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New Species of Durophagous Mosasaur Unearthed in Morocco

Stelladens mysteriosus. Image credit: Nick Longrich.
Jan 6, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-discovered species belongs to the mosasaurid genus Carinodens, and was a durophage, adapted for crunching hard-shelled invertebrates. An artist’s impression of a mosasaur. Image credit: Nick Longrich. Carinodens is a extinct genus of Cretaceous mosasaurs known from around the world. These marine lizards measured 2-3 m in length and were unusual in having low, rectangular, compressed teeth. “Early, basal mosasaurids had small, conical,...

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Mesosaurs are small to mid-sized aquatic to semiaquatic amniotes that lived in Gondwana during the Early Permian epoch. Image credit: Roman Yevseyev / Graciela Piñeiro.

Paleontologists Unearth What May Be Largest Known Mesosaurs

Jan 3, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Uruguay have discovered large, poorly preserved and incomplete skulls, as well as several associated bones, of ancient aquatic reptiles...

Tracks of carnivorous and herbivorous dinosaurs at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, the United Kingdom. Image credit: University of Birmingham.

166-Million-Year-Old Footprints of Carnivorous and Herbivorous Dinosaurs Discovered in UK

Jan 2, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have uncovered hundreds of different dinosaur footprints, including footprints left by the 9-m (29.5-foot) ferocious predator Megalosaurus...

NASA’s Parker Solar Probe approaching the Sun. Image credit: Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory.

Parker Solar Probe Survives Closest-Ever Approach to Sun

Dec 30, 2024 by News Staff

On December 24, 2024, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe soared just 6.1 million km (3.8 million miles) above the surface of our home star, racing through the...

The ‘blob-headed’ bristlemouth armored catfish (Chaetostoma sp.). Image credit: Conservation International / Robinson Olivera.

‘Blob-Headed’ Catfish among New Species Discovered in Peru

Dec 26, 2024 by News Staff

In 2022, biologists with Conservation International conducted a survey that uncovered a trove of biodiversity in the heart of the Alto Mayo landscape,...

Life reconstruction of Melkamter pateko. Image credit: Pedro Andrade.

New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in Argentina is Earliest of Its Kind

Dec 20, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of monofenestratan pterosaur has been identified from partial cranial and postcranial remains found in Chubut Province, Patagonia,...

This image indicates the location of the binary star D9, which is orbiting Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of our Milky Way Galaxy. Image credit: ESO / Peißker et al. / S. Guisard.

Binary Star System Detected Close to Milky Way’s Central Black Hole

Dec 17, 2024 by News Staff

Using data from ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) and Keck telescope, astronomers have discovered a binary star system in the S star cluster close to...

Life reconstruction of the gorgonopsian from Mallorca in a floodplain setting. Image credit: Henry Sutherland Sharpe.

Therapsids Originated in Tropical Rather than Temperate Regions, New Fossil Find Suggests

Dec 17, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of early gorgonopsian therapsid that was part of an ancient summer wet biome of equatorial Pangea. Life reconstruction...

Life reconstruction of Threordatoth chasmatos. Image credit: Mark Witton.

Triassic Lizard-Like Parareptile Had Unusual Dental Apparatus

Dec 16, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of procolophonid reptile from the fossilized skull and jaw fragments found in southwest England. Life reconstruction...

Deinococcus radiodurans. Image credit: USU / Michael Daly.

New Research Reveals How Deinococcus Bacteria Withstand Extreme Radiation

Dec 16, 2024 by News Staff

A radiation-resistant bacterium called Deinococcus radiodurans can withstand radiation doses thousands of times higher than what would kill a human. The...

Illustration of the Zlatý kůň/Ranis group. Image credit: Tom Björklund / Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.

Earliest Modern Human Genomes Decoded

Dec 12, 2024 by News Staff

Scientists have sequenced and analyzed the genomes of seven individuals who lived between 42,000 and 49,000 years ago in Ranis, Germany and Zlatý kůň,...

A pair of Platypterigius sp. Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0.

98-Million-Year-Old Ichthyosaur Fossil Uncovered in New Zealand

Dec 9, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in New Zealand have discovered a partial skeleton of platypterygiid ichthyosaur dating to the Cretaceous period. A pair of Platypterygius...

A portrait of a juvenile female Denisovan based on a skeletal profile reconstructed from ancient DNA methylation maps. Image credit: Maayan Harel.

New Species of Archaic Human Proposed: Homo juluensis

Dec 6, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Homo juluensis — a newly-erected human species that includes enigmatic Denisovans and several hominin fossils from Tibet, Taiwan and Laos —...

An artist’s reconstruction of Clovis life 13,000 years ago shows the Anzick-1 infant with his mother consuming mammoth meat near a hearth. Another individual crafts tools, including dart projectile points and atlatls. A mammoth butchery area is visible nearby. Image credit: Eric Carlson / Ben Potter / Jim Chatters.

Clovis People’s Diet Mainly Included Mammoths and Other Large Mammals, New Study Says

Dec 4, 2024 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have found that the Columbian mammoth (Mammuthus columbi) was the largest contributor to the diet of the Clovis people — the...

Hypothetical artistic reconstruction of Parutaetus oliveirai in the Middle-Late Eocene of Brazil. Image credit: Márcio L. Castro.

New Species of Fossil Armadillo Discovered in Brazil

Dec 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of the extinct armadillo genus Parutaetus from fossilized osteoderms collected in the state of Paraná in...

A 3D computerized model of the surface of the area near Lake Turkana in Kenya shows fossil footprints of Paranthropus boisei (vertical footprints) with separate footprints of Homo erectus forming a perpendicular path. Image credit: Kevin Hatala / Chatham University.

At Least Two Hominin Species Coexisted in Kenya 1.5 Million Years Ago

Nov 28, 2024 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have discovered 1.5-million-year-old footprints of two completely different species of hominins — Homo erectus and Paranthropus...

Carcinus maenas. Image credit: Luis Miguel Bugallo Sánchez / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Do Crustaceans Feel Pain? Study Demonstrates Existence of Nociceptive Responses in Shore Crabs

Nov 26, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Nociceptors are receptors that detect injurious stimuli and are necessary to convey such information from the periphery to the central nervous system....

Life restoration of a group of giant azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, foraging on a Cretaceous fern prairie. Image credit: Mark Witton / Darren Naish.

New Pterosaur Species Discovered in Japan

Nov 25, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of quetzalcoatline azhdarchid pterosaur, Nipponopterus mifunensis, from the Late Cretaceous...

Life reconstruction of Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi ready to prey on a large snail of the family Bulimulidae. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.

World’s Largest Worm Lizard Lived 47 Million Years Ago

Nov 22, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of trogonophid amphisbaenian (worm lizard) from fossilized specimens found in Tunisia. Life reconstruction...

An Ethiopian wolf (Canis simensis) licks nectar from the Ethiopian red hot poker flower (Kniphofia foliosa). Image credit: Adrien Lesaffre.

Ethiopian Wolves Become First Large Carnivore Documented Feeding on Nectar

Nov 20, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Nectar foraging by Ethiopian wolves (Canis simensis) may contribute to the pollination of the Ethiopian red hot poker flower (Kniphofia foliosa), according...

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