Paleontology News

Marine fossils from Prado Vargas Cave, Spain. Image credit: Ruiz et al., doi: 10.3390/quat7040049.

Neanderthals Were First Collectors of Fossils, New Research Suggests

Dec 2, 2024 by Natali Anderson

The Neanderthal groups that inhabited a cave in what is now Spain approximately 46,000 years ago gathered and collected fossils, according to a paper published...

Fossil feces of the bone-crushing archosaur Smok, with a Smok reconstruction in the background. Image credit: Grzegorz Niedzwiedzki.

Fossilized Digestive Contents Shed Light on Rise of Dinosaurs

Nov 27, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Sweden and Poland have examined hundreds of fossilized samples of feces and vomit from the Polish Basin in central Europe to reconstruct...

Life reconstruction of Ninumbeehan dookoodukah in a palaeoenvironment reconstruction depicting its life and burrowing across seasons: (left) Ninumbeehan dookoodukah is resting on the edge of a river with a low water table as the wet season ends; (center) a small community of Ninumbeehan dookoodukah are in their estivation burrows at the apex of the arid season; (right) the onset of the humid season brings rain, triggering a mass emergence of Ninumbeehan dookoodukah from their estivation burrows. Some individuals expire before the incoming rains, leaving them to be preserved as fossils. Image credit: Gabriel N. Ugueto.

Triassic Amphibian Had Unique Adaptations for Seasonal Estivation

Nov 26, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new species of fossil temnospondyl amphibian from the Triassic Jelm Formation of Wyoming, preserved in torpedo-shaped...

Life restoration of a group of giant azhdarchids, Quetzalcoatlus northropi, foraging on a Cretaceous fern prairie. Image credit: Mark Witton / Darren Naish.

New Pterosaur Species Discovered in Japan

Nov 25, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of quetzalcoatline azhdarchid pterosaur, Nipponopterus mifunensis, from the Late Cretaceous...

Life reconstruction of Terastiodontosaurus marcelosanchezi ready to prey on a large snail of the family Bulimulidae. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.

World’s Largest Worm Lizard Lived 47 Million Years Ago

Nov 22, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of trogonophid amphisbaenian (worm lizard) from fossilized specimens found in Tunisia. Life reconstruction...

Digital photographs and 3D laser scans of Uncus dzaugisi body fossils. Scale bars - 10 mm. Image credit: Hughes et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2024.10.030.

Ediacaran Nematode-Like Worm Fossils Unearthed in Australia

Nov 20, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have hypothesized for decades that a major animal group called Ecdysozoa must be older than the Cambrian period, but until now its origins...

Homotherium serum. Image credit: Sergiodlarosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

36,000-Year-Old Scimitar-Toothed Cat Cub Found in Yakutian Permafrost

Nov 19, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 36,000-year-old frozen specimen from Yakutia belongs to Homotherium latidens, a species of scimitar-toothed cat that inhabited Eurasia during the Pliocene...

An artist’s impression of Wumengosaurus, a sister taxon of Honghesaurus longicaudal. Image credit: Nobu Tamura / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Species of Triassic Marine Reptile Discovered

Nov 18, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of pachypleurosaur from the Middle Triassic of southwestern China. The holotype of Dianmeisaurus mutaensis...

Life restoration of two Skiphosoura bavarica in flight. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

Jurassic Pterosaur Had Unusually Short, but Stiff and Pointed Tail

Nov 18, 2024 by News Staff

Skiphosoura bavarica, a species of pterosaur that lived around 149 million years ago in what is now southern Germany, bridges the gaps between the early...

The Silurian trilobite Waukeshaaspis eatonae, from the Silurian Waukesha Biota of Wisconsin, USA. Image credit: Kenneth Gass, specimen deposited in the University of Wisconsin Geology Museum.

Role Changing of Trilobite Body Parts

Nov 15, 2024 by Kenneth C. Gass & Enrique Alberto Randolfe

A newly-described genus and species of trilobite is a unique example of an animal changing the form and apparent function of one of its morphological features...

An artist’s impression of Navaornis hestiae. Image credit: Júlia D’Oliveira.

80-Million-Year-Old Enantiornithine Fossil Fills Gap between Archaeopteryx and Modern Birds

Nov 14, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed the exquisitely preserved remains of Cretaceous enantiornithine bird in São Paulo state, southeastern Brazil. The extraordinary...

Pine Island amber. Scale bars - 50 μm. Image credit: Klages et al., doi: 10.1017/S0954102024000208.

Amber Discovered in Antarctica for the First Time

Nov 12, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The first ever piece of the Antarctic amber was found in a sediment core from the mid-shelf section of Pine Island trough in Antarctica. Pine Island amber....

The artistic reconstruction of Huaxiazhoulong shouwen. Image credit: Ye Jianhao.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Ankylosaurid Dinosaur

Nov 11, 2024 by Natali Anderson

A new genus and species of ankylosaur has been identified from an articulated and partial skeleton found in 1986 in southern China. The artistic reconstruction...

Life reconstruction of Yuanyanglong bainian. Image credit: Sci.News / Ddinodan.

New Oviraptorosaur Species Discovered in China

Nov 5, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of early-diverging oviraptorosaurian dinosaur has been identified from two specimens found in Inner Mongolia, China. Life reconstruction...

A model of Paraphysornis at the Natural History Museum Vienna. Image credit: Armin Reindl / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fossil of Huge Terror Bird Found in Colombia

Nov 4, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed and examined a fossilized leg bone of a phorusrhacid bird that lived 12 million years ago in South America. A model of Paraphysornis...

Life reconstruction of tadpoles and adults of Notobatrachus degiustoi. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.

161-Million-Year-Old Fossil is the Oldest Known Tadpole

Oct 31, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the well-preserved fossilized remains of a tadpole of the early anuran species Notobatrachus degiustoi at the locality...

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.

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

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...

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,...