Paleontology News

Reconstruction of the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex). Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Marsupial Lion Thylacoleo carnifex Had Unique Hunting Style, Paleontologists Say

Aug 18, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has proposed that an extinct animal called the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) hunted in a very unique way...

Artistic reconstruction of a pod of Arktocara yakataga, swimming offshore of Alaska during the Oligocene, about 25 million years ago, with early mountains of Southeast Alaska in the background. Image credit: Alexandra Boersma.

Arktocara yakataga: Forgotten Fossil Found to be New Species of Ancient Dolphin

Aug 16, 2016 by News Staff

A fossil stored in the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History for several decades has been identified as a new species of ancient...

Echovenator sandersi: Oligocene Whale Had Ultrasonic Hearing

Aug 8, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

27-million-year-old fossil of newly-discovered toothed whale species provides clues about evolution of high-frequency hearing. Echovenator sandersi produces...

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Dinosaurs Had Bird-Like Color Vision, Gene Discovery Suggests

Aug 3, 2016 by News Staff

According to an international team of scientists led by Dr. Nicholas Mundy at the University of Cambridge, a gene for red color vision that originated...

This is an artist’s rendition of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Image credit: Flying Puffin / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Freshwater Scarcity Led to Extinction of Woolly Mammoths on Alaska’s Saint Paul Island

Aug 2, 2016 by News Staff

While the famous Minoan culture was just beginning, woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were disappearing from Saint Paul Island, according to a group...

Illustration of elephant feeding ecology in the Late Pleistocene of southern China. Elephas (left) incoporates more graze in its diet; whereas Stegodon (right) is an obligate browser of fresh shoots and leaves. Image credit: Nicola Heath.

Paleontologists Reconstruct Diets of Ancient Elephant Relatives

Jul 28, 2016 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists headed by Prof. Mark Purnell of the University of Leicester, UK, and Dr. Yuan Wang from the Institute of Vertebrate...

Murusraptor barrosaensis: New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Argentina

Jul 22, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of theropod dinosaur has been discovered by a duo of paleontologists – Prof. Philip Currie from the University of Alberta in Canada and...

Turtle Shell Evolved for Burrowing, Study Suggests

Jul 19, 2016 by News Staff

A new study on the partially shelled fossil turtles suggests the broad-ribbed proto shell was initially an adaptation, not for protection, but rather for...

Two Gualicho shinyae attack a smaller dinosaur. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez / Pablo Lara.

Gualicho shinyae: New Theropod Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina

Jul 14, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A team of paleontologists has found fossil fragments from a remarkable new species of theropod dinosaur that walked our planet around 94 million years...

Calciavis grandei stands by the shores of the Eocene fossil lake in Wyoming, roughly 50 million years ago, with a small rallid bird in the background. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Calciavis grandei: Kiwi Relatives Lived in North America 50M Years Ago

Jul 5, 2016 by News Staff

A nearly 50-million-year-old bird fossil unearthed in Wyoming represents a new species that is a close relative of living kiwis, ostriches, and emus, according...

Artistic reconstruction of the pathological individual of the hadrosauroid dinosaur Telmatosaurus transsylvanicus from the uppermost Cretaceous of the Hateg Basin, Romania, in rostral view, showing the probable life appearance of the mandibular deformity caused by ameloblastoma. Image credit: Mihai D. Dumbrava.

First Fossil Ameloblastoma Discovered in Cretaceous Dinosaur from Romania

Jul 5, 2016 by News Staff

The first-ever record of ameloblastoma — a rare, non-cancerous tumor that develops most often in the jaw near the molars – found in a fossil...

Radix carbonica. Scale bar - 500 μm. Image credit: Alexander J. Hetherington et al / Oxford University Herbaria.

Researchers Find 320 Million-Year-Old Plant Root Stem Cells

Jun 24, 2016 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists led by Oxford University researcher Prof. Liam Dolan has discovered the oldest known population of plant root stem cells in a...

A 25 million-year-old fossilized termite nest with the remains of a ‘fungus garden’ preserved inside. Image credit: H. Hilbert-Worf / James Cook University.

Paleontologists Discover Earliest Evidence of Insect Agriculture

Jun 24, 2016 by Natali Anderson

An international team of paleontologists has discovered the oldest known examples of ‘fungus gardens’ within 25 million-year-old fossilized termite...

Reconstruction of Wahlisaurus massarae. Image credit: James McKay.

Wahlisaurus massarae: Forgotten Fossil is New Species of Ancient Dolphin-Like Reptile

Jun 14, 2016 by News Staff

A new species of ichthyosaur that lived about 200 million years ago has been identified from a fossil found in a quarry in Nottinghamshire, England. Reconstruction...

Early Mammals Began Their Diversification Long Before Demise of Dinosaurs

Jun 7, 2016 by News Staff

Therian mammals, the ancestors of most modern mammals, began their massive diversification 10-20 million years before the extinction of dinosaurs, according...

This map shows the location of the ice-free corridor and Paleo-Indian sites. Image credit: Roblespepe / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers: ‘Ice-Free Corridor’ along Rocky Mountains Opened Up 13,000 Years Ago

Jun 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Evidence from bison fossils has enabled researchers to shape a more accurate timeline for the so-called ‘ice-free corridor’ — a route for Pleistocene...

Life-like reconstruction of Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

‘Unicorn’ Ant with Oversized Jaws Found in Burmese Amber

Jun 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper published last week in the journal Current Biology, scientists described a new species of trap-jaw ant found in 99 million-year-old pieces of...

Malleodectes mirabilis. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Malleodectidae: Extinct Family of Snail-Eating Marsupials Discovered

May 27, 2016 by News Staff

Fossil remains of a previously unknown group of snail-eating marsupials that lived in Australia between 10 and 15 million years ago have been discovered...

Reconstruction of typical Cretaceous marine environment in Antarctica, including the paperclip-shaped ammonite Diplomoceras. Image credit: James McKay.

Animals Weren’t Safer in South Polar Regions during end-Cretaceous Extinction

May 26, 2016 by News Staff

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, also known as the K/T extinction — the event that wiped out the dinosaurs as well as nearly 50% of all...