Paleontology News

New Study Uncovers Secrets of Saber-Tooth Evolution

Felidae, a highly diverse carnivoran family, emerged during the Oligocene in Eurasia and quickly spread worldwide during the Miocene. Although Felidae represents the sole extant cat-like clade, the sabertoothed morphotype is a textbook example of iterative evolution, having evolved many times among placentals, marsupials, and gorgonopsians. Nimravidae is a well-diversified yet fully extinct carnivoran clade that extensively explored a range of cat-like morphologies, and although they have been commonly called ‘false cats’ or ‘false sabertooth cats’ in opposition to the ‘true cats,’ they evolved cat-like morphologies, including both saber-toothed and non-saber-toothed forms, tens of millions of years prior to the appearance of felids. Image credit: Narimane Chatar / Université de Liège.
May 21, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the University of Liège and elsewhere have investigated the evolutionary patterns behind the development of saber teeth in two groups of carnivores: felids (family of domestic cats, lions, tigers, etc.) and nimravids (often labeled as false cats). Felidae, a highly diverse carnivoran family, emerged during the Oligocene in Eurasia and quickly spread worldwide during the Miocene. Although Felidae represents the sole extant cat-like...

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Douglassarachne acanthopoda. Image credit: Paul Selden & Jason Dunlop, doi: 10.1017/jpa.2024.13.

308-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Remarkable Spiny Arachnid Found in Illinois

May 20, 2024 by News Staff

The forests of the Late Carboniferous period (about 300-320 million years ago) harbored a great variety of arachnids. In addition to the familiar spiders,...

This artist’s impression shows a dromaeosaur, a type of feathered theropod, in the snow. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna / Universidade de Vigo / UCL.

Study: Warm-Bloodedness in Theropod and Ornithischian Dinosaurs Evolved by Early Jurassic

May 16, 2024 by News Staff

A fundamental question in dinosaur evolution is how they adapted to long-term climatic shifts during the Mesozoic Era (the dinosaur era lasting from 230...

An artist’s impression of Chakisaurus nekul. Image credit: Sci.News / UnexpectedDinoLesson / CC BY 4.0 Deed.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Ornithopod Dinosaur in Argentina

May 14, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A paper published earlier this month in the journal Cretaceous Research announces the discovery of a previously undocumented genus and species of medium-sized...

Life reconstruction of Setapedites abundantis. Image credit: Elissa Sorojsrisom.

478-Million-Year-Old Fossil Sheds Light on Diversity and Evolution of Early Euchelicerates

May 14, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Euchelicerata is a large group of arthropods comprising horseshoe crabs, scorpions, spiders, mites and ticks, as well as the extinct sea scorpions and...

Hanon et al. paint a vivid picture of a landscape dominated by expansive grasslands, hinting at the complex interplay of life that thrived in this region during the Plio-Pleistocene era. Image credit: Wits University.

Paleontologists Find New Fossil Bovids at Cradle of Humankind Site

May 13, 2024 by News Staff

Kromdraai is a Plio-Pleistocene site located in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It has produced diverse and abundant faunal assemblages and key...

Geogaranya valiyaensis. Image credit: Agnihotri et al., doi: 10.26879/1276.

New Species of Pseudoscorpion Found Preserved in 50-Million-Year-Old Amber

May 9, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of fossil pseudoscorpion from the Eocene-period Cambay amber of Western India. Geogaranya valiyaensis....

An artist’s impression of Dornraptor normani. Image credit: Megan Williams.

New Species of Jurassic Theropod Dinosaur Identified in England

May 6, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

BPP University paleontologist Matthew Baron has identified a previously unknown carnivorous dinosaur from Dorset, England based on fossils collected in...

Life reconstruction of Militocodon lydae. Image credit: Denver Museum of Nature & Science.

Newly-Discovered Species of Mammal Lived 610,000 Years after Dinosaur Extinction

May 6, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists from Denver Museum of Nature & Science, Kent State University, the University of Michigan and City University of New York have discovered...

The canine of saber-toothed predators represents one of the most specialized dental structures known. Hypotheses about the function of hypertrophied canines range from display and conspecific interaction, soft food processing, to active prey acquisition. Recent research on the ontogenetic timing of skull traits indicates the adult canine can take years to fully erupt, but the consequences of prolonged eruption on inferences of canine functional morphology are missing from current discourse and have not been quantified. In his new study, Tseng evaluates hypotheses about adult canine bending strength and stiffness, respectively, during eruption in Smilodon fatalis. Image credit: Massimo Molinero.

