Paleontology News

250-Million-Year-Old Embryonated Dicynodont Egg Found in South Africa

An artist’s impression of Lystrosaurus. Image credit: Victor O. Leshyk, www.victorleshyk.com / University of Birmingham.
Apr 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using high-resolution CT and synchrotron scanning, paleontologists confirmed that the fossilized specimen from the Early Triassic of the South African Karoo Basin contains an unborn dicynodont Lystrosaurus, resolving a long-standing mystery about whether early mammal ancestors laid eggs. The researchers suggest the dicynodont eggs were likely soft-shelled, explaining why they have remained elusive for so long. The embryonated egg of the Early Triassic...

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Captorhinus aguti. Image credit: Michael DeBraga.

Permian Fossil is Earliest Evidence of Rib-Powered Breathing

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have examined 289-million-year-old specimens of the early reptile Captorhinus aguti that preserve a covering of three-dimensional skin,...

Reconstruction of a Paleocadmus decaying in the Mazon Creek marine basin; the separated shell is visible in the background; other Mazon Creek fauna are visible, such as the polychaete Esconites zelus (foreground) and Bandringa rayi, an elasmobranch shark (back left). Image credit: Franz Anthony.

‘Oldest Fossil Octopus’ Wasn’t One After All

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Pohlsepia mazonensis, a cephalopod species first described in 2000 from a 300-million-year-old specimen and featured in the Guinness Book of Records as...

Reconstruction of the Jiangchuan Biota. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang.

Ediacaran Fossils from China Rewrite Timeline of Animal Evolution

Apr 6, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

An assemblage of more than 700 Ediacaran fossils from the end of the Ediacaran period indicates that key animal groups — including early relatives...

A pair of Platypterigius sp. Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0.

Jurassic Ichthyosaur Fossil Found in Cuba

Apr 3, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Deep inside a limestone cave in western Cuba, paleontologists have found the most complete ichthyosaur skeleton yet found on the island. Ophthalmosaurid...

An artist’s reconstruction of Balticolasma wunderlichi male. Image credit: Joshua Knüppe.

Bizarre Harvestman Species Found Preserved in Ukrainian and Baltic Amber

Apr 2, 2026 by Natali Anderson

In a paper published online March 18 in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, paleontologists described a new species of harvestman found in two pieces...

The surprisingly complex anatomy of Megachelicerax cousteaui. Image credit: Masato Hattori / Harvard University.

500-Million-Year-Old Fossil Identified as Oldest Known Chelicerate

Apr 1, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists at Harvard University have described a large predatory arthropod from the Middle Cambrian of Utah featuring massive three-segmented chelicerae....

Gigantic griffinfly in a Carboniferous forest.

Gigantic Prehistoric Dragonfly-Like Insects May Not Owe Their Size to Oxygen: Study

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

Long thought to be fueled by increased atmospheric oxygen concentration, enormous griffinflies from the Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago, may...

Reconstruction of a Triassic coelacanth schematically showing the otophysic connection linking the ossified lung to the inner ear and enabling underwater hearing. Image credit: A. Beneteau & L. Cavin, MHNG.

Triassic Coelacanths May Have Heard the Ocean with Their Lungs

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

An analysis of two 240-million-year-old coelacanth fossils suggests a bizarre sensory adaptation: an ossified lung that transmitted sound to the inner...

Life reconstruction of Masripithecus moghraensis. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Early Miocene Fossil Fills Gap in Ape Family Tree

Mar 29, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of fossil ape that lived about 17-18 million years ago in northern Egypt. The discovery suggests...

Canadian Eskimo dogs. Illustration by John James Audubon and John Bachman (1845-1848).

Ancient DNA Study Rewrites Origins of Europe’s First Dogs

Mar 26, 2026 by News Staff

Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered...

Life reconstruction of Cistecynodon parvus. Image credit: Morgan Hopf.

CT Scans Solve Decades-Old Mystery of Triassic Cynodont

Mar 23, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

Known from a single skull discovered in South Africa in 1952, Cistecynodon parvus has been shuffled across the evolutionary tree: described at various...

A Tyrannosaurus attacking an adult Edmontosaurus. Image credit: Jenn Hall.

Duck-Billed Dinosaur Fossil Shows Direct Evidence of Tyrannosaur Attack

Mar 23, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A semi-complete skull of an adult Edmontosaurus at Montana State’s Museum of the Rockies preserves a fleeting moment from the Late Cretaceous: a tyrannosaur...

An artist’s interpretation of a juvenile Doolysaurus huhmini. Image credit: Jun Seong Yi.

New Species of Plant-Eating Dinosaur Unearthed in Korea

Mar 19, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of small plant-eating dinosaur has been identified from a partial skeleton of a juvenile individual discovered in the Republic of Korea. An...

An artist impression of Huanansaurus ganzhouensis. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

Oviraptors May Have Needed the Sun to Hatch Their Eggs

Mar 17, 2026 by News Staff

New experiments indicate bird-like oviraptorid dinosaurs could not fully warm their eggs with body heat alone, instead combining brooding with solar warmth...

Yunnanocyclus fortis. Image credit: Sun et al., doi: 10.1002/spp2.70052.

Early Triassic Cyclidan Crustacean Had Powerful Jaws

Mar 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of enigmatic cyclidan crustacean on the basis of three well-preserved specimens from the Early Triassic Guiyang...

Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) were the largest land mammals of the European Pleistocene. Image credit: Hodari Nundu, CC-BY-4.0.

Neanderthals May Have Hunted Giant Elephants that Roamed across Prehistoric Europe

Mar 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Chemical clues preserved in the teeth of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) from the 125,000-year-old site of Neumark-Nord in Germany suggest...

Crocodylus lucivenator overlapped with the famed Lucy and her hominin kin and would have hunted them. Image credit: Tyler Stone, University of Iowa.

New Fossil Crocodile from Ethiopia Lived alongside Australopithecus afarensis

Mar 12, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists analyzing fossils from Ethiopia have described a previously unknown crocodile species that shared the landscape with a hominid species...

The mantled howler (Alouatta palliata) in Panama. Image credit: Ariel Rodriguez-Vargas / CC BY 4.0.

Early Howler Monkeys Adapted to Eating Leaves 13 Million Years Ago

Mar 11, 2026 by News Staff

Fossil jaws of the ancient monkey species Stirtonia victoriae from the La Victoria Formation in Colombia suggest that a shift toward leaf-eating allowed...

Tanyka amnicola. Image credit: Vitor Silva.

275-Million-Year-Old Amphibian Relative with Twisted Jaws Rewrites Early Tetrapod Diets

Mar 10, 2026 by News Staff

A new genus and species of archaic stem tetrapod from the Permian period has been identified from fossil jawbones found in Brazil. Named Tanyka amnicola,...

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