Paleontology News

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,...

Life reconstruction of Aquilolamna milarcae. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro.

Cretaceous Plankton-Eating Shark Had Long, Wing-Like Fins

Mar 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of shark with hypertrophied, slender pectoral fins has been identified from the fossilized remains discovered in northern Mexico. Life reconstruction...

Hirmoneura messelense preserves pollen from at least four plant families in its crop. Image credit: Wedmann et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2021.02.025.

Pollen-Feeding Flies Pollinated Flowers 47 Million Years Ago

Mar 17, 2021 by News Staff

Hirmoneura messelense, a newly described species of nemestrinid fly that lived approximately 47.5 million years ago (Eocene period), pollinated flowers...

Understanding the history of the Greenland Ice Sheet is critical for predicting its response to future climate warming and contribution to sea-level rise. Image credit: Rolf Johansson.

Geologists Find Million-Year-Old Plant Fossils Deep Beneath Greenland Ice Sheet

Mar 16, 2021 by News Staff

The deep ice at Camp Century in northwestern Greenland entirely melted at least once within the last million years and was covered with vegetation, including...

Life reconstruction of Vilevolodon diplomylos showing a parent and offspring. Image credit: Sarah Shelley.

Jurassic Gliding Mammal Relative Sheds New Light on Evolution of Mammalian Middle Ear

Mar 16, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the United States and China have examined the middle ear bones (ossicles) of Vilevolodon diplomylos, a gliding haramiyidan that lived...

Life reconstruction of an aristonectine plesiosaur. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Elasmosaurid Plesiosaur Unearthed in Chile

Mar 15, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of aristonectine elasmosaurid plesiosaur has been described from a partial skeleton found in central Chile. Life reconstruction...

This reconstruction of the Late Devonian estuarine lake at Waterloo Farm in South Africa captures the life history of an ancient lamprey species called Priscomyzon riniensis. Three individuals representing different ontogenetic stages take a shelter in the meadow of charophyte algae Octochara crassa. Clockwise from right: a yolk-sac-carrying hatchling tucked in the charophyte; a juvenile attached to the substrate in the foreground, and an adult looming over the other individuals and showing its feeding apparatus. In the background, a school of the coelacanth Serenichthys kowiensis swims by. Image credit: Kristen Tietjen.

Devonian Lamprey Hatchling-to-Adult Growth Series Sheds New Light on Vertebrate Origins

Mar 12, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Canada, the United States and South Africa have unearthed the fossilized remains of larval and juvenile forms of four lamprey species...

Reconstruction of the aerial parts of Paratingia wuhaia from the early Permian of China. Image credit: Yugao Ren / Sijia Tang.

Permian Tree Fossil Sheds Light on Ancient Evolutionary Race

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

Noeggerathiales are enigmatic plants that existed during Carboniferous and Permian times, 323 to 252 million years ago. Although their diversity and distribution...

An attentive oviraptorid theropod dinosaur broods its nest of blue-green eggs while its mate looks on in what is now Jiangxi Province of southern China some 70 million years ago. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Paleontologists Find Remains of Oviraptorid Dinosaur and Embryo-Bearing Egg Clutch

Mar 10, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists in China have discovered what they say is the first non-avialan dinosaur fossil known to preserve an adult skeleton atop an egg clutch...

Life reconstruction of Tamarro insperatus (adults were 1.5-2 m in length and had a mass of 20 kg). Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro / Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont / Museu de la Conca Dellà.

New Bird-Like Dinosaur Identified in Spain

Mar 8, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of troodontid dinosaur that lived 66 million years ago at the very end of the Cretaceous period has been identified from an isolated...

The woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) at the Royal BC Museum, Victoria, British Columbia. Image credit: Tracy O / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Mammoths Co-Existed with Early Americans in New England, Study Suggests

Mar 4, 2021 by News Staff

The so-called Mount Holly mammoth (Mammuthus sp.) lived approximately 12,800 years ago in what is now New England, a region comprising six states in the...

Life reconstruction of Dzharatitanis kingi. Image credit: Alexander Averianov.

New Sauropod Dinosaur Discovered in Uzbekistan

Mar 2, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of rebbachisaurid dinosaur from a fossil uncovered in Uzbekistan. Life reconstruction of Dzharatitanis...

Shortly after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the earliest known primates, such as Purgatorius mckeeveri shown in the foreground, quickly set themselves apart from their competition -- like the archaic ungulate mammal on the forest floor -- by specializing in an omnivorous diet including fruit found up in the trees. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

65-Million-Year-Old Primate Fossils Uncovered in Montana

Mar 1, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists in the United States have discovered and analyzed the fossilized remains from two species of Purgatorius, the oldest genus in a group of...

Ninjatitan zapatai. Image credit: Jorge González.

Paleontologists Discover Oldest Known Titanosaur

Mar 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Ninjatitan zapatai lived approximately 140 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in what is now Patagonia, Argentina. Ninjatitan zapatai. Image credit:...