Paleontology News

Ground-Penetrating Radar Reveals Ice-Age Human and Animal Footprints in New Mexico

Photographs of the study site at the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico: (a) ‘ghost tracks’ - the surface expression of the tracks is poor as can be seen from the image and they can only be seen under specific moisture and salt conditions; scale bar - 500 mm from target to target; (b) tracks at the study site excavated to reveal both human and mammoth tracks; (c) ground-penetrating radar (GPR) equipment used in this study; (d) gridded foam mats used to protect the surface during the GPR survey; (e) excavated human tracks at the study site. Image credit: Urban et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-52996-8.
Nov 13, 2019 by News Staff

‘Ghost’ fossilized footprints of human, mammoths, giant sloths and other Pleistocene creatures discovered at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico reveal a wealth of information about how humans and the ancient animals moved and interacted with each other 12,000 years ago. Photographs of the study site at the White Sands National Monument, New Mexico: (a) ‘ghost tracks’ – the surface expression of the tracks is poor as can...

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Ecological reconstruction of tumbling flower beetles Angimordella burmitina. These beetles are feeding on eudicot flowers. The color and morphology of flowers are artistic only. Image credit: Ding-hau Yang / Bao et al, doi: 10.1073/pnas.1916186116.

99-Million-Year-Old Flower Beetle with Pollen Grains on Its Legs Found Encased in Amber

Nov 12, 2019 by News Staff

Since Charles Darwin, insect pollination was thought to be a key contributor to the Cretaceous rise of flowering plants (angiosperms). Both insects and...

Life reconstruction of the Arisdorf pliosaur with a diver for scale. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe.

Paleontologists Find 170-Million-Year-Old Giant Pliosaur Fossil

Nov 11, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Switzerland have unearthed an exceptionally rare fossil jaw of an ancient creature known as a pliosaur. Life reconstruction of the Arisdorf...

Danuvius guggenmosi, a great ape that lived some 12 million years ago (Miocene period) in what is now Germany. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski.

Miocene-Period Great Ape Unearthed in Germany: Danuvius guggenmosi

Nov 7, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unknown species of great ape that was well adapted to both walking upright as well as using all four limbs while climbing has been identified...

Rasmussen & Muhling show that the infiltration of liquid hydrocarbons was responsible for the formation of these filamentous microfossils from the Red Dog Zn-Pb-Ag massive sulfide deposit in the western Brooks Range, northern Alaska, the United States. Image credit: Rasmussen & Muhling, doi: 10.1130/G46346.1.

New Type of Fossilization Discovered

Nov 5, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unrecognized mode of fossilization of ancient microbes may explain how some of Earth’s oldest microfossils formed, according to new research. Rasmussen...

An artist’s imagining of an ancient rhinoceros splashing through a stream next to turtles and fish in the Yukon. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Rhinoceroses Lived in Yukon Territory 8-9 Million Years Ago

Nov 1, 2019 by News Staff

The fossil tooth fragments from extinct rhinoceroses that lived 8-9 million years ago have been found in Canada’s Yukon Territory. An artist’s imagining...

An artistic rendering of Aniakchak National Monument in the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Karen Carr / Fiorillo et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223471.

New Dinosaur Footprints Found in Alaska

Oct 31, 2019 by News Staff

Footprints of duck-billed dinosaurs, armored dinosaurs and a tyrannosaur discovered in Aniakchak National Monument, southwestern Alaska, shed new light...

Normal and mutated fern spores from the end-Triassic mass extinction. Scale bar - 20 μm. Image credit: Sofie Lindström, Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland.

Gaseous Mercury Emissions from Volcanoes Contributed to End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Oct 30, 2019 by News Staff

The end-Triassic mass extinction occurred 201.51 million years ago and resulted in the demise of some 76% of all marine and land species. Up until now,...

A linear cluster of Ampyx priscus trilobites from the Fezouata Shale of Morocco. Image credit: Jean Vannier, Laboratoire de Geologie de Lyon: Terre, Planètes, Environnement / CNRS / ENS de Lyon / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Remains of Trilobite Queues

Oct 29, 2019 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, University of Lyon’s Dr. Jean Vannier and colleagues described several fossilized clusters of...

