Paleontology News

Devonian Four-Limbed Creature Reveals Insights into How Vertebrate Hand Evolved from Fish Fins

Mar 19, 2020 by News Staff

A 1.57-m (5.2-foot) long specimen of Elpistostege watsoni from the Devonian period of Canada has yielded the missing evolutionary link in the fish to tetrapod transition. An artist’s reconstruction of Elpistostege watsoni fossil found in Miguasha, Canada. Image credit: Katrina Kenny. The evolution of fishes into tetrapods — four-legged vertebrates of which humans belong — was one of the most significant events in the history of life. Vertebrates...

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Fossil tracks left by a stegosaur on the Isle of Skye, Scotland. Image credit: Steve Brusatte.

Paleontologists Find New Dinosaur Tracks on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Mar 13, 2020 by News Staff

The footprints of stegosaurs, carnivorous theropods and huge herbivorous ornithopod dinosaurs that date back to 170 million years ago (Middle Jurassic...

Oculudentavis khaungraaea. Image credit: Xing et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2068-4.

99-Million-Year-Old Amber Preserves Skull of Hummingbird-Sized Dinosaur

Mar 12, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have found an exceptionally well-preserved and diminutive skull of a previously unknown bird-like dinosaur species in a piece of Cretaceous-period...

2020 CD3 is estimated to be only between one and six meters across. Image credit: Jonny Lindner.

Study: 70 Million Years Ago Day Lasted 23.5 Hours, Year Had 372 Days

Mar 10, 2020 by News Staff

Torreites sanchezi, an extinct species of rudist clam that lived during the Cretaceous period, some 70 million years ago, grew fast, laying down daily...

Reconstruction of Uintan paraortygid. Image credit: Thomas Stidham.

Fossil of New Eocene-Period Bird Species Unearthed in Utah

Mar 4, 2020 by News Staff

A new species of extinct quail-like bird has been identified from a fossil found in eastern Utah. Reconstruction of Uintan paraortygid. Image credit: Thomas...

Hypacrosaurus stebingeri chondrocyte. Image credit: Bailleul et al, doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwz206.

Scientists Find Chemical Markers of DNA in Calcified Cartilage of Duck-Billed Dinosaur

Mar 3, 2020 by News Staff

In the 1980s, paleontologists found a dinosaur nesting ground with dozens of nestlings in northern Montana and identified them as Hypacrosaurus stebingeri,...

Facivermis yunnanicus. Image credit: Franz Anthony.

Paleontologists Solve Mystery of Cambrian Worm-Like Creature

Feb 28, 2020 by News Staff

An enigmatic worm-like animal called Facivermis yunnanicus lost lower limbs for tube-dwelling lifestyle, according to new research published in the journal...

Light microscopic image of the piece of 15-20-million-year old Dominican amber; the specimen contains a fairy wasp and the left forelimb of an anole lizard; several flow structures can be recognized in the resin. Image credit: Barthel et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0228843.

Lizard Forefoot Found Preserved in Dominican Amber

Feb 28, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

The left forelimb of an anole lizard (genus Anolis) has been found perfectly preserved in a piece of Miocene-period amber from the Dominican Republic. Light...

Orange-colored gum ducts (arrows) in the brown leaf tissue of Welwitschiophyllum brasiliense from the Crato Formation, Brazil. Image credit: Roberts et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-60211-2.

110-Million-Year-Old Fossilized Plant Gum Found

Feb 26, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Brazil have found thin bands of fossil gum — the first occurrence in the fossil record — inside 110-million-year-old (Cretaceous...

Proterocladus antiquus. Image credit: Virginia Tech.

Paleontologists Find One-Billion-Year-Old Green Seaweed Fossils

Feb 25, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the microscopic fossilized remains of green seaweed near Dalian in the Liaoning province of northern China. The microfossils...

The fossilized forewing of Maculaferrum blaisi; total forewing length estimated at 20-23 mm, maximal forewing width at 7.5 mm. Image credit: Demers-Potvin et al, doi: 10.4202/app.00669.2019.

New Species of Ancient Hairy Cicada Identified

Feb 24, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of hairy cicada that lived around 100 million years ago (Cretaceous period) has been identified from a fossilized wing found in...

Horned larks (Eremophila alpestris).

46,000-Year-Old Horned Lark Found in Siberian Permafrost

Feb 21, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study published today in the journal Communications Biology, an international team of researchers radiocarbon-dated an exceptionally well-preserved...

A nesting cassowary-like dinosaur named Beibeilong sinensis in the act of incubating eggs. Image credit: Zhao Chuang.

Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded, Study of Fossil Eggshells Suggests

Feb 18, 2020 by News Staff

Using a novel technique called clumped isotope paleothermometry, an international team of paleontologists analyzed eggshell fossils representing three...

Reconstruction of Stupendemys geographicus male (front) and female (middle-left), together with the giant caimanine Purussaurus mirandai and the large catfish Phractocephalus nassi. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.

Paleontologists Find New Fossils of Gigantic Freshwater Turtle

Feb 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists has unearthed several well-preserved shells and the first known jaw specimen of Stupendemys geographicus, a species...

An artist’s impression of Tralkasaurus cuyi. Image credit: Sebastian Rozadilla.

New Carnivorous Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina

Feb 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of medium-sized abelisaurid dinosaur being named Tralkasaurus cuyi has been discovered by Dr. Mauricio Cerroni from the Argentine...

Discoscapa apicula; the bee is carrying four beetle triungulins. Image credit: George Poinar Jr. / College of Science, Oregon State University.

99-Million-Year-Old Bee Found Encased in Burmese Amber

Feb 13, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper published online in the journal Palaeodiversity, Oregon State University’s Professor George Poinar Jr. described a new family, genus and species...

Thanatotheristes degrootorum. Image credit: Julius Scotonyi, Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Meet Thanatotheristes degrootorum, New Tyrannosaur from Canada

Feb 11, 2020 by News Staff

A new species of tyrannosaurine dinosaur that lived about 79.5 million years ago (Cretaceous period) has been identified from fossils found in Alberta,...

This is an artist’s rendition of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Image credit: Flying Puffin / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Scientists ‘Resurrect’ Mutated Genes of Wrangel Island Mammoths

Feb 7, 2020 by News Staff

Woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) were among the most abundant cold adapted species during the Pleistocene. Their once large populations went extinct...

Jurassic Fossil Shows Pterosaurs Preyed on Soft-Bodied Cephalopods

Feb 6, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in Germany have found the 150-million-year-old fossilized remains of the extremely rare squid Plesioteuthis subovata preserved with a tooth...

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Thalattosaur

Feb 5, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of marine reptile from the Triassic period has been identified from fossils found in southeastern Alaska, the United States. An artist’s...

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