Paleontology News

Humans Played Key Role in Megafauna Extinctions, New Research Confirms

Svenning et al. show that there is little support for any major influence of climate, neither in global extinction patterns nor in fine-scale spatiotemporal and mechanistic evidence; conversely, there is strong and increasing support for human pressures as the key driver of these extinctions, with emerging evidence for an initial onset linked to pre-Homo sapiens hominins prior to the Late Pleistocene. Image credit: Svenning et al., doi: 10.1017/ext.2024.4.
Jul 2, 2024 by News Staff

Across the last 50,000 years land vertebrate faunas have experienced severe losses of large species (megafauna), with most extinctions occurring in the Late Pleistocene and Early to Middle Holocene. Importantly, this extinction event is unique relative to other Cenozoic (the last 66 million years) extinctions in its strong size bias. For example, only 11 out of 57 species of megaherbivores (body mass over 1,000 kg) survived to the present. Debate...

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Lithouva susmanii from the Paleocene of Colombia. Scale bar- 1 mm. Image credit: Herrera et al., doi: 10.1038/s41477-024-01717-9.

60-Million-Year-Old Grape Seeds Found in Colombia

Jul 2, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleobotanists have described nine new species of the grape family Vitaceae on the basis of 60- to 19-million-year-old fossil seeds discovered in four...

An artist’s impression of a ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: NASA.

Snowball Earth’s Environmental Conditions Gave Multicellular Organisms Evolutionary Advantage

Jul 1, 2024 by News Staff

Fossil and molecular evidence suggests that complex multicellular organisms originated and proliferated during the Neoproterozoic Era (1,000-541 million...

A trio of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) trudges over snow covered hills; behind them, mountains with snow covered peaks rise above dark green forests of fir trees. Image credit: Daniel Eskridge.

Wrangel Island’s Woolly Mammoth Population was Demographically Stable Up Until Its Extinction

Jun 28, 2024 by News Staff

Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) became isolated on Wrangel Island off the coast of Siberia around 10,000 years ago and persisted for over 200 generations...

Ammonites basking under the Late Cretaceous Sun. Image credit: Callum Pursall.

Ammonites Were Not in Decline Prior to End-Cretaceous Extinction, New Study Suggests

Jun 28, 2024 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United Kingdom and the United States has analyzed the fossil record of ammonites — marine mollusks often distinguished...

Artistic reconstruction of two species of trilobite an instant before burial in a flow of volcanic ash 510 million years ago. Image credit: Abderrazak El Albani, University of Poitiers.

Exceptionally Preserved Fossils Reveal 3D Anatomy of Cambrian Trilobites

Jun 27, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed a well-preserved fossil assemblage of Cambrian trilobites in the High Atlas of Morocco. The 510-million-year-old specimens...

The Protoceratops-griffin geomyth. The idea that fossils of Mongolian horned dinosaurs inspired or influenced the mythology of the griffin, ancient chimaeras of birds and lions according to conventional archaeologists, is one of the most popular and promoted examples of fossil folklore in modern times. This idea, first proposed in the early 1990s, has received little in the way of academic scrutiny, however. Image credit: Witton et al., doi: 10.1177/03080188241255543.

Paleontologists Debunk Popular Claim that Protoceratops Fossils Inspired Legend of Griffin

Jun 21, 2024 by News Staff

Among the most widely promoted examples of fossil folklore is a supposed link between the Central Asian horned dinosaur Protoceratops and the griffin,...

Parvosuchus aurelioi. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes.

Triassic Crocodile-Like Reptile Discovered in Brazil

Jun 20, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of gracilisuchid reptile from the Triassic period has been identified from fossils found in the Santa Maria Formation in Brazil. Artistic...

Reconstruction of Lokiceratops rangiformis surprised by a crocodilian in the 78-million-year-old swamps of northern Montana. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin / Museum of Evolution in Maribo, Denmark.

