Paleontology News

New Research Casts More Light on Mechanisms of End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Outcrop area of CAMP rocks in Pangea showing paleolatitudes at CAMP time (201 million years ago) of key localities with the terrestrial end-Triassic extinction including the Newark Basin (NB) in northeastern North America, the Fundy Basin (FB) of Atlantic Canada, and the Central High Atlas (CHA) Basin of Morocco. Image credit: Kent et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2415486121.
Oct 29, 2024 by News Staff

The end-Triassic extinction along with the end-Permian and end-Cretaceous events are the most severe mass extinctions in the past 270 million years. The exact mechanisms of the end-Triassic extinction have long been debated, but most prominent: carbon dioxide surfaced by volcanic eruptions built up over many millennia, raising temperatures to unsustainable levels for many creatures, and acidifying ocean waters. But a new paper in the Proceedings of...

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Life reconstruction of Lomankus edgecombei. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang.

450-Million-Year-Old Fossil Arthropod Found Preserved in Fool’s Gold

Oct 29, 2024 by News Staff

A new species of megacheiran arthropod from the Ordovician period, preserved in 3D by pyrite (commonly known as fool’s gold), has been discovered by...

Alderblattina simmsi. Image credit: Swaby et al., doi: 10.1002/spp2.1598.

180-Million-Year-Old Cockroach Fossil Found in UK

Oct 28, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of Jurassic cockroach, Alderblattina simmsi, based on an isolated wing found in Gloucestershire,...

The dendroid rugosa coral Dendrostella trigemme and fragments of the tabulate coral Roemerolites brevis rhiphaeus. Image credit: Jung et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-08101-9.

Mid-Devonian Coral Reef Fossils Provide Early Evidence of Photosymbiosis

Oct 28, 2024 by News Staff

The symbiotic relationship between corals and their photosynthetic algal partners (photosymbionts) goes back at least to the Devonian (385 million years...

An artist’s depiction of Heleocola piceanus in a Late Cretaceous swamp. Image credit: Brian Engh / LivingRelicProductions.com / Utah Field House of Natural History.

Fossils of Large Metatherian Mammal Found in Colorado

Oct 25, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have found a fossilized jaw fragment and three isolated teeth from a new, relatively large (by Late Cretaceous standards) metatherian species...

Baladi warru. Image credit: Michael Frese, University of Canberra.

Sawfly Fossil from Miocene Period Discovered in Australia

Oct 24, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists say they have discovered the first fossil of an Australian sawfly species, Baladi warru, found at McGraths Flat in central New South Wales. Baladi...

An artist’s impression of a Palaeoloxodon sp. Image credit: Chen Yu.

Scientists Find Evidence for Hominin Exploitation of Extinct Straight-Tusked Elephants in India

Oct 24, 2024 by News Staff

In 2000, archaeologists discovered the 300,000 to 400,000-year-old remains of three ancient elephants along with 87 stone tools at the Pampore in the Kashmir...

The animal responsible for Dromaeosauriformipes rarus tracks is believed to be a small microraptorine dinosaur related to the ancestors of birds. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Microraptorine Dinosaur Footprints Shed New Light on Origin of Flight

Oct 23, 2024 by News Staff

Theropod dinosaur trackways can be used as indirect evidence of pre-avian aerial behavior, according to new research. The animal responsible for Dromaeosauriformipes...

Life reconstruction of Iani smithi. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

New Species of Plant-Eating Dinosaur Identified in Argentina

Oct 18, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a species of medium-sized iguanodontian ornithopod dinosaur from two specimens found in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina. Life...

Close up of Quaestio simpsonorum footprint. Image credit: Evans et al., doi: 10.1111/ede.12491.

New Species of Complex Ediacaran Animal Discovered in Australia

Oct 17, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Quaestio simpsonorum is part of the Ediacara Biota, which preserves the oldest evidence for complex, macroscopic animals. Close up of Quaestio simpsonorum...

