Paleontology News

Study: Earth’s Earliest Flowering Plants Were Insect Pollinated

Macroevolution of pollination modes across angiosperms, showing the proportional marginal likelihood of pollination mode at the ancestral nodes for each angiosperm order. Image credit: Stephens et al., doi: 10.1111/nph.18993.
Jun 6, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Most living angiosperms (flowering plants) are pollinated by insects, and the new reconstruction of the ancestral pollination mode of angiosperms suggests that their most recent common ancestor was also insect pollinated. Macroevolution of pollination modes across angiosperms, showing the proportional marginal likelihood of pollination mode at the ancestral nodes for each angiosperm order. Image credit: Stephens et al., doi: 10.1111/nph.18993. “Pollination...

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Life reconstruction of Rhynchotherium gomphotheres. Image credit: Margret Flinsch / Sci.News.

Unique Gomphothere Assemblage Found in Florida

Jun 5, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed several complete skeletons of gomphotheres — an extinct relative of elephants — at the Montbrook Fossil Dig...

Life reconstruction of Woznikella triradiata, a medium-sized dicynodont from the Triassic of Poland. Image credit: Sci.News / DrawingDinosaurs / Henryk Niestrój.

New Triassic Dicynodont Species Discovered in Poland

May 31, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of kannemeyeriiform dicynodont from the Triassic-period fossilized remains found in Poland. Life...

Life reconstruction of an Australian pterosaur. Image credit: Peter Trusler.

107-Million-Year-Old Fossils are Oldest Pterosaur Material Ever Found in Australia

May 30, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed a partial pelvis bone and a small wing bone from two different pterosaur individuals found in the Australian province of...

Diprotodon optatum, a distant relative of Ambulator keanei. Image credit: Nellie Pease / ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Pliocene-Period Marsupial Was Long-Distance Walker

May 30, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have redescribed Zygomaturus keanei, a species of marsupial that lived in Australia some 3.5 million years ago (Pliocene period), using...

This is an artist's rendering of Vintana sertichi. Image credit: © Lucille Betti-Nash.

First Postcranial Fossils of Rare Gondwanatherian Mammal Unearthed in Madagascar

May 24, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have uncovered the first postcranial remains — skeletal remains apart from the skull — of Vintana sertichi, the largest known...

Inostrancevia with its dicynodont prey, scaring off the much smaller African species Cyonosaurus. Image credit: Matt Celeskey.

Saber-Toothed Predator Connects Permian Northern and Southern Hemisphere Faunas

May 22, 2023 by News Staff

Inostrancevia was a tiger-sized, saber-toothed gorgonopsian that lived on the supercontinent Pangea during the Permian period, approximately 252 million...

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Study: Visual Perspective Taking Originated in Dinosaur Lineage, Likely Earlier than in Mammals

May 22, 2023 by News Staff

Taking someone else’s visual perspective marks an evolutionary shift in the formation of advanced social cognition. It enables using others’ attention...

Life reconstruction of Protathlitis cinctorrensis. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro / Grup Guix.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Spinosaurid Dinosaur

May 19, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of spinosaurid dinosaur being named Protathlitis cinctorrensis has been discovered by Dr. Andrés Santos-Cubedo from the Universitat...

Stelladens mysteriosus. Image credit: Nick Longrich.

Cretaceous-Period Mosasaur Had Unique ‘Screwdriver Teeth’

May 18, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described an unusual new species of mosasaur based on a fossilized partial jaw and associated tooth crowns from phosphatic deposits...

Life reconstruction of Prenocephale prenes, a distant relative of Platytholus clemensi. Image credit: Antonin Jury / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Species of Dome-Headed Dinosaur Identified in Montana

May 16, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur has been described from a partial skull found in Montana, the United States. Life reconstruction...

Life reconstruction of the eurypterid Archopterus anjiensis. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Earliest Sea Scorpion from China

May 15, 2023 by Simon Braddy

Archopterus anjiensis, a new 445-million-year-old fossil sea scorpion, from the Chinese Zhejiang Province, is the oldest sea scorpion known from China. Life...

Life restoration of a North American brontothere species called Telmatherium and other animals of the Eocene Clarno Nut Beds, Oregon, the United States. Image credit: Larry Felder, National Park Service.

Brontotheres Evolved Their Enormous Sizes as Way to Survive in Competitive Ecological Niches: Study

May 12, 2023 by News Staff

After the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period, many mammals underwent a rapid increase in size. Several hypotheses for...

An artist’s impression of the Kimmeridge Clay pliosaur. Image credit: Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth.

Fossils of Gigantic Pliosaur Uncovered in England

May 10, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists have unearthed four cervical vertebrae of Jurassic pliosaurid in the Kimmeridge Clay Formation near Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. The...

3D reconstruction of the skull of Crassigyrinus scoticus; individual bones shown in different colors. Scale bars - 1 cm. Image credit: Porro et al., doi: 10.1080/02724634.2023.2183134.

Paleontologists Reconstruct Skull of Enigmatic Early Tetrapod

May 10, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Crassigyrinus scoticus was a large aquatic predator known from the lower- to mid-Carboniferous period of Scotland and Canada. 3D reconstruction of the...

A rendering of Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum. Image credit: Júlia d’Oliveira.

New Research Sheds Light on Evolution of Giant Sauropod Dinosaurs

May 10, 2023 by News Staff

The long-necked dinosaurs, sauropods, are famous for their extreme body sizes, evolving body masses several times greater than the next-heaviest terrestrial...

Life restoration of Obamus coronatus, a tiny, toroidally shaped, soft-bodied animal from the Ediacaran biota of South Australia. Image credit: Nobu Tamura.

Paleontologists Find First Evidence of Ediacaran Habitat Selection

May 9, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have examined how Tribrachidium, Rugoconites, and Obamus — three relatively common members of the Ediacaran biota (550 million years...

Reconstruction of the living bar-tailed trogon (Apaloderma vittatum) in the Catalogue of the Birds in the British Museum.

Eocene-Period Trogon Already Had Heterodactyl Feet

May 8, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Trogons (Trogoniformes) are the only group of birds with a heterodactyl foot, in which the second toe is permanently reversed. Reconstruction of the living...

Reconstruction of the Castle Bank community; sponge in foreground is 2 cm tall. Image credit: Botting et al., doi: 10.1038/s41559-023-02038-4.

Ordovician-Period Fossil Site Discovered in Wales

May 3, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

The highly-diverse Middle Ordovician fossil site at Castle Bank, Wales, is directly comparable with the famous Burgess Shale and Chengjiang biotas in paleoenvironment...

An artist’s reconstruction of two Amphimachairodus hezhengensis defending their prey (Hezhengia bohlini) from two Dinocrocuta gigantea. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Saber-Toothed Cat

May 1, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-identified species — the earliest and most primitive member of the saber-toothed cat genus Amphimachairodus — had craniodental adaptations...

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