Paleontology News

Novel Theory Explains Possible Origin of Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Impactor

The Chicxulub asteroid hit Earth at an angle of about 60 degrees, which is among the worst-case scenarios for the lethality of the impact by the production of climate-changing gases. Image credit: Chase Stone.
Feb 16, 2021 by News Staff

At the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago, a 10-km impactor crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. The impact unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that led to the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs and 75% of life on the planet. In a new paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, Harvard University astrophysicists...

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Life reconstruction of Yezoceras elegans. Image credit: Daisuke Aiba.

Cretaceous-Period Ammonite Had Bizarre Shell

Feb 15, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of nostoceratid ammonite that lived during the Coniacian stage of the Cretaceous period has been identified from fossils found in Japan. Life...

Valviloculus pleristaminis, flower in lateral view. Image credit: Poinar, Jr. et al., doi: 10.17348/jbrit.v14.i2.1014.

Study: First Flowering Plants Appeared in Jurassic Period or Even Earlier

Feb 9, 2021 by News Staff

Flowering plants (angiosperms) are the most diverse of all land plants, becoming abundant in the Cretaceous period (145 to 66 million years ago) and achieving...

Life reconstruction of Megatherium. Image credit: Sebastián Rozadilla.

Paleontologists Find 3.58-Million-Year-Old Ground Sloth Fossil

Feb 3, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Argentina have discovered what they say is one of the oldest-known fossils of the ground sloth Megatherium. Life reconstruction of Megatherium....

Artistic rendering of Brindabellaspis stensioi (foreground) with a range of other Devonian fossil fishes; the white shark and human diver in the upper right corner represent modern jawed vertebrates. Image credit: Hongyu Yang / Qiuyang Zheng.

Devonian Fish’s Inner Ear Sheds Light on Earliest Evolution of Jawed Vertebrates

Feb 1, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found that Brindabellaspis stensioi, a species of long-beaked placoderm fish that lived 400 million years ago (Early Devonian epoch),...

The 635-million-year-old fungus-like filamentous microfossils from the Doushantuo Formation in China. Image credit: Andrew Czaja, University of Cincinnati.

Paleontologists Find 635-Million-Year-Old Land Fungus-Like Fossils

Jan 28, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 635-million-year-old pyritized fungus-like microfossils found in the Ediacaran-period Doushantuo Formation in China provide direct fossil evidence...

The first people to reach and disperse across the Americas did so in tandem with their dogs. Image credit: Ettore Mazza.

First People to Settle in Americas were Accompanied by Their Dogs

Jan 27, 2021 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that dogs were domesticated in Siberia by 23,000 years ago, possibly...

A group of Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus being confronted by a tyrannosaurid in the subtropical forests of New Mexico 75 million years ago. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Paleontologists Find Well-Preserved Skull of Tube-Crested Dinosaur

Jan 27, 2021 by News Staff

The exquisite preservation of a new, partial skull of Parasaurolophus cyrtocristatus, a species of duck-billed dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous...

Capable of capturing both aquatic and terrestrial prey, and perhaps an opportunistic scavenger, adult Spinosaurus likely took aquatic prey by standing in shallow water or at the margins of water bodies. Image credit: Robert Nicholls.

Spinosaurus Wasn’t Aquatic Pursuit Predator, New Research Shows

Jan 27, 2021 by News Staff

The giant dinosaur Spinosaurus acted like modern herons or storks, taking fish and other aquatic prey from the edges of water or in shallow water, but...

Kramadolops maximus, the youngest known species of polydolopid marsupial. Image credit: Gabriel Lío.

Three New Species of Extinct Marsupials Identified

Jan 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Dr. Laura Chornogubsky, a paleontologist in the Museo Argentino de Ciencias Naturales ‘Bernardino Rivadavia’ and CONICET, has described one new genus...

An artist’s impression of a juvenile tyrannosaur. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Tyrannosaur Hatchlings Were as Big as Medium-Sized Dog

Jan 26, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has examined the fossilized remains of baby tyrannosaurid dinosaurs found in Alberta, Canada, and Montana, the...

Labradormantis guilbaulti. Image credit: Demers-Potvin et al., doi: 10.1111/syen.12457.

Fossil of Cretaceous-Period Praying Mantis Found in Canada

Jan 22, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new fossil genus and species of primitive praying mantis from fore- and hind-wing imprints discovered in Labrador, Canada. Labradormantis...

Paleontologists Reconstruct Cloacal Opening of Non-Avian Dinosaur

Jan 21, 2021 by News Staff

Although paleontologists know now much about dinosaurs and their appearance, they have not known anything about how their cloacal region — the all-purpose...

Life reconstruction of Xenodens calminechari. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Cretaceous Mosasaur Had Shark-Like Cutting Teeth

Jan 20, 2021 by News Staff

A bizarre new genus and species of mosasaur with teeth unlike those of any known reptile has been identified from fossils found in Morocco. Life reconstruction...

Holotype of Chinatichampsus wilsonorum: (A) cranium in dorsal view; (B) interpretive line drawing; gray areas indicate matrix. Abbreviations: a. - alveolus; fr - frontal; ITF - infratemporal fenestra; ju - jugal; la - lacrimal; m. - matrix; OR - orbit; pa - parietal; palp - possible palpebral; pmx - premaxilla; po - postorbital; prf - prefrontal; qj - quadratojugal; qu - quadrate; so - supraoccipital; sq - squamosal; STF - supratemporal fenestra; t. - tooth. Scale bar - 5 cm. Image credit: Stocker et al., doi: 10.7717/peerj.10665.

New Species of Ancient Caiman Unearthed in Texas

Jan 20, 2021 by News Staff

A new genus and species of caimanine alligatorid being named Chinatichampsus wilsonorum has been discovered by a team of paleontologists from Virginia...

99-Million-Year-Old Bioluminescent Beetle Found Preserved in Amber

Jan 20, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Found in a piece of mid-Cretaceous amber from northern Myanmar, the wonderfully-preserved male of Cretophengodes azari has a light organ on the abdomen...

Life appearance of the non-archosaurian archosauriform, the most suitable producer of Isochirotherium gardettensis. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

250-Million-Year-Old Archosauriform Footprints Found in Italy

Jan 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Italy have discovered an assemblage of fossil footprints left by an Early Triassic archosauriform. Life appearance of the non-archosaurian...

Tentative life reconstruction of the hybodontiform shark Asteracanthus ornatissimus. Image credit: Sebastian Stumpf / Fabrizio De Rossi.

Well-Preserved Fossil of Jurassic-Period Shark Unearthed in Germany

Jan 15, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists from Austria and Switzerland has uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved skeleton of Asteracanthus ornatissimus,...

Somewhere in Southwestern North America during the Late Pleistocene, a pack of dire wolves (Canis dirus) are feeding on their bison kill, while a pair of gray wolves (Canis lupus) approach in the hopes of scavenging. One of the dire wolves rushes in to confront the gray wolves, and their confrontation allows a comparison of the bigger, larger-headed and reddish-brown dire wolf with its smaller, gray relative. Image credit: Mauricio Antón / Nature.

Dire Wolves Split from Living Canids 5.7 Million Years Ago: Study

Jan 15, 2021 by News Staff

Dire wolves (Canis dirus) are considered to be one of the most common and widespread large carnivores in Pleistocene America, yet relatively little is...

Hypothetical reconstruction of the Emslie’s vulture (Cathartes emsliei). Image credit: William Suárez.

Fossils of New Vulture Species Found in Cuba

Jan 13, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of small vulture that lived during the Quaternary period in the Greater Antilles has been identified from fossils found in western Cuba. Hypothetical...

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