Paleontology News

Cretaceous ‘Four-Limbed Snake’ Turns Out To Be Long-Bodied Lizard

Nov 18, 2021 by News Staff

The origin of snakes remains one of the most contentious evolutionary transitions in vertebrate evolution. The discovery of snake fossils with well-formed...

A 40-million-year-old cone of Pinus cembrifolia in a piece of Eocene Baltic amber. Image credit: George Poinar Jr., Oregon State University.

Germinating Pine Cone Found Encased in Baltic Amber

Nov 17, 2021 by News Staff

Seed germination — a crucial stage in the development of all plants — normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother...

Reconstruction of Mawsonia sp. roaming in the brackish or fresh water costal environment of Texas during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Zubin Erik Dutta.

Fossils of Cretaceous-Period Coelacanth Discovered in Texas

Nov 16, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

The fossils are estimated to be around 96 million years old and belong to the first Cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth from North America. Reconstruction...

Fordham et al. revealed a 20,000-year pathway to the extinction of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Study: Humans Played Significant Role in Extinction of Woolly Mammoths

Nov 11, 2021 by News Staff

New research shows that the role of humans in the extinction dynamics of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) began well before the Holocene epoch,...

Paleontologists Unearth New Species of Iguanodontian Dinosaur

Nov 11, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of iguanodontian dinosaur has come to light in Isle of Wight rocks dating to the Lower Cretaceous epoch. Reconstruction of the...

Pleurosaurus, a remarkable, long-bodied swimming rhynchocephalian that lived during the Late Jurassic epoch, some 150 million years ago, in what is now Germany. Image credit: Roberto Ochoa.

Fast-Evolving Species More Likely to Become Extinct, Paleontologists Say

Nov 10, 2021 by News Staff

‘Slow and steady wins the race,’ according to a new study of lepidosaurs (lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians, and tuatara) published in the journal Palaeontology. Pleurosaurus,...

New Herbivorous Dinosaur Species Identified in Greenland

Nov 9, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of plateosaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur has been identified from two fossilized skulls found in Jameson Land, a peninsula in eastern...

Ordovician sea life. Image credit: Fritz Geller-Grimm / National Museum of Natural History / CC BY-SA 2.5.

New Research Explores Cause of End-Ordovician Mass Extinction

Nov 2, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Ordovician mass extinction, the first of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions occurred 445 million years ago and was characterized by the disappearance...

Life restoration of Nochelaspis maeandrine. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Early Devonian Fish Had Triangular Head Shield

Nov 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoichthyologists in China have re-described Nochelaspis maeandrine, a species of large-sized eugaleaspiform fish that lived 415 million years ago (Devonian...

A detail from the 1988 Mark Hallett mural, ‘Trapped in Time,’ depicting saber-toothed cats digging into prey. Image credit: La Brea Tar Pits.

Saber-Toothed Cats were Social Animals, New Study Suggests

Nov 1, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers has reconstructed and analyzed the external and internal bone morphology of a deformed hip bone from Smilodon fatalis, one of the...

An artist’s impression of hatchling pterosaurs. Image credit: Megan Jacobs.

Babies of Cretaceous Giant Pterosaurs Outcompeted Adults of Smaller Pterosaur Species: Study

Oct 28, 2021 by News Staff

Pterosaurs reached only modest sizes in the Triassic and Jurassic periods. By contrast, the Cretaceous period saw a trend toward large to giant size (2...

An illustration of Sciroseps pawhuskai. Image credit: Brian Engh.

Paleontologists Find Fossils of New Lizard and Fish Species in Arkansas

Oct 22, 2021 by News Staff

Two new species — the small skink Sciroseps pawhuskai and the pycnodontiform fish Anomoeodus caddoi — that lived during the Early Cretaceous...

Reconsturction of Mussaurus patagonicus herd. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

Early Jurassic Herbivorous Dinosaurs Lived in Age-Segregated Herds

Oct 22, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed an exceptional fossil assemblage from the Laguna Colorada Formation in Patagonia, Argentina, that includes 193-million-year-old...

Librado et al. pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Image credit: Devanath.

Horses Were First Domesticated in Western Eurasian Steppes More Than 4,000 Years Ago

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

In a study published this week in the journal Nature, scientists analyzed ancient horse genomes from all suspected domestication centers, including Iberia,...

Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking eubrachyuran crab in Burmese amber. Image credit: Luque et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abj5689.

99-Million-Year-Old Modern-Looking Crab Found in Burmese Amber

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

The new fossil from the Cretaceous of Myanmar preserves large compound eyes, delicate mouthparts, and even gills. Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking...

A trio of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) trudges over snow covered hills; behind them, mountains with snow covered peaks rise above dark green forests of fir trees. Image credit: Daniel Eskridge.

Rapid Climate Change Wiped Out Woolly Mammoths, Study Confirms

Oct 20, 2021 by News Staff

In a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, an international team of researchers have analyzed 535 permafrost...

Shortly after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the earliest known primates, such as Purgatorius mckeeveri shown in the foreground, quickly set themselves apart from their competition -- like the archaic ungulate mammal on the forest floor -- by specializing in an omnivorous diet including fruit found up in the trees. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Ancestors of Primates and Marsupials May Have Left Trees to Survive End-Cretaceous Extinction

Oct 15, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago was characterized by a worldwide ecological catastrophe and rapid species turnover. Arboreal (tree-dwelling)...

Life reconstruction of Terropterus xiushanensis. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Fossils of Giant Sea Scorpion Found in China

Oct 11, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of mixopterid eurypterid (sea scorpion) has been identified from several fossil specimens found in the Xiushan Formation, China. Life...

A British Pleistocene landscape during an interglacial with cave lion (Panthera spelaea), straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), narrow-nosed rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), steppe bison (Bison priscus), aurochs (Bison primigenius) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). Image credit: Roman Uchytel, via the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

Previously Unknown Mass Extinction Occurred 30 Million Years Ago in Africa and Arabia

Oct 8, 2021 by News Staff

Nearly 63% of Afro-Arabian mammalian species went extinct approximately 30 million years ago (Oligocene epoch), after Earth’s climate shifted from swampy...