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

New Species of Ichthyosaur Identified from Colombian Fossils

Oct 11, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists say they’ve identified a new species of marine reptile in the ophthalmosaurid genus Platypterygius that lived approximately 125 million...

Life reconstruction of Ardetosaurus viator. Image credit: Ole Zant.

New Sauropod Dinosaur Discovered in Wyoming: Ardetosaurus viator

Oct 10, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of sauropod dinosaur from a semi-articulated specimen found in the 1990s in northern Wyoming, the...

Reconstruction of an avisaurid (e.g., Avisaurus darwini). Image credit: Clark et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0310686.

Avisaurid Birds from Cretaceous Period May Have Hunted Like Modern Hawks and Owls

Oct 9, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described three new enantiornithine birds from the Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation, two of which represent new avisaurid species....

Fertile branches and seeds of Alasemenia tria. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.7554/eLife.92962.3.

365-Million-Year-Old Winged Seed Fossil Found in China

Oct 9, 2024 by News Staff

Named Alasemenia tria, the new specimen from the Wutong Formation in the Chinese province of Anhui dates back to the Famennian stage of the the Late Devonian...

Epoidesuchus tavaresae is a new species of Peirosauridae from the Cretaceous Adamantina Formation, Brazil. Image credit: Ruiz et al., doi: 10.1002/ar.25559.

New Species of Gondwanan Notosuchian Identified in Brazil

Oct 7, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of long-snouted notosuchian from the fragmentary remains found in Brazil’s Adamantina Formation. Epoidesuchus...

Pterosaurs were adapted to a remarkably broad range of non-aerial locomotor ecologies; small, early, long-tailed pterosaurs (non-pterodactyliforms) exhibit extreme modifications in their hand and foot proportions indicative of climbing lifestyles; by contrast, the hands and feet of later, short-tailed pterosaurs (pterodactyliforms) typically exhibit morphologies consistent with more ground-based locomotor ecologies: (A) paleoart reconstruction of the non-pterodactyliform Scaphognathus crassirostris (Upper Jurassic) in scansorial mode, with autopodia characterized by short proximal elements and elongated distal elements; (B) paleoart reconstruction of the pterodactyliform Balaenognathus maeuseri (Upper Jurassic) in terrestrial mode, with autopodia characterized by elongated proximal elements and shortened distal elements; (C) reconstructions of Scaphognathus (left) and Balaenognathus (right) in dorsal view indicating the principal flight surfaces; (D) simplified pterosaur phylogeny indicating the principal taxonomic groups used in the study. Image credit: Smyth et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.09.014.

Pterosaurs were Adapted to Broad Range of Terrestrial Lifestyles, Study Shows

Oct 7, 2024 by News Staff

New research by paleontologists from the University of Leicester, the University of Birmingham and Liverpool John Moores University demonstrates an unexpectedly...

Gondwanax paraisensis. Image credit: Rodrigo Temp Müller, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2024.09.007.

New Species of Dinosaur Relative Discovered in Brazil

Oct 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of silesaurid being named Gondwanax paraisensis has been identified from the fossilized remains discovered in Southern Brazil. Gondwanax...

Campananeyen fragilissimus. Image credit: Fundación Azara.

Paleontologists Unveil New Species of Sauropod Dinosaur

Sep 30, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Fossilized remains found in Patagonia, Argentina back in 2009 represent a new genus and species of plant-eating dinosaur that belonged to a group called...

Labocania anomala. Image credit: Karkemish / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Tyrannosaur Species Unearthed in Mexico: Labocania aguillonae

Sep 26, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species in the tyrannosaurid dinosaur genus Labocania, based on a partial skeleton found in Coahuila,...

An artist’s impression of Brasilodon quadrangularis (left) and Riograndia guaibensis. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

New Cynodont Fossil Discoveries are Rewriting Our Understanding of Mammal Evolution

Sep 25, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Brazil have examined the well-preserved fossilized remains of two mammal-precursor species: Brasilodon quadrangularis and Riograndia...

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