Paleontology News

Life reconstruction of Vulcanoscaptor ninoti. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra / IPHES-CERCA.

3.25-Million-Year-Old Fossil Identified as New Mole Species

Jul 15, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of mole (family Talpidae) from a partial skeleton discovered at the Pliocene-aged site of Camp...

The skeleton of Pulaosaurus qinglong in left lateral view. Image credit: Hailong Zhang.

New Neornithischian Dinosaur Unearthed in China

Jul 14, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a new species of early-diverging neornithischian dinosaur that was part of the Jurassic Yanliao Biota...

This scene depicts an oviraptorid dinosaur called Citipati being startled while resting on a sand dune. The creature raises its arms in a threat display, which reveals its wrists, highlighting the small migrated pisiform carpal (blue X-ray view) bone. Image credit: Henry S. Sharpe.

Key Wrist Bone Appeared in Bird Ancestors Millions of Years Earlier than Previously Thought

Jul 14, 2025 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from Yale University and Stony Brook University made this discovery after examining fossils from two species of bird-like dinosaurs...

Fossil remains of Tongnanlong zhimingi. Image credit: Wei et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09796-0.

New Species of Extremely Gigantic Sauropod Dinosaur Found in China

Jul 11, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have discovered the skeletal remains of a remarkable new genus and species of huge-sized mamenchisaurid dinosaur from the Late...

A paleoartist’s reconstruction of the three extinct species whose genomes were sequenced by Liu et al.: in the foreground is a Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum), and close behind are two Merck’s rhinoceroses (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis); in the far background is a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis). Image credit: Beth Zaiken.

Ancient Protein Analysis Sheds New Light on Rhino Family Tree

Jul 10, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have retrieved ancient enamel protein sequences from a fossilized tooth of Epiaceratherium sp., a rhinocerotid that lived in Canada’s...

An artist’s restoration of Novaculadon mirabilis. Image credit: Hamzah Imran.

New Species of Multituberculate Mammal Discovered in UK

Jul 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized dental remains from a new genus and species of plagiaulacid multituberculate in the Lower Cretaceous Lulworth...

The Turkana Basin within the East African Rift System preserves fossil assemblages that date back more than 66 million years; Green et al. collected powdered samples for paleoproteomic analysis from the dense interiors of enamel from large herbivores from the Early Pleistocene back to the Oligocene (29 million years). Image credit: Green et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09040-9.

Paleontologists Find Ancient Proteins in 18-Million-Year-Old Mammal Tooth Enamel

Jul 9, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered protein sequences within dense enamel tissues of ancient rhinocerotid and proboscidean fossils collected at sites of Buluk...

An artist’s reconstruction of Eotephradactylus mcintireae, other animals, and plants found preserved in a remote bonebed in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, the United States. Image credit: Brian Engh.

Unusual Bonebed in Arizona Reveals North America’s Earliest-Known Pterosaur

Jul 8, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed the fossilized jawbone of a new pterosaur species alongside hundreds of other fossils — including one of the world’s...

Life reconstruction of Zhongyuansaurus junchangi. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

New Species of Armored Dinosaur Identified in China

Jul 7, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of the ankylosaurid dinosaur genus Zhongyuansaurus using a specimen found in China’s Henan province. Life...

This lithograph shows Loligo forbesii, a species of squid in the order Myopsida. Image credit: Comingio Merculiano.

Study: Squids Originated and Rapidly Radiated by 100 Million Years Ago

Jul 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using an innovative digital fossil-mining approach, paleontologists analyzed more than 250 fossil beaks from 40 ancient squid species. Their results suggest...

An artist’s reconstruction of Yinshanosaurus angustus. Image credit: X.-C. Guo, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

New Species of Permian Herbivorous Tetrapod Identified in China

Jun 30, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of mid-sized pareiasaur from two fossilized specimes found in China in 2018. An artist’s reconstruction...

Australian magpies (Gymnorhina tibicen), adult and juvenile, at Taveuni, Fiji. Image credit: Charles J. Sharp, https://www.sharpphotography.co.uk / CC BY-SA 4.0.

19-Million-Year-Old Currawong Fossil Found in New Zealand

Jun 27, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have desribed a new species of large passerine bird based the fossilized remains from the Bannockburn Formation near St Bathans in Otago,...

Ecological reconstruction of Cretaceous insects and insect-pathogenic fungi. An ant is discarding an infected pupa, and an infected fly is located on a distant tree trunk. Image credit: Zhuang et al., doi: 10.1098/rspb.2025.0407.

Two Species of Parasitic Fungi Found in 99-Million-Year-Old Amber

Jun 27, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

These fossil fungi from mid-Cretaceous Kachin amber are from the same family as the zombie-ant fungus Ophiocordyceps unilateralis, which has gained widespread...

A reconstruction of early Cambrian ocean life in South China. Image credit: Dongjing Fu.

Cambrian Explosion Occurred Millions of Years Earlier than Previously Thought: Study

Jun 26, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed the body profiles of Ediacaran-Cambrian organisms by using trace fossils as proxies for body fossils. A reconstruction of...

Life reconstruction of Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae. Image credit: Bob Nicholls.

Dog-Sized Neornithischian Dinosaur Unearthed in Colorado

Jun 26, 2025 by News Staff

A remarkable new genus and species of neornithischian dinosaur being named Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae has been identified from a three-dimensionally...

Life reconstruction of Swaindelphys. Image credit: Kristen Tietjen.

New Species of Metatherian Mammal Unearthed in Texas

Jun 24, 2025 by News Staff

Members of the metatherian genus Swaindelphys were previously known from Swain Quarry in south-central Wyoming and the Nacimiento Formation in the San...

An artist’s reconstruction of Litoria tylerantiqua (right) and the previously-described species Platyplectrum casca (left) from Murgon, south-eastern Queensland. Image: Samantha Yabsley, https://www.instagram.com/s.h.y_art.

55-Million-Year-Old Tree Frog Fossil Unearthed in Australia

Jun 20, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The discovery of Litoria tylerantiqua suggests that Australian treefrogs (pelodryadids) were present in Australia by the Early Eocene, when the continent...

An artist’s impression of a ‘Snowball Earth.’ Image credit: NASA.

Early Complex Life May Have Sheltered in Meltwater Ponds during Snowball Earth Episodes: Study

Jun 19, 2025 by News Staff

During periods known as Snowball Earth, between 720 and 635 million years ago, early eukaryotes — complex cellular lifeforms that eventually evolved...

Life reconstruction of Bolg amondol. Image credit: Cullen Townsend.

Armored, Large-Bodied Lizards Lived alongside Dinosaurs in Cretaceous North America

Jun 18, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

New fossilized specimens of monstersaurs — including a previously unknown genus and species, Bolg amondol — from the Kaiparowits Formation...