Paleontology News

Scientists Reconstruct 2-Million-Year-Old Ecosystem from Environmental DNA

Reconstruction of the Kap København Formation ecosystem 2 million years ago. Image credit: Beth Zaiken.
Dec 8, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have analyzed microscopic fragments of 2-million-year-old environmental DNA from of the Kap København Formation in Greenland. The DNA record shows an open boreal forest ecosystem with mixed vegetation of poplar, birch and thuja trees, as well as a variety of Arctic and boreal shrubs and herbs. The record also confirms the presence of hare, mastodons, reindeer, rodents and geese, all ancestral to their present-day and late Pleistocene...

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Spinosaurus aegyptiacus was adapted for hunting along shorelines instead of venturing deep underwater. Image credit: James Gurney.

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus Is Not a Specialized Aquatic Dinosaur: Study

Dec 7, 2022 by News Staff

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, a sail-backed theropod dinosaur that lived in what is now North Africa during the Cretaceous period, about 95 million years ago,...

Hypothetical life restoration of a mawsoniid coelacanth from the Kimmeridge Clay Formation. Image credit: S. Gausden.

Fossil of Large Jurassic Coelacanth Found in England

Dec 6, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Fossilized remains of an enigmatic mawsoniid coelacanth that grew over 1 m long have been discovered by an international team of paleontologists from the...

The new specimen and silhouette of Eromangasaurus australis. Image credit: Queensland Museum.

Australian Paleontologists Unearth 100-Million-Year-Old Elasmosaur Fossil

Dec 6, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Australia have unearthed the country’s first head and associated body of a long-necked marine reptile called Eromangasaurus australis. The...

Life reconstruction of Patagopelta cristata. Image credit: Gabriel Díaz Yalten.

New Small-Bodied Ankylosaur Species Unearthed in Argentina

Dec 5, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of nodosaurid ankylosaur has been identified from fossils found in Patagonia, Argentina. Life reconstruction of Patagopelta cristata....

An artist’s impression of Cryptovaranoides microlanius. Image credit: Lavinia Gandolfi.

Modern-Type Lizards Originated in Late Triassic Epoch, Fossil Shows

Dec 2, 2022 by News Staff

Cryptovaranoides microlanius is an extinct relative of living lizards such as monitor lizards, gila monsters and slow worms. An artist’s impression of...

Life reconstruction of Natovenator polydontus. Image credit: Yusik Choi.

Cretaceous Bird-Like Dinosaur Had Adaptations for Swimming and Diving

Dec 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of theropod dinosaur with a streamlined body as in diving birds has been identified from a well-preserved skeleton found in Mongolia. Life...

Life reconstruction of Janavis finalidens. Image credit: Phillip Krzeminski.

Cretaceous-Period Toothed Bird Had Mobile Beak

Dec 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Janavis finalidens — an extinct bird species that lived 66.7 million years ago and was one of the last toothed birds to ever live — had a mobile,...

Pterodactylus antiquus from the Late Jurassic Torleite Formation of Painten. Image credit: Augustin et al., doi: 10.3897/fr.25.90692.

Paleontologists Find Oldest Fossil of Pterodactylus

Nov 30, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

This Pterodactylus individual lived in what is now Germany during the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic epoch, between 155 and 152 million years ago. Pterodactylus...

Castor sp. from the Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America by John Woodhouse Audubon.

Miocene-Period Beavers Lived in Large Family Groups, Study Suggests

Nov 29, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have examined 142 new specimens, including 160 teeth, of the extinct medium-sized beaver species Steneofiber depereti from the Late Miocene...

The dinosauroid by Dale Russell and Ron Séguin. Image credit: Canadian Museum of Nature / Darren Naish & Will Tattersdill, doi: 10.1139/cjes-2020-0172.

What If Non-Avian Dinosaurs Hadn’t Gone Extinct?

Nov 28, 2022 by The Conversation

About 66 million years ago, a 10-km-wide asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. The impact unleashed...

Daspletosaurus wilsoni is recognized by the unique arrangement of small hornlets around the eye. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin / Badlands Dinosaur Museum.

Newly-Discovered Tyrannosaur Species Fills Gap in Lineage Leading to Tyrannosaurus rex

Nov 25, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Daspletosaurus wilsoni, a tyrannosaurid dinosaur that lived 76.5 million years ago in what is now Montana, the United States, displays a unique combination...

Transylvanosaurus platycephalus. Image credit: Peter Nickolaus.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Herbivorous Dinosaur

Nov 24, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of rhabdodontid ornithopod dinosaur has been identified from the fossilized skull bones found in the Haţeg Basin in western Romania. Inhabitants...

An artist’s impression of Kimberella. Image credit: Oleg Kuznetsov, 3Depix.

Study: Ediacaran Animals Ate Green Algae and Bacteria

Nov 23, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The oldest animals appear in the fossil record among Ediacaran biota communities. In new research, paleontologists from the Australian National University...

An artist’s reconstruction of Eryops megacephalus (left) and Paracyclotosaurus davidi (right). Image credit: Josè Vitor Silva.

Permian-Triassic Crocodile-Like Amphibians Were as Heavy as Pygmy Hippos, Study Suggests

Nov 22, 2022 by News Staff

Temnospondyli is a diverse group of extinct amphibians that flourished worldwide during the Carboniferous, Permian, and Triassic periods. The body mass...

Daurlong wangi skull. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-24602-x.

New Bird-Like Dinosaur Species Found with Remains of Frog in Its Stomach

Nov 21, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

More than 120 million years ago in what is now China, a hungry dromaeosaurid dinosaur ate a small frog. Daurlong wangi holotype: (a) whole specimen, (b)...

An artist’s impression of Archelon ischyros. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, spinops.blogspot.com.

Gigantic Turtle Species Lived in Europe 78 Million Years Ago

Nov 18, 2022 by News Staff

Aside from being the largest marine turtle species ever discovered in Europe, and one of the largest worldwide, the discovery of Leviathanochelys aenigmatica...

Palaeoneiros clackorum skull and shoulder girdle. Image credit: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University / President and Fellows of Harvard College.

Ray-Finned Fish Lineages Were Not as Hard Hit by End-Devonian Extinction as Previously Thought

Nov 17, 2022 by News Staff

Many accounts of the early history of ray-finned fishes (actinopterygians) posit that the end-Devonian mass extinction event 359 million years ago had...

An artistic reconstruction of the two new opabiniid-like animals, with Mieridduryn bonniae at the front and the smaller unnamed animal at the back. Image credit: Franz Anthony.

Fossils of Two Bizarre Ordovician Animals Found in Wales

Nov 16, 2022 by News Staff

Two specimens of euarthropods from the Middle Ordovician Castle Bank Biota in Wales, the United Kingdom, have striking similarities to Opabinia, an iconic...

Life reconstruction of a macronarian dinosaur. Image credit: Levi Bernardo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Species of Jurassic Sauropod Dinosaur Uncovered in China

Nov 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Yuzhoulong qurenensis is one of the earliest-diverging members of the sauropod dinosaur clade Macronaria. Life reconstruction of a macronarian dinosaur....

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