New Species of Horned Dinosaur Had Unusual, Curving Blade-Like Horns on Back of Its Frill

Jun 20, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of centrosaurine dinosaur from the fossilized remains found in the Judith River Formation in the...

An artist’s impression of Gordonia traquairi. Image credit: Scott Reid.

Paleontologists Reconstruct Enigmatic ‘Elgin Marvel’ Fossil

Jun 18, 2024 by News Staff

The ‘Elgin Marvel’ fossil is a block of reddish sandstone containing a natural mould of a skull and jaw of Permian dicynodont found in the Hopeman...

Life reconstruction of Diuqin lechiguanae. Image credit: Porfiri et al., doi: 10.1186/s12862-024-02247-w.

Paleontologists Discover New Bird-Like Dinosaur in Argentina

Jun 17, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of unenlagiine dinosaur has been identified by paleontologists in Argentina. Named Diuqin lechiguanae, it fills a substantial gap...

This image shows nothosaurs swimming along the ancient southern polar coast of what is now New Zealand around 246 million years ago (Triassic period). Image credit: Stavros Kundromichalis.

Unique Nothosaur Fossil Unearthed in New Zealand

Jun 17, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 246-million-year-old specimen represents the geologically oldest sea-going reptile from the southern hemisphere. This image shows nothosaurs swimming...

Life reconstruction of Haliskia peterseni. Image credit: Gabriel N. Ugueto.

New Flying Reptile Fossils Found in Australia

Jun 13, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Australia have discovered fossilized skeletal remains that belonged to a previously unknown, 100-million-year-old anhanguerian pterosaur. Life...

Life may have begun shortly after Earth formed 4.54 billion years ago. Image credit: Hadeano.

Great Oxidation Event Lasted At Least 200 Million Years, New Study Reveals

Jun 12, 2024 by News Staff

About 2.5 billion years ago, free oxygen first started to accumulate to meaningful levels in Earth’s atmosphere, setting the stage for the rise of complex...

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

Tiny Hominid Species Once Lived in Germany

Jun 11, 2024 by News Staff

With an estimated body mass of about 10 kg, the newly-discovered species, Buronius manfredschmidi, represents the smallest known hominid. Danuvius guggenmosi,...

An artistic reconstruction of the ammonoid Epitornoceras baldisi during the Middle Devonian. Image credit: H. Santiago Druetta / CICTERRA / Universidad Nacional de Córdoba.

New Fossils of Nautilus-Like Cephalopod Unearthed in Argentina

Jun 10, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have redescribed Epitornoceras baldisi, an enigmatic species of ammonoid cephalopod from the Devonian period of Argentina, using new fossils...

Life restoration of Thalattosaurus alexandrae. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.ca.

Enigmatic Triassic Thalattosaur Was Able to Move on Land, Paleontologists Say

Jun 5, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Pachystropheus rhaeticus — one of the last thalattosaur, a large sea-lizard that behaved like an otter — was able to move on land, but was...

Life reconstruction of the hybodontiform shark Strophodus rebecae. Image credit: Jorge Blanco / CC BY 4.0.

New Species of Fossil Hybodontiform Shark Identified in Japan

Jun 4, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Japan have described a new species of shark-like cartilaginous fish based on the fossilized teeth from the Late Triassic Momonoki Formation. The...

A selection of outlines of large Jurassic pterosaur wingspans: pterodactyloids (left), including the new fossil (EC K2576), and rhamphorhynchoids (right). Image credit: Etienne et al., doi: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2024.05.002.

Jurassic Pterosaur Had Wingspan of At Least Ten Feet

Jun 4, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of paleontologists has unearthed the fossil remains of a ctenochasmatoid pterosaur from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation in Oxfordshire, central England....

Woolly rhinoceroses (Coelodonta antiquitatis) were once widely distributed across northern and central Eurasia, before going extinct some 10,000 years ago. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Ancient Humans Played Role in Demise of Woolly Rhinoceros, New Research Suggests

Jun 4, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The extinction of the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) at the onset of the Holocene remains an enigma, with conflicting evidence regarding its...

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