Saber-Toothed Tigers Held onto Their Milk Teeth to Stabilize Their Sabers, Study Suggests

May 1, 2024 by News Staff

A new analysis of the distinctive canines of the saber-toothed tiger (Smilodon fatalis) suggests that the baby tooth — one of the deciduous teeth...

Sphaerotholus buchholtzae (smaller species) fighting below larger pachycephalosaurs, the Hell Creek Formation, Montana, the United States. Image credit: ABelov2014 / CC BY-SA 3.0 Deed.

Paleontologists Discover Two New Species of Pachycephalosaurine Dinosaurs

Apr 29, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed the fossilized remains of two new small-bodied pachycephalosaurines: one in the Dinosaur Park Formation of Alberta and the...

Tyrannosaurus rex holotype specimen at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Pittsburgh, the United States. Image credit: Scott Robert Anselmo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

How Smart Were Tyrannosaurus rex and Other Large Theropod Dinosaurs?

Apr 29, 2024 by News Staff

Large theropods were as smart as reptiles but not as intelligent as monkeys, according to new research led by University of Bristol paleontologists. Tyrannosaurus...

An illustrated reconstruction of the Fujianipus yingliangi track-maker. Image credit: Yingliang.

Footprints of Giant Troodontid Dinosaur Found in China

Apr 26, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered the tracks of a 5-m- (16.4-foot-) long troodontid at the Longxiang locality in the Chinese province of Fujian. An illustrated...

Oncorhynchus rastrosus: (A) CT model of holotype; (B) holotype in anterior view of skull, prior to complete preparation and CT scan; (C) artist’s rendering skull of male iconic fish with accurate spike-tooth configuration; (D) artist’s rendering of complete female iconic fish with accurate spike-tooth configuration. Scale bar blocks - 1 cm each. Image credit: Claeson et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0300252.

Ancient ‘Saber-Toothed’ Salmon Had Tusk-Like Teeth, New Study Shows

Apr 24, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

An extinct species of giant salmon called Oncorhynchus rastrosus sported a pair of front teeth that projected out from the sides of its mouth like tusks,...

Life reconstruction of Dacentrurus armatus, a sister species of Thyreosaurus atlasicus. Image credit: Sci.News.

New Stegosaur Species Had Remarkable Dermal Armor

Apr 23, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new stegosaurian genus and species from the Middle Jurassic epoch has been identified from the postcranial remains found in the Middle Atlas Mountains...

An artist’s impression of Vasuki indicus.

Terrifyingly Large Snakes Once Lived in India

Apr 22, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of giant madtsoiid snake that lived in what is now India around 47 million years ago (early Middle Eocene epoch) has been identified...

Ichthyotitan severnensis. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Giant Triassic Ichthyosaur

Apr 18, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Ichthyotitan severnensis lived in the Triassic seas around 202 million years ago and might have measured more than 25 m (82 feet). Ichthyotitan severnensis....

An artist’s impression of the newly-described fossil species Protemnodon viator and its relative Protemnodon anak, compared at scale to the living red kangaroo and eastern gray kangaroo. Image credit: T. Klarenbeek, Flinders University.

Three New Species of Fossil Kangaroos Discovered in Australia and New Guinea

Apr 15, 2024 by News Staff

The three new species belong to the extinct kangaroo genus Protemnodon, which were common members of Cenozoic communities across Australia and New Guinea...

Life reconstruction of Titanomachya gimenezi. Image credit: Gabriel Díaz Yantén.

New Titanosaur Species Identified in Argentina

Apr 12, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A remarkable new genus and species of small-sized titanosaurian sauropod has been unearthed in Patagonia, Argentina. Life reconstruction of Titanomachya...

Rhinopteraspis dunensis. Image credit: Dearden et al., doi: 10.1098/rspb.2023.2258.

Early Jawless Fish was Filter-Feeder, Paleontologists Find

Apr 10, 2024 by News Staff

In new research, paleontologists used X-ray microtomography to characterize the feeding apparatus of an exceptionally well-preserved specimen of the Early...

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