Paleontology News

Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking eubrachyuran crab in Burmese amber. Image credit: Luque et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abj5689.

99-Million-Year-Old Modern-Looking Crab Found in Burmese Amber

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

The new fossil from the Cretaceous of Myanmar preserves large compound eyes, delicate mouthparts, and even gills. Cretapsara athanata, a modern-looking...

A trio of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) trudges over snow covered hills; behind them, mountains with snow covered peaks rise above dark green forests of fir trees. Image credit: Daniel Eskridge.

Rapid Climate Change Wiped Out Woolly Mammoths, Study Confirms

Oct 20, 2021 by News Staff

In a large-scale environmental DNA metagenomic study of ancient plant and mammal communities, an international team of researchers have analyzed 535 permafrost...

Shortly after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the earliest known primates, such as Purgatorius mckeeveri shown in the foreground, quickly set themselves apart from their competition -- like the archaic ungulate mammal on the forest floor -- by specializing in an omnivorous diet including fruit found up in the trees. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Ancestors of Primates and Marsupials May Have Left Trees to Survive End-Cretaceous Extinction

Oct 15, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago was characterized by a worldwide ecological catastrophe and rapid species turnover. Arboreal (tree-dwelling)...

Life reconstruction of Terropterus xiushanensis. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Fossils of Giant Sea Scorpion Found in China

Oct 11, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of mixopterid eurypterid (sea scorpion) has been identified from several fossil specimens found in the Xiushan Formation, China. Life...

A British Pleistocene landscape during an interglacial with cave lion (Panthera spelaea), straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), narrow-nosed rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), steppe bison (Bison priscus), aurochs (Bison primigenius) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). Image credit: Roman Uchytel, via the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

Previously Unknown Mass Extinction Occurred 30 Million Years Ago in Africa and Arabia

Oct 8, 2021 by News Staff

Nearly 63% of Afro-Arabian mammalian species went extinct approximately 30 million years ago (Oligocene epoch), after Earth’s climate shifted from swampy...

Reconstruction of the Darwin’s ground sloth (Mylodon darwinii) feeding on the carcass of the hoofed native herbivore Macrauchenia. These extinct mammals roamed the Pleistocene landscape of Patagonia and other parts of high and mid-latitude South America, like this reconstructed scene from about 12,000 years ago in front of the famous Mylodon Cave (Cueva del Milodón) in southern Chile. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

Darwin’s Ground Sloth was Opportunistic Omnivore, Study Says

Oct 7, 2021 by News Staff

New research published in the journal Scientific Reports provides the first direct evidence of omnivory in an ancient sloth species. Reconstruction of...

The left first upper molar of Hippopotamus antiquus from the Early Pleistocene Siliceous Member in Westbury Cave, Somerset, England. Image credit: Neil Adams / University of Leicester.

Huge Hippos Roamed Britain One Million Years Ago

Oct 7, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found a million-year-old hippo tooth at the site of Westbury Cave in Somerset, England. This fossil constitutes the earliest bona...

Life reconstruction of Pendraig milnerae among the fissures of Pant-y-ffynnon and three individuals of the rhynchocephalian lepidosaur Clevosaurus cambrica during the Late Triassic epoch. Image credit: James Robbins.

New Small-Sized Carnivorous Dinosaur Unearthed in Wales

Oct 7, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of coelophysoid theropod dinosaur from the Late Triassic deposits of Pant-y-ffynnon in southern...

Paradoryphoribius chronocaribbeus photographed with transmitted light under stereomicroscope. Image credit: Mapalo et al., doi: 10.1098/rspb.2021.1760.

Paleontologists Find Ancient Tardigrade in Dominican Amber

Oct 6, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of tardigrade found in a 16-million-year-old piece of amber from the Dominican Republic. Named Paradoryphoribius...

New Horned Dinosaur Species Identified in New Mexico

Oct 5, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of chasmosaurine ceratopsid dinosaur has been identified from skeletal fragments found in the Late Cretaceous rocks of the Hall...

Side view of Eograminis balticus. Image credit: Poinar & Soreng, doi: 10.1086/716781.

Eocene Grass Spikelet Found Preserved in Baltic Amber

Oct 5, 2021 by News Staff

Eograminis balticus, a new species of grass found in a piece of 40-50-million-year-old amber, represents the first definite grass to be described from...

The world’s largest ammonite specimen (1.8 m in diameter) housed in the Munster Natural History Museum, Germany. Image credit: Christina Ifrim.

Giant Ammonites Once Thrived on Both Sides of Atlantic

Oct 4, 2021 by News Staff

Enormous ammonites up to 1.8 m (6 feet) across lived on both sides of the Atlantic, in the United Kingdom and Mexico, some 83 million years ago (Cretaceous...

Phacops geesops, a trilobite species that lived during the Devonian period; the animal’s eyes consist of 200 single lenses each, spanning six small facets, which again form one eye each. Image credit: Brigitte Schoenemann.

Devonian Phacopid Trilobites Had Unique Hyper-Compound Eyes

Oct 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Trilobites are extinct arthropods that dominated the faunas of the Paleozoic Era. Since their appearance 523 million years ago, they were equipped with...

Artist’s impressions of Ceratosuchops inferodios (foreground) and Riparovenator milnerae (background). Image credit: Anthony Hutchings.

Paleontologists Discover Two New Species of Spinosaurid Dinosaurs

Sep 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Two new Early Cretaceous specimens from the Wessex Formation of the Isle of Wight, UK, represent distinct and novel genera and species of spinosaurids:...

Gloeotrichia echinulata, a colonial species of cyanobacteria. Image credit: Barry Rosen, U.S. Geological Survey.

Oxygenic Photosynthesis and Living Lineages of Cyanobacteria Evolved in Archean Eon, Study Suggests

Sep 30, 2021 by News Staff

Using a new gene-analyzing technique, researchers from MIT and elsewhere have found that all extant species of cyanobacteria can be traced back to a common...

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.

Triassic Volcanic Eruptions Helped Dinosaurs Take Over Earth

Sep 29, 2021 by News Staff

The Carnian stage (lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago) of the Triassic period marks one of the most significant intervals of the past 250 million...

Life reconstruction of Archaehierax sylvestris. Image credit: Jacob Blokland / Taylor & Francis Online.

Paleontologists Find 25-Million-Year-Old Eagle-Like Bird Fossil in Australia

Sep 28, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of extinct predatory bird has been identified from a fossilized partial skeleton unearthed in South Australia. Life reconstruction...

Photograph and line drawing of the Caudipteryx specimen. Image credit: Zheng et al., doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02627-8.

Paleontologists Find Chromatin Threads in Fossilized Dinosaur Cartilage

Sep 27, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have analyzed cartilage material from Caudipteryx, an oviraptorosaurid dinosaur that lived in what in now China some 125 million years...

Life reconstruction of the armored dinosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli, which lived in what is now Alberta, Canada, some 110 million years ago, eating ferns. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi / Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Fossil of Earliest Known Ankylosaur Unearthed in Morocco

Sep 24, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-discovered dinosaur species, Spicomellus afer, is the earliest-known ankylosaur and the first ankylosaur to be named from Africa. Life reconstruction...