life reconstruction of Rhynchotherium gomphotheres. Image credit: Margret Flinsch / Sci.News.

Unique Gomphothere Assemblage Found in Florida

Jun 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed several complete skeletons of gomphotheres — an extinct relative of elephants — at the Montbrook Fossil Dig...

Life reconstruction of Woznikella triradiata, a medium-sized dicynodont from the Triassic of Poland. Image credit: Sci.News / DrawingDinosaurs / Henryk Niestrój.

New Triassic Dicynodont Species Discovered in Poland

May 31, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of kannemeyeriiform dicynodont from the Triassic-period fossilized remains found in Poland. Life...

Life reconstruction of an Australian pterosaur. Image credit: Peter Trusler.

107-Million-Year-Old Fossils are Oldest Pterosaur Material Ever Found in Australia

May 30, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed a partial pelvis bone and a small wing bone from two different pterosaur individuals found in the Australian province of...

Diprotodon optatum, a distant relative of Ambulator keanei. Image credit: Nellie Pease / ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Pliocene-Period Marsupial Was Long-Distance Walker

May 30, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have redescribed Zygomaturus keanei, a species of marsupial that lived in Australia some 3.5 million years ago (Pliocene period), using...