Paleontology News

Sweet Potatoes May Have Originated in Asia

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Image credit: Llez / CC BY-SA 3.0.
May 24, 2018 by News Staff

57-milion-year-old leaf fossils from eastern India suggest that the worldwide-distributed morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), which includes sweet potatoes and many other plants, originated in the late Paleocene epoch in the East Gondwana land mass that became part of Asia. The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Image credit: Llez / CC BY-SA 3.0. “I think this will change people’s ideas. It will be a data point that is picked up and used in other...

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An artist’s impression of Magyarosuchus fitosi. Image credit: Marton Szabo.

Magyarosuchus fitosi: 180 Million-Year-Old Fossil is ‘Missing Link’ in Crocodile Evolution

May 14, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered a fossil of a 180-million-year-old crocodyliform that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some ancient...

A life-like reconstruction of Llanocetus denticrenatus. Image credit: Carl Buell.

Earliest ‘Baleen Whales’ Had Large Teeth and Gums

May 11, 2018 by News Staff

The discovery of Llanocetus denticrenatus — an ancient whale species that swam in Antarctic waters 34 million years ago, during a period called the...

White Sands footprints tell the story of a group of humans tracking and hunting a giant ground sloth. Image credit: Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University.

Ice Age Humans Hunted Giant Ground Sloths, Fossilized Footprints Show

Apr 26, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has found evidence of an interaction between Ice Age humans and now-extinct giant ground sloths. White Sands footprints...

A paleoartist’s reconstruction of Mandasuchus tanyauchen. Image credit: Mark Witton / Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Triassic Reptile from Tanzania Finally Gets Scientific Name: Mandasuchus tanyauchen

Apr 20, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the Natural History Museum, London, the University of Birmingham and Virginia Tech has formally given an...

A life-scene from 232 million years ago, during the Carnian Pluvial Episode after which dinosaurs took over: a large rauisuchian lurks in the background, while two species of dinosaurs stand in the foreground, and some rhynchosaurs sit on the logs to the left; based on data from the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Mid-Carnian Mass Extinction Paved Way for Dinosaur Expansion

Apr 17, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists believe that all non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out when a giant asteroid or comet collided with Earth some 65 million years ago, resulting...

Tratayenia rosalesi crosses a stream in what is now Patagonia, Argentina roughly 85 million years ago. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

New Carnivorous Dinosaur Unveiled: Tratayenia rosalesi

Apr 16, 2018 by News Staff

A partial skeleton of a megaraptorid dinosaur unearthed over a decade ago in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, has been recognized as belonging to a new...

Ecological restoration of moths in the Cretaceous Burmese amber forest. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Fossil Study Sheds Light on Mesozoic Butterfly and Moth Wing Colors

Apr 13, 2018 by News Staff

New research by a team of scientists from the University of Exeter and elsewhere offers an illuminating insight into iridescent colors found on the earliest...

Giant ichthyosaurs Shonisaurus. Image credit: Nobumichi Tamura.

Giant Triassic Ichthyosaur is One of Biggest Animals Ever

Apr 11, 2018 by News Staff

According to a study released this week in the journal PLoS ONE, an isolated bone from the lower jaw of a prehistoric marine reptile found in Somerset,...

Jurassic Dinosaur Footprints Found on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the University of Edinburgh, Staffin Museum and Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a new dinosaur...

Eocene Monitor Lizard Had Four Eyes: Study

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

According to a new study, Saniwa ensidens — an extinct monitor lizard that lived in what is now Wyoming 51-49 million years ago (Eocene epoch) —...

An artist’s rendering of Colobops noviportensis. Image credit: Michael Hanson.

Paleontologists Discover New Reptile from Triassic Period

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from Yale University, Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University has discovered a new species of reptile that lived...

An artist’s impression of what Archaeopteryx lithographica, one of the earliest known birds, would have looked like in flight. Image credit: Carl Buell / Nicholas Longrich.

Archaeopteryx Was Active Flyer, Paleontologists Say

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeopteryx is an iconic fossil species with feathered wings from the Late Jurassic of Germany. The question of whether this dino-bird was an elaborately...

This is an illustration of Captorhinus, a captorhinid reptile that lived during the Permian period, showing breakable tail vertebrae. Image credit: Robert Reisz.

Permian Reptiles Could Detach Their Tails to Escape from Predators

Mar 7, 2018 by News Staff

A new study shows how a group of ancient reptiles called captorhinids could detach their tails to avoid predation. This is an illustration of Captorhinus,...

Paleontologists Find ‘Bubbles of Oxygen’ in 1.6-Billion-Year-Old Stromatolites

Mar 6, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international research team led by Swedish Museum of Natural History scientists has found that stromatolites (solid, laminar structures of biological...

Artist impression of a juvenile enantiornithe bird. Image credit: Raúl Martín.

Early Cretaceous Bird Fossil Sheds New Light on Avian Evolution

Mar 5, 2018 by News Staff

The tiny fossil of a juvenile enantiornithe bird from the Early Cretaceous La Huérguina Formation of Spain is helping paleontologists understand how early...

Trachemys haugrudi represents a new species of fossil turtle that lived in what is now eastern Tennessee more than 5.5 million years ago. Image credit: Mary P. Williams.

Paleontologist Discovers New Fossil Turtle Species in Tennessee

Feb 27, 2018 by News Staff

University of Pennsylvania paleontologist Steven Jasinski has announced the discovery of a previously unknown species of fossil turtle in the Gray Fossil...

A well-preserved scale extracted from a lake sediment core. Image credit: Montoro Girona et al, doi: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00002.

Fossil Moth Scales Can Uncover Prehistoric Secrets, Scientists Say

Feb 23, 2018 by News Staff

A groundbreaking new technique for studying lake sediments can tell scientists more about the frequency and intensity of past and future insect epidemics,...

A reconstruction of Early Cretaceous Maryland featuring Acrocanthosaurus. Image credit: Chase D. Brownstein.

New Research Sheds Light on Dinosaurs of ‘Lost Landmass’ of Appalachia

Feb 21, 2018 by News Staff

Around 90 million years ago, eastern and western North America were isolated from each other by a salty sea, creating two landmasses: Appalachia and Laramidia....

Footprints of Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), dated to 43,000 years ago, are seen in a portion of a trackway that was uncovered by Retallack et al in 2017 in an ancient dry lake bed in Lake County, Oregon. Image credit: Greg Shine, Bureau of Land Management.

Fossil Trackway Reveals Clues about Family Dynamics of Columbian Mammoths

Feb 14, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) may have moved like modern elephants with infants in matriarchal groups. That’s according to a team of U.S. paleontologists...

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