Paleontology News

Paludocyon moyasolai. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.

New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain

Jun 11, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of amphicyonid — the extinct family of carnivorous mammals popularly known as bear-dogs...

Cave lions painted in the Chauvet Cave, France.

Study: Cave Lions were Distinct Species that Occasionally Bred with Ancestors of Today’s Lions

Jun 10, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

The extinct Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea) and today’s African and Asian lions (Panthera leo) belong to separate evolutionary lineages that diverged...

Artist’s reconstruction of the Fractofusus community: the bottom right features a large Fractofusus around which there are 5 to 8 medium specimens clustered; each of the medium specimens also has small specimens clustered around them; the small specimens therefore form an independent double cluster pattern, namely clusters of clusters. Image credit: C.G. Kenchington.

Earth’s Earliest Animals May Have Thrived Too Easily to Evolve

Jun 10, 2026 by News Staff

Fossils from some of the oldest-known animals on Earth, dating from 574 million years ago (Ediacaran period), suggest that cloning, not competition, dominated...

An artist’s impression of Patagoniaemys aeschyli. Image credit: Nawel Vazquez / Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ / CONICET.

Fossil Discovery in Patagonia Reveals New Species of Horned Turtle

Jun 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of meiolaniform turtle from northern Patagonia, Argentina, that lived during the Maastrichtian age, just...

Marine fishes from the Early Paleocene site of Qreiya 3 in the Eastern Desert of Egypt. Image credit: Ian Baylatry.

Fish Fossils from Early Paleocene Fill 10-Million-Year Gap after Dinosaur Extinction

Jun 5, 2026 by News Staff

Around 66 million years ago, the end-Cretaceous extinction event reshaped Earth’s biodiversity, yet its impact on marine fishes remains debated due to...

Paleoartistic reconstruction of the environment in the surrounding of Camp dels Ninots maar lake during the Early Pliocene. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Half-Ton Cattle Relatives Roamed Europe 4 Million Years Ago

Jun 5, 2026 by News Staff

Near-complete bovine skeletons unearthed the Early Pliocene site of Camp dels Ninots in northeastern Spain reveal that the ancestors of today’s buffalo...

Jian changmaensis (left) attacks the early bird Gansus yumenensis (right) in what is now the Changma Basin of northwestern China approximately 120 million years ago. Image credit: Lewis LaRosa / Jão Canola.

New Microraptorine Dinosaur Discovered in China

Jun 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Jian changmaensis is the first non-avian dinosaur found at a paleontological site that has yielded more than 100 specimens of Early Cretaceous birds. Jian...

Praearcturus gigas. Image credit: Franz Anthony.

Giant Scorpions Ruled Ancient Britain during Devonian Period

Jun 4, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists have confirmed that Praearcturus gigas, a creature that prowled shallow waters during the Devonian period, 415 million years ago, is the...

Reconstruction of the Early Cambrian seafloor, depicting colonies of Protomelission gatehousei and Dayingomelission hexaclitia living among archaeocyath reefs in shallow seas approximately 520 million years ago. Image credit: Zhifei Zhang.

Complex Colonial Life Was Already Thriving during Cambrian Explosion

Jun 3, 2026 by News Staff

Tiny colonial animals called bryozoans were long thought to have appeared tens of millions of years after the Cambrian explosion. Extraordinary fossils...

Early Earth. Image credit: Peter Sawyer / Smithsonian Institution.

Ancient Oceans Began Losing Oxygen Millions of Years before End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Jun 2, 2026 by News Staff

Chemical traces preserved in ancient rocks indicate that marine environments were deteriorating long before the catastrophe that wiped out vast numbers...

Reconstruction of the Santa María Amajac paleolake during the Late Pliocene; the paleobiodiveristy of the paleolake included microvertebrates such as the ambystomatid salamander Ambystoma quetzalcoatli, Paleocharacodon guzmanae and Goodea-like fishes, anurans and numerous species of terrestrial and aquatic plants such as Nymphaea sp., Scirpus sp., Typha sp. Image credit: Diana Guzmán-Madrid.

New Species of Fossil Axolotl Unearthed in Mexico

Jun 1, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists have identified a new species of the axolotl genus Ambystoma from several fossilized specimens found deep in the rocky outcrops of the...

Metapterodon anari. Image credit: Steven Jasinski / SergeyAtrox1.

Paleontologists Identify New Hyaenodont Species in Pakistan

May 29, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists have recovered the fossilized remains of three hyaenodont species, including one previously unknown to science, from Miocene sediments...

Life reconstruction of Magnicornaspis garwoodi. Image credit: Thomas Turner.

490-Million-Year-Old Arthropod Fossil Fills Puzzling Gap in Fossil Record

May 29, 2026 by News Staff

A new species of corcoraniid arthropod that lived during the Furongian epoch, between 497 and 487 million years ago, has been identified from an exceptionally...

Life reconstruction of Kank australis. Image credit: Gabriel Díaz Yantén.

New Dinosaur Species from Argentina May Have Specialized in Catching Fish

May 29, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Argentina have identified a previously unknown species of unenlagiid dinosaur that stalked freshwater wetlands during the Late Cretaceous...

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction was marked by both the Chicxulub asteroid impact and the ongoing eruptions of the Deccan Traps volcanoes.

Fungi Bloomed Twice around End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

May 28, 2026 by News Staff

By studying fungal microfossils in 66-million-year-old rock samples from the Denver Basin in Colorado, Johns Hopkins University microbiologists have confirmed...

Plumadraco bankoorum is a new bohaiornithid enantiornithine bird with a pair of exceptionally long rectrices. Image credit: Ville Sinkkonen.

Cretaceous Bird from China Had Pair of Tail Feathers Twice as Long as Its Body

May 28, 2026 by News Staff

Named Plumadraco bankoorum, the newly-described species of enantiornithine bird lived in what is now northeastern China during the Cretaceous period, roughly...

Labrujasuchus expectatus navigated the world on two legs with tiny arms and a toothless mouth tipped in a beak. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez / NHMLAC Dinosaur Institute.

Toothless, Bipedal Crocodile Relative Lived in New Mexico 212 Million Years Ago

May 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of bipedal shuvosaurid archosaur from New Mexico, shedding light on a group of creatures that roamed North...

Fossil eukaryotes from Northern Territory, Australia. Image credit: Lechte et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-026-10533-4.

Study: Early Complex Life Forms Were Bottom-Dwellers

May 27, 2026 by News Staff

Analyzing 1.75-billion-year-old microfossils from ancient Australian seabeds, paleontologists say ancient eukaryotes — the ancestors of every plant,...

Life restoration of Quipalong henanesnsis, an ornithomimosaurian dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Maastrichtian age of the Late Cretaceous, between 72 and 67 million years ago. Image credit: PaleoNeolitic / Sci.News.

Rare Ostrich-Like Dinosaur Fossil Found on Canadian Island

May 25, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Canada say they have recovered a dinosaur tail vertebra from 75- to 80-million-year-old marine rocks on a small island off the coast...