Paleontology News

Cave lions painted in the Chauvet Cave, France.

Ancient Lions and Bears Colonized North America in Multiple Waves, DNA Study Says

Jan 4, 2022 by News Staff

Researchers from the University of Adelaide and elsewhere have sequenced and analyzed mitochondrial DNA from fossils of cave lions (Panthera spp.) and...

An individual footprint of a sauropodomorph dinosaur on the foreshore near Penarth, south Wales, the United Kingdom. Image credit: Peter Falkingham, Natural History Museum, London.

Triassic Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Wales

Jan 3, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered the footprints of large sauropodomorph dinosaurs on the shoreline near Penarth in south Wales, the United Kingdom. An individual...

Life restoration of Mamenchisaurus youngi, the best-known member of the family Mamenchisauridae. Image credit: Steveoc 86 / CC BY-SA 2.5.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur

Dec 31, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of sauropod dinosaur has been identified from a fossilized bone found in China almost 30 years ago. Life restoration of Mamenchisaurus...

A life recreation of Cymbospondylus youngorum stalking the Nevadan oceans of the Late Triassic epoch, some 246 million years ago. Image credit: Stephanie Abramowicz.

244-Million-Year-Old Giant Ichthyosaur Unearthed in Nevada

Dec 24, 2021 by News Staff

With a skull size of 2 m (6.6 feet) and an estimated body size of 17 m (56 feet), the newly-identified ichthyosaur species is the largest animal discovered...

An artist’s reconstruction of the oviraptorosaur egg and embryo from the Hekou Formation, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, southern China. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Paleontologists Find Exceptionally Preserved Embryo inside 70-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Egg

Dec 22, 2021 by News Staff

The fossilized dinosaur egg from the Hekou Formation, Ganzhou, Jiangxi province, southern China, is elongate ovoid in shape with dimensions of 16.7 cm...

The 326-million-year-old fossilized section of the giant millipede Arthropleura, found in a sandstone boulder in the north of England. Image credit: Neil Daves.

Fossil of Giant Millipede Unearthed in England

Dec 21, 2021 by News Staff

Arthropleura, an enormous myriapod that lived some 326 million years ago (Carboniferous period), is estimated to have been 55 cm (1.8 feet) in width and...

New Bird-Like Dinosaur Species Unearthed on Isle of Wight

Dec 21, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of dromaeosaurid dinosaur has been discovered by a team of paleontologists from the University of Bath and the University of Portsmouth. Life...

An illustration depicting the onset of the end-Permian mass extinction. Image credit: Dawid Adam Iurino / PaleoFactory, Sapienza University of Rome / Jurikova et al, doi: 10.1038/s41561-020-00646-4.

Toxic Microbes Helped Cause and Prolong End-Permian Marine Mass Extinction, Study Suggests

Dec 20, 2021 by News Staff

Extreme warming at the end of the Permian period induced profound changes in marine biogeochemical cycling and animal habitability, leading to the largest...

Brontosaurus acted as an ecosystem engineer in a warm and vegetated landscape not dissimilar to modern-day savannah type biomes. Image credit: Emiliano Troco.

Sauropod Dinosaurs Preferred to Live in Warmer, More Tropical Regions

Dec 17, 2021 by News Staff

Dinosaurs dominated Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystems globally. However, whereas a pole-to-pole geographic distribution characterized ornithischian and theropod...

Life reconstruction of Brevirostruavis macrohyoideus. Image credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Cretaceous-Period Bird Had Hyper-Elongated Tongue

Dec 14, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The bony tongue of the newly-identified enantiornithine bird species, Brevirostruavis macrohyoideus, was nearly as long as its head. Life reconstruction...

Cladarosymblema narrienense: (A) lateral head reconstruction of Cladarosymblema narrienense; color-coded as follows: dermal skull roof (dark blue), cheek (light blue), lower jaw (pale green), opercular series (purple), and pectoral (dark green); bones marked with ‘?’ remain unknown in this species; (B-E) micro-CT 3D rendering of all segmented bones in the holotype. Image credit: Clement et al., doi: 10.7717/peerj.12597.

Paleontologists Take Fresh Look at Carboniferous Tetrapodomorph Fish

Dec 14, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have used high-resolution micro-CT and synchrotron tomography to scan two well-preserved 3D specimens of the tetrapodomorph fish Cladarosymblema...

An artist’s impression of the likely-endothermic Dimetrodon grandis, an early synapsid that was around for about 20 million years from the Early Permian epoch, 295 million years ago. Image credit: Max Bellomio.

Study Sheds New Light on Origin of Whole-Body Endothermy

Dec 14, 2021 by News Staff

The whole-body endothermy seen in modern birds and mammals is long held to have evolved independently in each group, a reasonable assumption when it was...

La Torre 6A tracksite map with the studied trackway in blue and the other footprints in gray. Image credit: Navarro-Lorbés et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02557-9.

120-Million-Year-Old Footprints of Fast-Running Dinosaurs Found in Spain

Dec 13, 2021 by News Staff

Some species of theropods (two-legged dinosaurs) could reach speeds of 45 kmh (28 mph), according to analysis of Early-Cretaceous trackways of theropod...

The Chicxulub impact 66 million years ago generated a tsunami-like wave in an inland sea that killed and buried fish, mammals, insects and a Triceratops, the first victims of a cataclysm that led to Earth’s last mass extinction. Image credit: Robert DePalma.

Chicxulub Impact Occurred during Northern Spring or Summer: Study

Dec 10, 2021 by News Staff

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...

A simplified evolutionary tree showing where bright colors appear on birds and other living species from the study and where these colors may have appeared on their extinct relatives, including dinosaurs; skin (shown in orange), and scales and beak keratin (yellow) could have been brightly pigmented in extinct groups, whereas feathers and claws would probably not have been; areas without bright color are shown in gray. Image credit: Sarah Davis / University of Texas at Austin.

Non-Avian Dinosaurs May Have Had Bright-Colored Skin, Scales and Beaks

Dec 10, 2021 by News Staff

Non-avian dinosaurs may have had bright color on their skin, scales and beaks in a manner similar to modern birds, according to a paper published in the...

Backlit shell of Sigaloceras enodatum with visible organs. Image credit: Cherns et al., doi: 10.1130/G49551.1.

3D Tomography Scans Reveal Jurassic Ammonite’s Soft-Body Parts

Dec 9, 2021 by News Staff

Using correlative neutron and X-ray tomography, paleontologists have examined an exceptionally preserved specimen of Sigaloceras enodatum — a species...

An artist’s reconstruction of Stegouros elengassen. Image credit: Luis Pérez López.

Subantarctic Armored Dinosaur Had Bizarre Tail Weapon

Dec 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of ankylosaur has been identified from an almost complete skeleton found in Chilean Patagonia. An artist’s reconstruction of...

An artist’s rendition of Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Image credit: James Kuether.

Fossils Reveal Unique Walking Behavior of Quetzalcoatlus

Dec 8, 2021 by News Staff

With a 11-12-m wingspan (37-40 feet), Quetzalcoatlus is the largest flying organism ever known and one of the most familiar pterosaurs to the public. Its...

An artist’s impression of a pig-nosed turtle. Image credit: Monash University.

5-Million-Year-Old Pig-Nosed Turtle Fossil Found in South-Eastern Australia

Dec 7, 2021 by News Staff

The upper Miocene to lower Pliocene fossil from Beaumaris in Victoria, south-eastern Australia, completely rewrites the evolution of pig-nosed turtles. An...