Paleontology News

An artist’s impression of Thikarisuchus xenodentes. Image credit: Dane Johnson / Museum of the Rockies.

New Crocodyliform Species from Cretaceous Period Unearthed in Montana

Sep 23, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new species of extinct crocodyliform from the fossilized remains of a juvenile individual found in southwest Montana,...

Cariocecus bocagei. Image credit: Victor Feijó de Carvalho.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Iguanodontian Dinosaur

Sep 22, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of paleontologists from Portugal, Italy, the United States and Belgium has added another species of herbivorous dinosaur to the prehistoric catalog:...

Tilia magnasepala. Image credit: Christian Geier.

Oligocene-Period Fossils Provide Evidence of Pollination Interaction between Flowers and Bumblebees

Sep 22, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have screened 24-million-year-old fossil flowers and bees from the Late Oligocene of Enspel, Germany, and identified a new species of linden,...

An artist’s impression of Platysomus parvulus. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe.

310-Million-Year-Old Ray-Finned Fish Had Tongue-Bite Apparatus

Sep 19, 2025 by News Staff

Platysomus parvulus, a species of ray-finned fish that lived 310 million years ago, had a unique way of eating never seen in ray-finned fish from that...

Life restoration of the Bayanshiree azhdarchid pterosaurs: the co-existence between Gobiazhdarcho tsogtbaatari and Tsogtopteryx mongoliensis in the Bayanshiree paleoenvironment, with a group of Gobihadros mongoliensis nearby. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Two New Species of Pterosaurs Discovered in Mongolia

Sep 18, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described two new species of azhdarchid pterosaurs from fossils found in the Late Cretaceous Bayanshiree Formation in Mongolia’s...

Young Zavacephale rinpoche duel for territory along a lakeshore 108 million years ago. Image credit: Masaya Hattori.

New Species of Dome-Headed Pachycephalosaur Unearthed in Mongolia

Sep 17, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized remains of a previously unknown pachycephalosaur species in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. The fossil is both...

Dinosaurs were ecosystem engineers, preventing dense forests from growing; their sudden demise led to widescale ecological changes, as represented here in an artistic rendering. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Extinction of Non-Avian Dinosaurs Led to Wide Scale Changes in Landscapes: Study

Sep 16, 2025 by News Staff

New research suggests dinosaurs were ecosystem engineers that promoted habitat openness in the Late Cretaceous epoch, and their extinction around 66 million...

Bright field images are shown for vessels harvested as described in methods from (a) ostrich vessels soaked in hemoglobin solution under deoxygenating conditions, (b) ostrich vessels soaked in hemoglobin under oxygenated conditions, (c) vessels recovered from demineralized Brachylophosaurus canadensis and (d) Tyrannosaurus rex bone. Scale bars - 0.5 mm in (a-c) and 0.2 mm in (d). Image credit: Long et al., doi: 10.1098/rspa.2025.0175.

New Study Confirms Partial Hemoglobin Preservation in Dinosaur Remains

Sep 16, 2025 by News Staff

Using a technique called Resonance Raman spectroscopy, paleontologists have detected hemoglobin remnants in bone extracts from two dinosaur species, Brachylophosaurus...

Hypothetical reconstruction of Acarechimys hunikuini. Image credit: Márcio Castro.

New Species of Extinct Octodontoid Rodent Discovered from Amazonian Fossil

Sep 15, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of rodent in Acarechimys, an extinct genus with a widespread South American distribution, from a partial...

An adult mastodon (Mammut sp.) consuming a spruce branch set against a backdrop illustrating their cyclical continental migrations linked to climate fluctuations. At least two species of mastodons roamed North America during the Middle and Late Pleistocene: the American mastodon, stretching from the eastern seaboard to central parts of the continent, and the Pacific mastodon from central Alberta through California. Image credit: Kathryn Killackey.

Mastodons were Far More Genetically Diverse than Previously Known, Ancient DNA Shows

Sep 15, 2025 by News Staff

Ancient DNA has been useful in reconciling deep evolutionary relationships and responses to ecological changes in elephants and their relatives. In new...

The two separate blocks containing the jaw impression of Newtonsaurus cambrensis. Image credit: Evans et al., doi: 10.1016/j.pgeola.2025.101142.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Triassic Dinosaur

Sep 11, 2025 by News Staff

A large jaw of a predatory archosaur species from the latest Triassic of South Wales, named Zanclodon cambrensis, has long intrigued paleontologists. Could...

Agriodontosaurus helsbypetrae. Image credit: Bob Nicholls.

Fossil of Oldest Known Lepidosaur Unearthed in UK

Sep 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed a complete skull and skeleton of a Triassic lepidosaur species — named Agriodontosaurus helsbypetrae — in the...

Artistic reconstruction of Craspedochelys renzi and the shallow marine ecosystem where inhabited; the forelimbs with a flippler like shape is based on the most complete thalassochelydian known so far, Thalassemys bruntrutana. Image credit: Juan Giraldo.

Early Cretaceous Fossil in Swiss Museum Found to Be New Species of Marine Turtle

Sep 8, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of the extinct turtle genus Craspedochelys based on a remarkable fossil shell and some of its postcranial...

An artist’s reconstruction of a large mawsoniid coelacanth from the British Rhaetian. Image credit: Daniel Phillips.

Paleontologists Identify Multiple New Species of Fossil Coelacanths

Sep 8, 2025 by News Staff

Several new species of coelacanths that lived at the end of the Triassic period, some 200 million years ago, have been identified from museum specimens...

An artist’s impression of a tiny Pterodactylus antiquus hatchling struggling against a raging tropical storm, inspired by fossil discoveries. Image credit: Rudolf Hima.

Two Extraordinary Fossils of Immature Pterosaurs Killed by Catastrophic Storm Found in Germany

Sep 5, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists at the University of Leicester have examined the 150-million-year-old fossilized skeletons of two highly immature Pterodactylus antiquus...

Guinet et al. reconstructed partial genomes of Erysipelothrix from the oldest mammoth sample, representing the oldest authenticated host-associated microbial DNA to date. Image credit: Guinet et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2025.08.003.

World’s Oldest Host-Associated Microbial DNA Obtained from Ancient Mammoth Remains

Sep 4, 2025 by News Staff

In a new study, scientists analyzed ancient microbial DNA from 483 mammoth remains spanning over 1 million years, including 440 newly-sequenced and unpublished...

Olenoides serratus from the Burgess Shale. Image credit: Losso et al., doi: 10.1186/s12915-025-02335-3.

New Research Reveals Secrets of Burgess Shale Trilobites

Sep 2, 2025 by News Staff

Arthropod appendages are specialized for diverse roles including feeding, walking, and mating. Fossils from the Cambrian period (539 to 487 million years...

Life restoration of Mamenchisaurus youngi, the best-known member of the family Mamenchisauridae. Image credit: Steveoc 86 / CC BY-SA 2.5.

New Plant-Eating Dinosaur Species Unveiled

Sep 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of early eusauropod dinosaur from the Jurassic period of China. Mamenchisaurus...

Ciurcalimulus discobolus, holotype. Scale bars - 5 mm. Image credit: James C. Lamsdell, doi: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0874.

Paleontologist Discovers First Known Silurian Horseshoe Crab

Aug 29, 2025 by Sergio Prostak

Horseshoe crabs are an ancient lineage with an evolutionary history stretching back 450 million years (Ordovician period) and are generally considered...