Paleontology News

May 20, 2025 by News Staff

Large amber deposits discovered in northern Japan were likely swept out from a forest to the ocean by one or more tsunamis between 116 and 114 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch), according to new research led by the Geological Survey of Japan and Chuo University. Amber deposit from Shimonakagawa Quarry in northern Hokkaido, Japan. Image credit: Kubota et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-96498-2. Traces of ancient tsunamis are hard to identify,...

May 20, 2025 by News Staff

Australopithecus sediba — a small hominin species that lived about 2 million years ago — had a mix of ape-like and human-like features, while...

May 19, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of baracromian ichthyosaur, based on the fossilized skull found in the Água de...

May 16, 2025 by Simon Braddy

Trilobites were a diverse group of ancient marine arthropods. Many trilobites lived on the seafloor but some occupied open water. New research has resolved...

May 15, 2025 by News Staff

Dubbed the Chicago Archaeopteryx, the new fossil is the 14th known specimen of this iconic Jurassic species. The Chicago Archaeopteryx. Image credit: Delaney...

May 15, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered fossilized tracks of a reptile-like animal — securely dated to the early Tournaisian age of the Carboniferous period,...

May 14, 2025 by News Staff

Mosura fentoni lived in what is now Canada during the Cambrian period, approximately 506 million years ago. Life reconstruction of Mosura fentoni. Image...

May 13, 2025 by News Staff

The fossils of the giant rainforest tree Dryobalanops rappa found in Brunei (officially Brunei Darussalam), a country on the large island of Borneo, are...

May 12, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-identified species fills a temporal gap between South American herrerasaurid dinosaurs and their younger relatives from North America. Life reconstruction...

May 9, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Cicadidae is one of the most species-rich insect families today. However, compared to the number of living species, fossil records of Cicadidae are extremely...

May 9, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the fossils of three new fish species — including the earliest known salmonid fish, Sivulliusalmo alaskensis — at...

May 8, 2025 by News Staff

Initially interpreted as a primitive Cambrian mollusk, Shishania aculeata — a 500-million-year-old spine-covered fossil found in China’s Yunnan...

May 7, 2025 by News Staff

Distal regulation — the ability to control genes from far away, over many tens of thousands of DNA letters — appeared at the very dawn of animal...

May 7, 2025 by News Staff

The genus Tyrannosaurus most likely arose in North America, although its direct ancestors migrated over from Asia more than 70 million years ago, according...

May 6, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of zhelestid mammal has been identified from the fossilized remains found in the Bayanshiree Formation in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. Life...

May 5, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

The new specimen represents the world’s oldest cerapodan ornithischian dinosaur, according to a team of paleontologists from Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah...

May 2, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Named Obelignathus septimanicus, the new species inhabited the European Archipelago around 72 million years ago (Cretaceous period) and belonged to a family...

May 1, 2025 by News Staff

Pterosaurs are often imagined soaring over the heads of dinosaurs, but a new analysis of their fossilized footprints shows that some of these flying reptiles...

Apr 30, 2025 by News Staff

This apex predator is a type of sebecid crocodyliform with South American origins, according to new research led by the Florida Museum of Natural History. Sebecid...

Apr 30, 2025 by News Staff

Up until now, the accepted understanding about these egg-laying was that they were both descended from a land-bound ancestor. And while the platypus ancestors...