An artist’s reconstruction of the Devonian-period Sosnogorsk lagoon just before a storm. Image credit: Mikhail Shekhanov / Ukhta Local Museum.

Devonian Tetrapod Had Crocodile-Like Lifestyle

Oct 24, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered the fossils of a new type of early tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) in the Komi Republic. Dubbed Parmastega aelidae, the...

This painting depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds. Image credit: Donald E. Davis / NASA.

Study: Asteroid Impact, Not Volcanism, was Key in Driving End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction

Oct 23, 2019 by News Staff

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago eradicated roughly 75% of the animal and plant species on Earth, including whole groups like non-avian...

Saurornitholestes langstoni. Image credit: Jan Sovak.

Nearly Complete Specimen of Saurornitholestes langstoni Unearthed in Canada

Oct 18, 2019 by News Staff

A fossil site in Canada has yielded the best-preserved specimen of the dromaeosaurid dinosaur Saurornitholestes langstoni ever found. Saurornitholestes...

Gigantic dinosaurs like the sauropod Diplodocus, which weighed over 15 tons and was longer than an 18-wheeler truck, would have had problems with potentially lethal overheating. Hot blood from the body core would have been pumped to the head, damaging the delicate brain. The new study shows that in sauropods, evaporation of moisture in the nose and mouth would have cooled extensive networks of venous blood destined for the brain. Other large dinosaurs evolved different brain-cooling mechanisms, but all involving evaporative cooling of blood in different regions of the head. Image credit: Michael Skrepnick / WitmerLab, Ohio University.

Giant Dinosaurs Evolved Various Brain-Cooling Mechanisms: Study

Oct 17, 2019 by News Staff

Different groups of gigantic dinosaurs had different thermoregulatory strategies to help moderate brain temperatures in the face of high heat loads, according...

Lessiniabatis aenigmatica from the Eocene of Bolca Lagerstätte. Scale bars – 10 cm. Image credit: Marrama et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-50544-y.

Eocene-Epoch Stingray Had Unique Body Plan

Oct 15, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of prehistoric stingray with an exceptional anatomy, which greatly differs from living species, has been identified from fossils found in...

Skeletal reconstruction of Siamraptor suwati. Scale bar - 1 m. Image credit: Chokchaloemwong et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0222489.

New Giant Carnivorous Dinosaur Unveiled: Siamraptor suwati

Oct 10, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of carcharodontosaurian dinosaur, based on the fossilized remains found in Thailand. Skeletal...

Mold Pigs: Strange Creatures with Features of Mites and Tardigrades Found in Amber

Oct 9, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unknown family, genus and species of microinvertebrates has been found in amber from the Dominican Republic. Nicknamed ‘mold pigs,’ these...

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

Study: Short-Term or Catastrophic Events Caused Extinction of Wrangel Island Mammoths

Oct 8, 2019 by News Staff

The world’s last population of woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) lived on Wrangel Island, currently some 140 km off the coast of the Chukotka...

New Cretaceous Pterosaur Discovered in Australia

Oct 4, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 96 million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in Queensland, Australia, have been identified as a new genus and species of ornithocheirid pterosaur,...

Baumgartner et al provide exceptional evidence for the biogenicity of some of Earth’s oldest stromatolites through preservation of organic matter, including microbial remains, by sulfidization. Image credit: Paul Harrison.

Organic Matter Found in 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Stromatolites

Oct 3, 2019 by News Staff

Researchers have found exceptionally preserved organic matter inside samples of rock from the 3.5-billion-year-old Dresser Formation in the Pilbara region...

An artist’s reconstruction of two rauisuchians fighting over a desiccated corpse of a mammal-relative in the Triassic of southern Africa. In the background, dinosaurs and mammal-like reptiles form other parts of the ecosystem. Image credit: Viktor Radermacher.

Triassic Crocodile Cousins Preyed on Plant-Eating Dinosaurs

Sep 24, 2019 by News Staff

Rauisuchians — predatory crocodile-like creatures that lived during the Triassic period, some 210 million years ago — preyed on early herbivorous...

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