Paleontology News

Fossil Moth Scales Can Uncover Prehistoric Secrets, Scientists Say

A well-preserved scale extracted from a lake sediment core. Image credit: Montoro Girona et al, doi: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00002.
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, their impact on the forest environment and how they are linked to climate change. A well-preserved scale extracted from a lake sediment core. Image credit: Montoro Girona et al, doi: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00002. “This is an exciting discovery, which will greatly increase our knowledge of prehistoric...

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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...

Candelarhynchus padillai. Image credit: Oksana Vernygora.

Candelarhynchus padillai: New Species of Lizardfish, 90 Million Years Old

Feb 9, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of fossil fish from 90 million-year-old (Cretaceous period) deposits in Colombia. A paper reporting this...

Chimerarachne yingi resembles a spider in having fangs, male pedipalps, four walking legs and silk-producing spinnerets at its rear. However, it also bears a long tail. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Remarkable Tailed Arachnid Found in Burmese Amber

Feb 7, 2018 by News Staff

A remarkable tailed arachnid found in the mid-Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago) Burmese amber of Myanmar documents a key transition stage...

Reconstruction of Wahlisaurus massarae. Image credit: James McKay.

Paleontologists Find 200-Million-Year-Old Ichthyosaur Fossil

Feb 1, 2018 by News Staff

The 200 million-year-old specimen is only the second known example of Wahlisaurus massarae, a species of ichthyosaur announced recently by a University...

Life reconstruction of Mansourasaurus shahinae. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

New Species of Titanosaur Unearthed in Egypt: Mansourasaurus shahinae

Jan 30, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Egypt have found fossil fragments from a new species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that walked the Earth around 80 million years...

Kootenayscolex barbarensis. Image credit: Danielle Dufault / Royal Ontario Museum.

Cambrian Period Worm Had Hair-Sized Bristles on Its Head and Body

Jan 29, 2018 by News Staff

A new species of bristle worm that lived about 508 million years ago (Cambrian period) has been identified from fossils found in Marble Canyon and Burgess...

Horses. Image credit: Toni X. Jesse.

Paleontologists Propose New Theory on Horse Evolution

Jan 26, 2018 by News Staff

Researchers have long wondered how horses evolved from a five-toed ancestor to the single-toed animal we know today. While it is largely believed that...

Caihong juji lived in China about 161 million years ago and may have used its impressive feathers to attract mates. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Caihong juji: Jurassic Bird-Like Dinosaur Had Iridescent Feathers

Jan 17, 2018 by News Staff

A newly discovered species of bird-like dinosaur, Caihong juji, had a beautiful iridescent coloration, according to a study published in the journal Nature...

Artist’s impression of two Diluvicursor pickeringi foraging on the bank of a high-energy river within the Australian-Antarctic rift valley. Image credit: Peter Trusler.

New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Australia

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

A new species of turkey-sized herbivorous dinosaur being named Diluvicursor pickeringi has been unearthed in southeastern Australia. Artist’s impression...

Fossilized scales of moths and butterflies from a drilled core in Germany. Image credit: van Eldijk et al.

Earliest Fossil Evidence of Butterflies and Moths, Dating Back 200 Million Years, Found in Germany

Jan 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of paleontologists has found the oldest fossilized remains of insects from the order Lepidoptera known to date. The fossils, mostly...

An artist’s impression of the New Zealand greater short-tailed, or burrowing, bat (Mystacina robusta) that went extinct last century. Vulcanops jennyworthyae is the biggest burrowing bat yet known. It also represents the first new bat genus to be added to New Zealand's fauna in more than 150 years. Image credit: Gavin Mouldey.

Fossils Reveal Giant New Species of Burrowing Bat: Vulcanops jennyworthyae

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists say they’ve found the fossilized remains of a new genus and species of bat that lived in New Zealand between 19 and 16 million years...

Artistic reconstruction of Habelia optata. This creature and its relatives were active predators of the Cambrian sea floors, hunting for small shelly sea creatures, such as small trilobites -- arthropods with hard, mineralized exoskeletons that were already very diverse and abundant during Cambrian times. Image credit: Joanna Liang, Royal Ontario Museum.

Cambrian Sea Predator Had ‘Jackknife’ Head

Dec 25, 2017 by News Staff

Habelia optata, a close relative of the ancestor of modern-day spiders, scorpions and horseshoe crabs, evolved an extremely complex head to hunt and eat...

3.465-billion-year-old fossil microbes indicate that life in the Universe is common. Image credit: Reimund Bertrams.

Study: Simple Life Forms are Common throughout Universe

Dec 19, 2017 by News Staff

A detailed analysis of 3.465-billion-year-old microbial microfossils provides evidence to support an increasingly widespread understanding that life in...

Reconstruction of Protarctos abstrusus in the Beaver Pond site area during the late summer. An extinct beaver, Dipoides, is shown carrying a tree branch in water. Plants include black crowberry (Empetrum nigrum) with ripened berries along the path of the bear, dwarf birch (Betula nana) in foreground; sweet gale (Myrica gale) carried by the beaver, sedges in water margins, flowering buckbeans along the mounds behind the beaver, and larch trees in distant background. Image credit: Mauricio Antón / Alice Telka.

Protarctos abstrusus: Ancient Primitive Bear Had a Sweet Tooth

Dec 18, 2017 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists has found the remains of an unusual prehistoric bear that lived 3.5 million years ago (Pliocene epoch) in Canada’s...

Vaderlimulus tricki. The specimen came from a locality in the Olenekian Thaynes Group near Paris, Idaho, the United States. Image credit: New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science.

First Triassic Horseshoe Crab Fossil Found in North America

Dec 14, 2017 by Natali Anderson

A mostly complete and moderately well-preserved fossilized specimen is thought to represent the first Triassic horseshoe crab found in North America, according...

Artististic reconstruction of the Paleocene giant penguin Kumimanu biceae. Image credit: Senckenberg Research Institute.

Giant Prehistoric Penguin Fossil Found in New Zealand

Dec 13, 2017 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the fossil remains of a giant prehistoric penguin that lived about 59 to 56 million years ago (Paleocene epoch) in what is now...

Hard tick grasping a dinosaur feather preserved in 99 million-year-old Burmese amber. Image credit: Peñalver et al.

Ticks Sucked Blood of Feathered Dinosaurs, Fossil Discovery Shows

Dec 13, 2017 by News Staff

Preserved in 99 million-year-old Burmese amber paleontologists found a tick grasping a dinosaur feather. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature...

An artist’s rendering of Halszkaraptor escuilliei. Image credit: Lukas Panzarin / Andrea Cau.

Halszkaraptor escuilliei: Bizarre New Dinosaur Was a Mix of Aquatic Bird and Theropod

Dec 8, 2017 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a completely unexpected semi-aquatic theropod dinosaur that lived 75 million years ago in what is now...

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