Paleontology News

The Chicxulub asteroid impact. Image credit: Victor Leshyk.

Dust and Soot Contributed to End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

Oct 9, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the US, the UK and Australia has analyzed burn markers from the boundary of the impact site of the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán...

Life reconstruction of Gavialimimus almaghribensis hunting a school of teleosts. Image credit: Tatsuya Shinmura.

New Species of Mosasaur Unveiled in Morocco

Oct 8, 2020 by News Staff

A new genus and species of mosasaur has been identified from a 1-m- (3.3-foot-) long skull and isolated bones found in a phosphate mine in Morocco. Life...

New Bird-Like Dinosaur Unearthed in Mongolia

Oct 7, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Mongolia have found the fossilized skeletal remains from a new genus and species of two-fingered oviraptorosaur that walked the Earth...

Life restoration of Ogresuchus furatus. Image credit: Aina and Agnès Amblás / Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont.

Small Cretaceous Crocodile May Have Preyed on Baby Titanosaurs

Oct 5, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of sebecosuchian crocodyliform that roamed Earth during the Cretaceous period has been identified from a partial skeleton found...

Life restoration of Cephalaspis, a typical osteostracan, swimming over the substrate. Image credit: Hugo Salais, Metazoa Studio.

Silurian-Devonian Jawless Fish were Ecologically Diversified

Oct 5, 2020 by News Staff

Osteostraci, the jawless sister group to all jawed vertebrates, had adaptations for passive control of water flow around the body, according to new research...

Optical photograph of the 150-million-year-old isolated fossil feather of Archaeopteryx. Image credit: Carney et al, doi: 10.1038/ncomms1642.

First Fossil Feather Ever Found Belonged to Archaeopteryx

Sep 30, 2020 by News Staff

Renowned as the first fossil feather ever known, the 150-million-year-old isolated fossil feather found in the Jurassic limestone deposits of Solnhofen,...

An artist’s impression of a bald pterosaur and a feathered pterosaur. Image credit: Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth.

New Research Refutes Claims that Pterosaurs Had Protofeathers

Sep 29, 2020 by News Staff

Dr. David Unwin from the University of Leicester and University of Portsmouth’s Professor Dave Martill believe Mesozoic flying reptiles called pterosaurs...

Gravicalymene bakeri. Scale bar - 1 cm. Image credit: Smith & Ebach.

Fossils of New Trilobite Species Found in Tasmania

Sep 28, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Tasmania have unearthed the fossilized remains of a previously unknown species of the trilobite genus Gravicalymene and named it after...

A skeletal mount of the mosasaur Gnathomortis stadtmani at BYU’s Eyring Science Center. Image credit: BYU.

Paleontologist Describes New Genus of Mosasaurs: Gnathomortis

Sep 23, 2020 by News Staff

Gnathomortis stadtmani, the only species of the newly-described mosasaur genus, swam in the seas of North America between 79 and 81 million years ago (Cretaceous...

The only known dinosaur adapted to life in water, Spinosaurus aegyptiacus swam the rivers of North Africa about 95 million years ago. Image credit: © Davide Bonadonna / National Geographic magazine.

Spinosaurus aegyptiacus Had Aquatic Lifestyle, Fossil Discovery Confirms

Sep 22, 2020 by News Staff

The remarkably high abundance of the teeth of the giant dinosaur Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, compared to the dental remains of terrestrial dinosaurs and some...

Changmiania liaoningensis, an anterior part of the holotype in caudolateral view; red arrow indicates the emplacement of the gastrolith clusters. Image credit: Yang et al, doi: 10.7717/peerj.9832.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Ornithopod Dinosaur

Sep 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of an early ornithopod dinosaur has been identified from two nearly complete skeletons found in China’s Liaoning Province. Changmiania...

Summary of major extinction events through time, highlighting the Carnian Pluvial Episode at 233 million years ago. Image credit: D. Bonadonna / MUSE, Trento.

Paleontologists Identify New Mass Extinction Event

Sep 16, 2020 by News Staff

The Carnian Pluvial Episode, a major climate change event that occurred around 234 to 232 million years ago (Late Triassic epoch), was a time of global...

Lamsdell et al present details of the respiratory organs of Adelophthalmus pyrrhae from the Carboniferous of Montagne Noire, France, revealed through micro computed tomography (μ-CT) imaging. Image credit: Lamsdell et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.034.

Carboniferous-Period Sea Scorpion Was Capable of Breathing Air

Sep 11, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have examined the fossilized remains of a previously unknown species of eurypterid (sea scorpion) and found direct evidence that these...

Map illustrating the location of Kapi ramnagarensis (black star) relative to modern (dark green) and historical (light green) populations of lesser apes (gibbons and siamangs) and the approximate distribution of stem hominoid sites in East Africa (blue triangles); green triangles mark the location of the lesser ape fossil species Bunopithecus and Yuanmoupithecus; yellow rectangles mark the location of the fossil catarrhine species Dionysopithecus sp. from Middle Miocene sites in Pakistan. Image credit: Luci Betti-Nash.

13-Million-Year-Old Gibbon Ancestor Discovered in India

Sep 9, 2020 by News Staff

A new genus and species of small-bodied fossil ape that lived during the Middle Miocene epoch has been identified from a fossilized tooth found in Ramnagar,...

Virtual 3D model of the braincase of Minjinia turgenensis generated from CT scan. Inset shows raw scan data showing the spongy endochondral bone inside. Image credit: Brazeau et al, doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-01290-2.

Devonian Fossil Shows Sharks May Have Evolved from Bony Ancestors

Sep 7, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Mongolia have found the fossilized remains of Minjinia turgenensis, a new genus and species of placoderm fish that lived 410 million...

Paleoartistic reconstruction of a 16-m megalodon scaled against a 1.65-m human. Image credit: Oliver E. Demuth.

Scientists Reconstruct Body Dimensions of Megalodon

Sep 4, 2020 by News Staff

A 16-m- (52.5-foot) long megalodon had a head 4.65 m (15.3 feet) long, a dorsal fin 1.62 m (5.3 feet) tall and a tail 3.85 m (9.4 feet) high, according...

Apectoichnus lignummasticans. Image credit: Melnyk et al, doi: 10.1017/jpa.2020.63.

Paleontologists Find 110-Million-Year-Old Wood-Boring Trace Fossil

Sep 3, 2020 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the University of Alberta has found the fossilized tracks of a marine wood-boring organism that lived approximately 110...

Artistic rendering of American mastodons (Mammut americanum). Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

American Mastodons Migrated Across Vast Distances Due to Warming Climate, DNA Study Says

Sep 2, 2020 by News Staff

A team of researchers from McMaster University and elsewhere has carried out a phylogeographic study of the extinct American mastodon (Mammut americanum)...

Ecological reconstruction of a 165-million-year-old lacewing mimicking a lichen that existed during the same time period. Image credit: Xiaoran Zuo.

Jurassic Lacewings Mimicked Lichen to Hide from Predators

Sep 1, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists in China have unearthed the fossil evidence of a mimetic relationship between two species of moth lacewings and the co-occurring fossil...