Paleontology News

Animal-Like Embryos Evolved Long Before Complex Animals, Scientists Say

Yin et al use X-ray microtomography to show that the 609-million-year-old Caveasphaera develops within an envelope by cell division, ingression, detachment, and polar aggregation in a manner analogous to gastrulation; together with evidence of functional cell adhesion and development within an envelope, this is suggestive of a holozoan affinity. The image shows a life cycle of Caveasphaera and a simplified phylogenetic tree of Holozoa. Image credit: Yin et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.057.
Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

Complex animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, before diversifying into 30-40 distinct anatomical designs. When and how this major evolutionary transition occurred is the focus of intense debate. Now, an international team of researchers from the United Kingdom, China and Switzerland has found evidence that a key step in this transition occurred long before complex animals appear in the fossil record, in the fossilized embryos that resemble...

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Electrosminthuridia helibionta springtails on termite and ant hosts within 16-million-year-old Dominican amber. Scale bar - 0.5 cm. Image credit: N. Robin & P. Barden.

16-Million-Year-Old Dominican Amber Reveals Springtails’ Longstanding Dispersal by Social Insects

Nov 26, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has announced the discovery of an ancient interaction preserved in a 16-million-year-old (Miocene period) piece...

Najash rionegrina. Image credit: Raúl O. Gómez, Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Cretaceous Legged Snake Fossils Shed New Light on Evolution of Modern Snake Body Plan

Nov 21, 2019 by News Staff

An analysis of the first three-dimensionally preserved skulls and skeletons of the extinct legged snake Najash rionegrina shows that nearly 100 million...

A reconstruction of the Kawhia giant penguin. Image credit: Simone Giovanardi.

Paleontologists Unearth Another Giant Penguin in New Zealand

Nov 18, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in New Zealand have uncovered a nearly complete skeleton of a giant-sized penguin that swam the oceans about 27 million years ago (Oligocene...

Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive bird that lived in what is now Japan about 120 million years ago. Image credit: Masanori Yoshida.

New Dinosaur-Era Bird Discovered in Japan: Fukuipteryx prima

Nov 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of non-ornithothoracine bird has been identified from bones collected in Japan. Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive...

Gigantopithecus is Related to Modern-Day Orangutans, New Study Shows

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research...

An artist’s impression of Ferrisaurus sustutensis. Image credit: Raven Amos / Royal BC Museum.

New Species of Herbivorous Dinosaur Identified in Canada

Nov 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Canada have found the fossil fragments from a new species of leptoceratopsid dinosaur that walked the Earth during the Cretaceous period. An...

A fossil feather from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Australia. Image credit: Kundrát et al, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.10.004.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Feathers of Cretaceous Polar Dinosaurs and Birds

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized feathers of dinosaurs and birds that lived 118 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in polar environment...

Photographs of the study site at the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico: (a) ‘ghost tracks’ - the surface expression of the tracks is poor as can be seen from the image and they can only be seen under specific moisture and salt conditions; scale bar - 500 mm from target to target; (b) tracks at the study site excavated to reveal both human and mammoth tracks; (c) ground-penetrating radar (GPR) equipment used in this study; (d) gridded foam mats used to protect the surface during the GPR survey; (e) excavated human tracks at the study site. Image credit: Urban et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52996-8.

Ground-Penetrating Radar Reveals Ice-Age Human and Animal Footprints in New Mexico

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

‘Ghost’ fossilized footprints of human, mammoths, giant sloths and other Pleistocene creatures discovered at the White Sands National Monument in New...

Ecological reconstruction of tumbling flower beetles Angimordella burmitina. These beetles are feeding on eudicot flowers. The color and morphology of flowers are artistic only. Image credit: Ding-hau Yang / Bao et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1916186116.

99-Million-Year-Old Flower Beetle with Pollen Grains on Its Legs Found Encased in Amber

Nov 12, 2019 by News Staff

Since Charles Darwin, insect pollination was thought to be a key contributor to the Cretaceous rise of flowering plants (angiosperms). Both insects and...

Life reconstruction of the Arisdorf pliosaur with a diver for scale. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe.

Paleontologists Find 170-Million-Year-Old Giant Pliosaur Fossil

Nov 11, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Switzerland have unearthed an exceptionally rare fossil jaw of an ancient creature known as a pliosaur. Life reconstruction of the Arisdorf...

Danuvius guggenmosi, a great ape that lived some 12 million years ago (Miocene period) in what is now Germany. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Miocene-Period Great Ape Unearthed in Germany: Danuvius guggenmosi

Nov 7, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unknown species of great ape that was well adapted to both walking upright as well as using all four limbs while climbing has been identified...

Rasmussen & Muhling show that the infiltration of liquid hydrocarbons was responsible for the formation of these filamentous microfossils from the Red Dog Zn-Pb-Ag massive sulfide deposit in the western Brooks Range, northern Alaska, the United States. Image credit: Rasmussen & Muhling, doi: 10.1130/G46346.1.

New Type of Fossilization Discovered

Nov 5, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unrecognized mode of fossilization of ancient microbes may explain how some of Earth’s oldest microfossils formed, according to new research. Rasmussen...

An artist’s imagining of an ancient rhinoceros splashing through a stream next to turtles and fish in the Yukon. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Rhinoceroses Lived in Yukon Territory 8-9 Million Years Ago

Nov 1, 2019 by News Staff

The fossil tooth fragments from extinct rhinoceroses that lived 8-9 million years ago have been found in Canada’s Yukon Territory. An artist’s imagining...

An artistic rendering of Aniakchak National Monument in the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Karen Carr / Fiorillo et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223471.

New Dinosaur Footprints Found in Alaska

Oct 31, 2019 by News Staff

Footprints of duck-billed dinosaurs, armored dinosaurs and a tyrannosaur discovered in Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska, shed new light...

Normal and mutated fern spores from the end-Triassic mass extinction. Scale bar - 20 μm. Image credit: Sofie Lindström, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

Gaseous Mercury Emissions from Volcanoes Contributed to End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Oct 30, 2019 by News Staff

The end-Triassic mass extinction occurred 201.51 million years ago and resulted in the demise of some 76% of all marine and land species. Up until now,...

A linear cluster of Ampyx priscus trilobites from the Fezouata Shale of Morocco. Image credit: Jean Vannier, Laboratoire de Geologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement / CNRS / ENS de Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Remains of Trilobite Queues

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, University of Lyon’s Dr. Jean Vannier and colleagues described several fossilized clusters of...

An artist’s reconstruction of the Devonian-period Sosnogorsk lagoon just before a storm. Image credit: Mikhail Shekhanov / Ukhta Local Museum.

Devonian Tetrapod Had Crocodile-Like Lifestyle

Oct 24, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossils of a new type of early tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) in the Komi Republic. Dubbed Parmastega aelidae, the...

This painting depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds. Image credit: Donald E. Davis / NASA.

Study: Asteroid Impact, Not Volcanism, was Key in Driving End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

Oct 23, 2019 by News Staff

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago eradicated roughly 75% of the animal and plant species on Earth, including whole groups like non-avian...

Saurornitholestes langstoni. Image credit: Jan Sovak.

Nearly Complete Specimen of Saurornitholestes langstoni Unearthed in Canada

Oct 18, 2019 by News Staff

A fossil site in Canada has yielded the best-preserved specimen of the dromaeosaurid dinosaur Saurornitholestes langstoni ever found. Saurornitholestes...

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