Paleontology News

Reconstruction of the forest floor of the 74.6 million-year-old Dori’s Tuff flora, featuring hypothetical angiosperm-disperser interactions. The plants depicted, including the foliage, fruits, seeds and flowers, were illustrated in life position based on the fossil plants found at the site and their inferred growth habits. The mammalian and dinosaur seed dispersers depicted were based on the known fauna from the broader region during the Late Campanian age of the Cretaceous period. Image credit: Brian Engh, livingrelicproductions.com.

Flowering Plants Were Already Thriving before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Hit

Jun 29, 2026 by News Staff

Fossils from the Jose Creek Formation in New Mexico reveal that angiosperms (flowering plants) had built dense, fruit-bearing forests nearly 75 million...

Life reconstruction of Silescelida acristata. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes Gadelha.

Distant Cousin of Crocodiles Stalked Brazil 240 Million Years Ago

Jun 26, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in Brazil have identified a previously unknown species of archosauriform that lived about 240 million years ago and may belong...

Changzhousaurus sinensis. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

New Feathered Dinosaur from China Had Peacock-Like Tail

Jun 23, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of four-winged pennaraptoran dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of northern China is adding another twist to the story of how birds...

Grice et al. integrate organic geochemical analyses with high-resolution micro-mineral imaging of a three-dimensionally preserved Cretaceous pterosaur wing phalanx from Brazil to reveal steroid biomarkers and multi-stage mineralization pathways underlying its preservation. Image credit: Grice et al., doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2026.116199.

113-Million-Year-Old Pterosaur Fossil Reveals What Flying Reptiles Ate

Jun 19, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A 113-million-year-old pterosaur fossil from northeastern Brazil has yielded rare evidence of soft tissues, organic molecules and chemical traces of a...

New fossil evidence suggests that embolomeres did not undergo a metamorphosis the way that modern amphibians do when growing up, which challenges a long-standing scientific belief that amphibians, reptiles, and mammals evolved from animals that had a tadpole stage. Image credit: Berit Godring.

Earth’s First Land Animals May Never Have Been Amphibian-Like After All

Jun 19, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the Field Museum of Natural History have described the fossilized remains of baby embolomeres, crocodile-like predators that prowled...

The holotype specimen of Montsecosuchus depereti. Image credit: Castillo-Visa et al., doi: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlag076.

125-Million-Year-Old Crocodile Relative Reveals Its True Colors

Jun 18, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Exceptionally preserved skin of Montsecosuchus depereti, an extinct crocodylomorph no larger than a house cat that prowled the tropical wetlands of Early...

Kryptohadros kallaiae. Image credit: Tibor Pecsics.

New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unearthed in Romania

Jun 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists from Romania, Hungary and Italy has identified a new genus and species of herbivorous, duck-billed dinosaur from...

An artist’s impression of a group of Gigantopithecus blacki within a forest in southern China. Image credit: Garcia / Joannes-Boyau, Southern Cross University.

Fossils from Chinese Cave Fill Crucial Gap in History of Gigantopithecus blacki

Jun 15, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Deep inside a limestone cave in southern China, paleontologists have uncovered an assemblage of thirteen fossilized teeth belonging to Gigantopithecus...

Reconstruction of Phantasmodon travouilloni in the Early Miocene rainforests of northwestern Queensland. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

New Marsupial Lineage Emerges from Australian Fossils

Jun 15, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and three new species of small, insect-eating marsupials from the Early Miocene deposits of the Riversleigh...

Paludocyon moyasolai. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.

New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain

Jun 11, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of amphicyonid — the extinct family of carnivorous mammals popularly known as bear-dogs...

Cave lions painted in the Chauvet Cave, France.

Study: Cave Lions were Distinct Species that Occasionally Bred with Ancestors of Today’s Lions

Jun 10, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

The extinct Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea) and today’s African and Asian lions (Panthera leo) belong to separate evolutionary lineages that diverged...

Artist’s reconstruction of the Fractofusus community: the bottom right features a large Fractofusus around which there are 5 to 8 medium specimens clustered; each of the medium specimens also has small specimens clustered around them; the small specimens therefore form an independent double cluster pattern, namely clusters of clusters. Image credit: C.G. Kenchington.

Earth’s Earliest Animals May Have Thrived Too Easily to Evolve

Jun 10, 2026 by News Staff

Fossils from some of the oldest-known animals on Earth, dating from 574 million years ago (Ediacaran period), suggest that cloning, not competition, dominated...

An artist’s impression of Patagoniaemys aeschyli. Image credit: Nawel Vazquez / Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ / CONICET.

Fossil Discovery in Patagonia Reveals New Species of Horned Turtle

Jun 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of meiolaniform turtle from northern Patagonia, Argentina, that lived during the Maastrichtian age, just...

Marine fishes from the Early Paleocene site of Qreiya 3 in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Image credit: Ian Baylatry.

Fish Fossils from Early Paleocene Fill 10-Million-Year Gap after Dinosaur Extinction

Jun 5, 2026 by News Staff

Around 66 million years ago, the end-Cretaceous extinction event reshaped Earth’s biodiversity, yet its impact on marine fishes remains debated due to...

Paleoartistic reconstruction of the environment in the surrounding of Camp dels Ninots maar lake during the Early Pliocene. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Half-Ton Cattle Relatives Roamed Europe 4 Million Years Ago

Jun 5, 2026 by News Staff

Near-complete bovine skeletons unearthed the Early Pliocene site of Camp dels Ninots in northeastern Spain reveal that the ancestors of today’s buffalo...

Jian changmaensis (left) attacks the early bird Gansus yumenensis (right) in what is now the Changma Basin of northwestern China approximately 120 million years ago. Image credit: Lewis LaRosa / Jão Canola.

New Microraptorine Dinosaur Discovered in China

Jun 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Jian changmaensis is the first non-avian dinosaur found at a paleontological site that has yielded more than 100 specimens of Early Cretaceous birds. Jian...

Praearcturus gigas. Image credit: Franz Anthony.

Giant Scorpions Ruled Ancient Britain during Devonian Period

Jun 4, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists have confirmed that Praearcturus gigas, a creature that prowled shallow waters during the Devonian period, 415 million years ago, is the...

Reconstruction of the Early Cambrian seafloor, depicting colonies of Protomelission gatehousei and Dayingomelission hexaclitia living among archaeocyath reefs in shallow seas approximately 520 million years ago. Image credit: Zhifei Zhang.

Complex Colonial Life Was Already Thriving during Cambrian Explosion

Jun 3, 2026 by News Staff

Tiny colonial animals called bryozoans were long thought to have appeared tens of millions of years after the Cambrian explosion. Extraordinary fossils...

Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution.

Ancient Oceans Began Losing Oxygen Millions of Years before End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Jun 2, 2026 by News Staff

Chemical traces preserved in ancient rocks indicate that marine environments were deteriorating long before the catastrophe that wiped out vast numbers...