Paleontology News

Ancient DNA Sheds Light on Evolutionary History of Extinct ‘Horned’ Crocodile

A skull of Voay robustus collected at Ampoza during the joint Mission Franco-Anglo-American expedition from 1927-1930. Image credit: Hekkala et al., doi: 10.1038/s42003-021-02017-0.
Apr 27, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has recovered and analyzed partial mitochondrial genomes from 1,300-1,400-year-old specimens of Voay robustus, a recently extinct species of ‘horned’ crocodile that lived in Madagascar. Their results indicate that this endemic represented the sister lineage to true crocodiles (Crocodylus) and that the ancestor of modern crocodiles likely originated in Africa. A skull of Voay robustus collected at Ampoza during...

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Life reconstruction of Arackar licanantay. Image credit: Mauricio Álvarez.

New Titanosaur Species Unearthed in Chile

Apr 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of lithostrotian titanosaur has been identified from a partial skeleton found in northern Chile. Life reconstruction of Arackar...

Illustration showing how Crateromys ballik, Carpomys dakal and Batomys cagayanensis might have looked. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Paleontologists Find Fossils of Extinct Giant Cloud Rats in Philippines

Apr 23, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed the 67,000-year-old fossilized remains from three extinct species of giant cloud rats in several caves on the Philippine...

Artistic reconstruction of a tyrannosaur creating footprints. Image credit: José Vitor Silva.

Young Tyrannosaurs Had More Slender Feet than Adults, Study Finds

Apr 23, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has examined a collection of 72.5-million-year-old tyrannosaur — probably Albertosaurus — footprints...

The skeleton of Trix. Image credit: Mike Bink.

Tyrannosaurus rex Walked Slower than Previously Thought

Apr 21, 2021 by News Staff

Animals display a variety of gaits and walking speeds. It is commonly assumed that they minimize locomotor energy expenditure by selecting gait kinematics...

Two Gualicho shinyae attack a smaller dinosaur. Image credit: Jorge Gonzalez / Pablo Lara.

Tyrannosaurs Lived in Groups, New Evidence Suggests

Apr 21, 2021 by News Staff

Tyrannosaurs — theropod dinosaurs that lived in what is now North America and Asia between 100 and 66 million years ago (Cretaceous period) —...

Reconstruction of the giant, short-faced North American bear Arctodus simus. Image credit: Daniel Reed / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Genome-Wide Data from Stone Age Bears Recovered from Cave Sediments

Apr 20, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists have reconstructed the genomes of the extinct giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) and the American black bear (Ursus americanus) using environmental...

Tyrannosaurus rex, a large theropod dinosaur; theropods were a diverse group of two-legged dinosaurs that included the largest carnivores ever to walk our planet. Image credit: Az Dude.

How Many Tyrannosaurus rex Individuals Ever Roamed Earth?

Apr 16, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists estimate that the abundance of one of the best-known dinosaurs, Tyrannosaurus rex, at any one time was about 20,000 individuals, that the...

A life reconstruction of the stegosaur trackmakers and paleoenvironment 110 million years ago. Image credit: Kaitoge.

World’s Smallest Stegosaur Footprint Found

Apr 16, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered a 5.7-cm-long stegosaur footprint in Xinjiang province, China. A life reconstruction of the stegosaur...

An artist’s impression of the azhdarchids pterosaur Alanqa saharica. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Paleontologists Unlock Secret of Azhdarchid Pterosaurs’ Extremely Long Necks

Apr 15, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found that the thin neck vertebrae of the azhdarchid pterosaurs got their strength from an intricate internal structure. An artist’s...

Ecological reconstruction of Pelretes vivificus in the Burmese amber forest; the flowers in the reconstruction are based on Lijinganthus revoluta. Image credit: J. Sun.

98-Million-Year-Old Pollen-Feeding Beetle Found Preserved in Amber

Apr 14, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found an exceptionally preserved short-winged flower beetle and associated pollen aggregations and coprolites in a piece of mid-Cretaceous...

Life reconstruction of Kunpengopterus antipollicatus in the Tiaojishan paleoforest; opposed pollex depicted as being utilized in handling food items (a palaeontinid) and in clinging to trees (a ginkgo). Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

Small Jurassic Pterosaur Had an Opposed Thumb

Apr 13, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Opposed thumbs are adaptations to arboreal life and rare for non-mammal vertebrates; Kunpengopterus antipollicatus, a newly-discovered species of arboreal...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Park_Formation

New Species of Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unearthed in New Mexico

Apr 12, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur, based on the skeletal remains found in New...

Gray wolves take down a horse on the mammoth-steppe habitat of Beringia during the Late Pleistocene, around 25,000 years ago. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Yukon Wolves Survived Ice-Age Extinction Thanks to Changes in Their Diet

Apr 12, 2021 by News Staff

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) from the Yukon Territory, Canada, survived the extinction at the end of the last Ice Age by adapting their diet over thousands...

Two New Species of Cretaceous Mammal Relatives Unearthed in China

Apr 8, 2021 by News Staff

Fossiomanus sinensis and Jueconodon cheni, two distantly related species of mammaliamorphs that lived some 120 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch),...

Trilobite fossil preserved in pyrite. Image credit: Jin-Bo Hou / University of California, Riverside.

Trilobites were Leg Breathers, New Research Shows

Apr 2, 2021 by News Staff

Trilobites had well-developed gill-like structures in their upper leg branches, according to a new imaging study led by the University of California, Riverside. Trilobite...

Reconstruction of Late Maastrichtian (66 million years ago) paleoenvironment in North America, where a floodplain is roamed by dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex, Edmontosaurus and Triceratops. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Gave Rise to Modern Neotropical Rainforests, Study Shows

Apr 2, 2021 by News Staff

About 66 million years ago (the end of the Cretaceous period), a 10-km-wide asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in...

Life reconstruction of Llukalkan aliocranianus. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

New Species of Carnivorous Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina

Mar 31, 2021 by News Staff

A new genus and species of furileusaurian (stiff-backed lizard) abelisaurid dinosaur being named Llukalkan aliocranianus has been discovered by a team...

Giant Extinct Australian Birds Had Well-Developed Stereoscopic Vision and Small Brain

Mar 25, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Flinders University have examined the brains of four species of extinct giant mihirungs (dromornithid birds): Ilbandornis woodburnei...

Congruus kitcheneri was adapted to climb through powerful forelimbs and hindlimbs, grasping hands and strongly curved claws. This image shows the living swamp wallaby (Wallabia bicolor). Image credit: John O’Neill / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Paleontologists Uncover Remains of Extinct Tree-Climbing Kangaroo

Mar 25, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Congruus kitcheneri, an extinct species of kangaroo that lived in Australia between 2.6 million and 12,000 years ago, was adapted for climbing trees,...

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