Paleontology News

Ordovician sea life. Image credit: Fritz Geller-Grimm / National Museum of Natural History / CC BY-SA 2.5.

New Research Explores Cause of End-Ordovician Mass Extinction

Nov 2, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Ordovician mass extinction, the first of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions occurred 445 million years ago and was characterized by the disappearance...

Life restoration of Nochelaspis maeandrine. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Early Devonian Fish Had Triangular Head Shield

Nov 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoichthyologists in China have re-described Nochelaspis maeandrine, a species of large-sized eugaleaspiform fish that lived 415 million years ago (Devonian...

A detail from the 1988 Mark Hallett mural, ‘Trapped in Time,’ depicting saber-toothed cats digging into prey. Image credit: La Brea Tar Pits.

Saber-Toothed Cats were Social Animals, New Study Suggests

Nov 1, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers has reconstructed and analyzed the external and internal bone morphology of a deformed hip bone from Smilodon fatalis, one of the...

An artist’s impression of hatchling pterosaurs. Image credit: Megan Jacobs.

Babies of Cretaceous Giant Pterosaurs Outcompeted Adults of Smaller Pterosaur Species: Study

Oct 28, 2021 by News Staff

Pterosaurs reached only modest sizes in the Triassic and Jurassic periods. By contrast, the Cretaceous period saw a trend toward large to giant size (2...

An illustration of Sciroseps pawhuskai. Image credit: Brian Engh.

Paleontologists Find Fossils of New Lizard and Fish Species in Arkansas

Oct 22, 2021 by News Staff

Two new species — the small skink Sciroseps pawhuskai and the pycnodontiform fish Anomoeodus caddoi — that lived during the Early Cretaceous...

Reconsturction of Mussaurus patagonicus herd. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez.

Early Jurassic Herbivorous Dinosaurs Lived in Age-Segregated Herds

Oct 22, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed an exceptional fossil assemblage from the Laguna Colorada Formation in Patagonia, Argentina, that includes 193-million-year-old...

Librado et al. pinpoint the Western Eurasian steppes, especially the lower Volga-Don region, as the homeland of modern domestic horses. Image credit: Devanath.

Horses Were First Domesticated in Western Eurasian Steppes More Than 4,000 Years Ago

Oct 21, 2021 by News Staff

In a study published this week in the journal Nature, scientists analyzed ancient horse genomes from all suspected domestication centers, including Iberia,...

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...