Paleontology News

Humans and Domestic Animals Will Dominate Anthropocene-Era Fossil Record, Paleontologists Say

Earth’s technosphere now weighs some 30 trillion tons -- a mass of more than 50 kg for every sq.m of the planet’s surface, according to Jan Zalasiewicz et al.
Dec 19, 2019 by News Staff

The terrestrial fossil record of the current geological epoch, the Anthropocene, will be unique in Earth history and will be dominated by humans, cows, pigs, sheep, goats, dogs, cats and other domestic mammals, according to a duo of U.S. paleontologists. Anthropocene-era Earth. “The fossil record of mammals will provide a clear signal of the Anthropocene,” said University of Illinois at Chicago’s Professor Roy Plotnick and Missouri Western State...

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The 340-million-year-old Hardraw trackway. Image credit: Trustees of the Natural History Museum.

340-Million-Year-Old Tetrapod Footprints Uncovered in UK

Dec 17, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered an ancient tetrapod (land vertebrate) trackway in North Yorkshire, England, dating back to the Carboniferous period. Made...

Mesophthirus engeli nymphs crawled and fed on dinosaur feathers. Image credit: Gao et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13516-4.

Cretaceous Feathered Dinosaurs Suffered from Lice

Dec 16, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists have found tiny nymphs of a previously unknown ancient insect species trapped in two pieces of 99-million-year-old (mid-Cretaceous period)...

An artist’s impression of Basilosaurus isis. Image credit: Pavel Riha / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Eocene-Period Whale Unearthed in Egypt

Dec 13, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of extinct protocetid whale, based on the fossilized remains found in the Western...

Kupoupou stilwelli. Image credit: Jacob Blokland.

New Species of Paleocene Penguin Bridges Gap in Penguin Family Tree

Dec 10, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists in New Zealand have uncovered the fossilized bones from an extinct penguin that swam the oceans between 62.5 and 60 million years ago....

Life reconstruction of Origolestes lii. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

New Cretaceous-Period Mammal Unveiled

Dec 6, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the remains of a previously unknown symmetrodont mammal that lived alongside dinosaurs in what is now China. The fossils...

Eobodotria muisca bridges an approximately 165 million year gap in the cumacean fossil record. Image credit: Javier Luque.

New Fossil Fills Gap in Evolution of Comma Shrimps

Dec 5, 2019 by News Staff

A new species of comma shrimp that lived during the mid-Cretaceous period, between 95 and 90 million years ago, has been identified from well-preserved...

New Pterosaur Species Unearthed in Lebanon: Mimodactylus libanensis

Dec 4, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Lebanon have discovered the extremely well-preserved fossilized remains of a previously unknown Cretaceous-period flying reptile. Life...

Paleontologists Find Fossils of Six New Dragonfly Species

Dec 3, 2019 by News Staff

Six new species of dragonflies that lived about 50 million years ago (early Eocene epoch) have been identified from fossils found in the Okanagan Highlands,...

A range of now extinct megafauna that was present when humans first arrived in Australia. Image credit: Peter Trusler, Monash University.

Study: Humans and Climate Change Drove Australian Megafauna to Extinction

Dec 2, 2019 by News Staff

Ancient Australia’s super-sized animals, the megafauna, became extinct about 42,000 years ago, but the role of humans in their demise has been debated...

A life reconstruction of the Cretaceous multituberculate Jeholbaatar kielanae. Image credit: Yong Xu.

Cretaceous-Period Mammal Had Bizarre Middle Ear

Nov 29, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have unearthed a nearly complete skeleton of a previously unknown Cretaceous mammal species with well-preserved middle ear bones. A...

Two individuals of Majungasaurus chasing Rapetosaurus, with Masiakasaurus in the foreground. Image credit: ABelov2014, abelov2014.deviantart.com / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Majungasaurus Replaced All Its Teeth Every Two Months: Study

Nov 29, 2019 by News Staff

Majungasaurus, a carnivorous dinosaur that lived approximately 70 million years ago (Cretaceous period) in what is now Madagascar, grew new teeth roughly...

Yin et al use X-ray microtomography to show that the 609-million-year-old Caveasphaera develops within an envelope by cell division, ingression, detachment, and polar aggregation in a manner analogous to gastrulation; together with evidence of functional cell adhesion and development within an envelope, this is suggestive of a holozoan affinity. The image shows a life cycle of Caveasphaera and a simplified phylogenetic tree of Holozoa. Image credit: Yin et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.10.057.

Animal-Like Embryos Evolved Long Before Complex Animals, Scientists Say

Nov 28, 2019 by News Staff

Complex animals evolved from single-celled ancestors, before diversifying into 30-40 distinct anatomical designs. When and how this major evolutionary...

Electrosminthuridia helibionta springtails on termite and ant hosts within 16-million-year-old Dominican amber. Scale bar - 0.5 cm. Image credit: N. Robin & P. Barden.

16-Million-Year-Old Dominican Amber Reveals Springtails’ Longstanding Dispersal by Social Insects

Nov 26, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has announced the discovery of an ancient interaction preserved in a 16-million-year-old (Miocene period) piece...

Najash rionegrina. Image credit: Raúl O. Gómez, Universidad de Buenos Aires.

Cretaceous Legged Snake Fossils Shed New Light on Evolution of Modern Snake Body Plan

Nov 21, 2019 by News Staff

An analysis of the first three-dimensionally preserved skulls and skeletons of the extinct legged snake Najash rionegrina shows that nearly 100 million...

A reconstruction of the Kawhia giant penguin. Image credit: Simone Giovanardi.

Paleontologists Unearth Another Giant Penguin in New Zealand

Nov 18, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in New Zealand have uncovered a nearly complete skeleton of a giant-sized penguin that swam the oceans about 27 million years ago (Oligocene...

Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive bird that lived in what is now Japan about 120 million years ago. Image credit: Masanori Yoshida.

New Dinosaur-Era Bird Discovered in Japan: Fukuipteryx prima

Nov 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of non-ornithothoracine bird has been identified from bones collected in Japan. Life restoration of Fukuipteryx prima, a primitive...

Gigantopithecus is Related to Modern-Day Orangutans, New Study Shows

Nov 14, 2019 by News Staff

Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research...

An artist’s impression of Ferrisaurus sustutensis. Image credit: Raven Amos / Royal BC Museum.

New Species of Herbivorous Dinosaur Identified in Canada

Nov 14, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Canada have found the fossil fragments from a new species of leptoceratopsid dinosaur that walked the Earth during the Cretaceous period. An...

A fossil feather from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Australia. Image credit: Kundrát et al, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.10.004.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Feathers of Cretaceous Polar Dinosaurs and Birds

Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized feathers of dinosaurs and birds that lived 118 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in polar environment...

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