Paleontology News

Jun 11, 2021 by News Staff

Paleoclimatologists have precisely reconstructed monthly sea surface temperatures at around 50 °N latitude from fossil shells of bivalve mollusks that lived during the Campanian (Late Cretaceous epoch) greenhouse period, about 78 million years ago. Cretaceous-period dinosaurs had to deal with greater seasonal differences than previously thought. Image credit: Sergey Krasovskiy. “We used to think that when the climate warmed like it did in the Cretaceous...

Jun 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-discovered species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur, named Australotitan cooperensis, is the largest species of dinosaur ever found in Australia. Life...

Jun 4, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have examined 6,800- to 4,600-year-old coprolites attributed to the little bush moa (Anomalopteryx didiformis). The results support the...

Jun 2, 2021 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal PeerJ, paleontologists present bite force estimates for a juvenile Tyrannosaurus rex based on mechanical tests designed...

May 31, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of lambeosaurine hadrosaur from fossils found in northern Mexico. Life reconstruction of Tlatolophus galorum....

May 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

While the egg was about the same size as those laid by mainland emus, a duo of avian paleontologists from Australia and the United Kingdom used it to calculate...

May 25, 2021 by News Staff

A duo of paleontologists from San Diego State University and the San Diego Natural History Museum has explored the transition from raptorial feeding in...

May 24, 2021 by News Staff

In new research, an international team of scientists sequenced and analyzed mitochondrial and nuclear genomes of living and extinct caballine horses (Equus...

May 21, 2021 by News Staff

A new genus and species of side-necked turtle that lived 96 million years ago (Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch) has been identified from the...

May 19, 2021 by News Staff

Atmospheric oxygen is thought to have played a vital role in the evolution of complex multicellular organisms. The so-called oxygen control hypothesis...

May 17, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A fossilized squid-like cephalopod holds crustacean remains in its arm crown and, in turn, represents the remains of the meal of a predatory shark, according...

May 13, 2021 by News Staff

The newly-discovered fossilized footprints were made by at least two mammalian species around 58 million years ago in a brackish water lagoon in what is...

May 13, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new species of mosasaur based on two complete skulls and jaws found in Morocco. An artist’s impression of Pluridens...

May 12, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of horned (ceratopsid) dinosaur has been identified from an incomplete skeleton found in New Mexico, the United States. Life reconstruction...

May 12, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is the oldest macrofossil evidence of Paullinieae, a diverse group of tropical and subtropical climbing plants...

May 7, 2021 by News Staff

Shuvuuia deserti, a species of alvarezsauroid dinosaur that lived during the Late Cretaceous epoch in what is now Mongolia, had extreme low-light vision...

May 5, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Sahonachelys mailakavava, a newly-identified species of pelomedusoid turtle from the Late Cretaceous of Madagascar, had an unusually flattened skull, a...

May 4, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists from the Ohio State University at Marion and Gonzaga University have identified a new species of large machairodontine saber-toothed cat...

May 3, 2021 by News Staff

Bicellum brasieri, a freshwater protist that lived nearly one billion years ago, had two distinct cell types and could be the earliest multicellular animal...

Apr 28, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Yamatosaurus izanagii roamed our planet 71.8 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous epoch. This artist’s illustration of Yamatosaurus izanagii...