Paleontology News

An artist’s impression of fossil platypus and environs circa 25 million years ago. Image credit: Gen Conway, Flinders University Palaeontology Lab.

Early Platypuses Had Strong Teeth and Powerful Jaws, Fossils Show

Apr 28, 2026 by News Staff

New fossils from the Namba Formation of South Australia reveal that 25 million years ago, Obdurodon insignis — a larger, tooth-bearing ancestor of...

Microbial mat chips scattered on a Cambrian tidal flat surface. Image credit: Nora Noffke.

Why Geologists Love Pond Scum

Apr 27, 2026 by Kenneth C. Gass

If you’ve ever wondered how geologists know so much about ancient beaches and shallow oceans — from the paleoenvironment to the animals roaming...

An artist’s impression of an ancient giant octopus. Image credit: Yohei Utsuki, Hokkaido University.

In Cretaceous Oceans, Giant ‘Kraken-Like’ Octopuses May Have Been Top Predators

Apr 27, 2026 by News Staff

Massive, soft-bodied cephalopods up to 19 m (62 feet) long rivaled — and perhaps hunted — the ocean’s fiercest reptiles in the Cretaceous...

An artistic representation of a Late Triassic landscape of southern Brazil depicting individuals of Isodapedon varzealis in the foreground and a proterochampsid in the background. Image credit: Caio Fantini.

New Fossil from Brazil Reveals Unexpected Diversity among Pre-Dinosaur Herbivores

Apr 23, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Brazil have identified a new genus and species of hyperodapedontine rhynchosaur — an extinct lineage of beaked, herbivorous reptiles...

Depiction of Paleocanna tentaculum individuals living in single tubes, as well as clusters of two or three tubes attached together. Image credit: Ramirez-Guerrero et al., doi: 10.1017/jpa.2025.10211.

450-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal Strange, Tube-Dwelling Jellyfish Relative

Apr 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of soft-bodied, tubicolous polyp medusozoan from well-preserved specimens found about 50 km northeast...

Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa (left) is disturbed by Hesperosuchus agilis (right) near a Coelophysis carcass at what will become modern-day Ghost Ranch, New Mexico, the United States. Image credit: Julio Lacerda.

Museum Fossil Reveals Triassic Crocodile Cousin with Powerful Jaws

Apr 20, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

CT scans of a decades-old specimen from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History show a new species of short-snouted crocodylomorph with unusually strong...

An artistic rendition of Ptychotherates bucculentus. Image credit: Megan Sodano / Virginia Tech.

New Triassic Dinosaur Species Identified in New Mexico

Apr 17, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of carnivorous herrerasaurian dinosaur has been described from an incomplete but well-preserved skull found in northern New Mexico,...

Muttaburrasaurus langdoni. Image credit: Matt Herne.

Big-Nosed Herbivorous Dinosaur May Have Been Picky Eater

Apr 15, 2026 by News Staff

New research shows that the large-bodied ornithopod dinosaur Muttaburrasaurus langdoni from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia was no ordinary herbivore....

Life reconstruction of the Owen’s giant echidna (Megalibgwilia owenii). Image credit: Chris Edser.

Giant Echidnas Once Roamed Australia’s Victoria, Fossil Shows

Apr 15, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Echidna fossils in Australia are rare and unevenly distributed across time and geography. In a new paper published in The Alcheringa, an Australasian Journal...

The mollusk trail Climactichnites blackberriensis (Cb) presumably stopping to eat a scyphozoan (jellyfish) that had washed up on shore. CS = clasts of a scyphozoan; DS = decomposing scyphozoan; R = ripple marks; S = scyphozoan.

Ancient Tidal Flats Were Busier Than We Thought

Apr 14, 2026 by Kenneth C. Gass & Nora Noffke

New trace fossil discoveries from the half-billion-year-old Cambrian tidal flats of Wisconsin at a site called Blackberry Hill continue to paint the picture...

An artist’s impression of Lystrosaurus. Image credit: Victor O. Leshyk, www.victorleshyk.com / University of Birmingham.

250-Million-Year-Old Embryonated Dicynodont Egg Found in South Africa

Apr 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Using high-resolution CT and synchrotron scanning, paleontologists confirmed that the fossilized specimen from the Early Triassic of the South African...

Captorhinus aguti. Image credit: Michael DeBraga.

Permian Fossil is Earliest Evidence of Rib-Powered Breathing

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have examined 289-million-year-old specimens of the early reptile Captorhinus aguti that preserve a covering of three-dimensional skin,...

Reconstruction of a Paleocadmus decaying in the Mazon Creek marine basin; the separated shell is visible in the background; other Mazon Creek fauna are visible, such as the polychaete Esconites zelus (foreground) and Bandringa rayi, an elasmobranch shark (back left). Image credit: Franz Anthony.

‘Oldest Fossil Octopus’ Wasn’t One After All

Apr 8, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Pohlsepia mazonensis, a cephalopod species first described in 2000 from a 300-million-year-old specimen and featured in the Guinness Book of Records as...

Reconstruction of the Jiangchuan Biota. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang.

Ediacaran Fossils from China Rewrite Timeline of Animal Evolution

Apr 6, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

An assemblage of more than 700 Ediacaran fossils from the end of the Ediacaran period indicates that key animal groups — including early relatives...

A pair of Platypterigius sp. Image credit: Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0.

Jurassic Ichthyosaur Fossil Found in Cuba

Apr 3, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Deep inside a limestone cave in western Cuba, paleontologists have found the most complete ichthyosaur skeleton yet found on the island. Ophthalmosaurid...

An artist’s reconstruction of Balticolasma wunderlichi male. Image credit: Joshua Knüppe.

Bizarre Harvestman Species Found Preserved in Ukrainian and Baltic Amber

Apr 2, 2026 by Natali Anderson

In a paper published online March 18 in the journal Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, paleontologists described a new species of harvestman found in two pieces...

The surprisingly complex anatomy of Megachelicerax cousteaui. Image credit: Masato Hattori / Harvard University.

500-Million-Year-Old Fossil Identified as Oldest Known Chelicerate

Apr 1, 2026 by News Staff

Paleontologists at Harvard University have described a large predatory arthropod from the Middle Cambrian of Utah featuring massive three-segmented chelicerae....

Gigantic griffinfly in a Carboniferous forest.

Gigantic Prehistoric Dragonfly-Like Insects May Not Owe Their Size to Oxygen: Study

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

Long thought to be fueled by increased atmospheric oxygen concentration, enormous griffinflies from the Carboniferous period, 300 million years ago, may...

Reconstruction of a Triassic coelacanth schematically showing the otophysic connection linking the ossified lung to the inner ear and enabling underwater hearing. Image credit: A. Beneteau & L. Cavin, MHNG.

Triassic Coelacanths May Have Heard the Ocean with Their Lungs

Mar 30, 2026 by News Staff

An analysis of two 240-million-year-old coelacanth fossils suggests a bizarre sensory adaptation: an ossified lung that transmitted sound to the inner...