Paleontology News

Paleontologists Find Oldest Animal Footprints Ever Discovered

Trackways and burrows excavated in situ from the Shibantan Member, Dengying Formation, China: (A and B) epirelief (top bedding surface) and hyporelief (bottom bedding surface), respectively; trackways (TW1 and TW2) and undermat burrows (UB1 to UB3) are labeled; (C) latex mold of (B), with trackways and burrows marked and labeled; (D) enlargement of rectangle in (B), showing connection between TW2 and UB3 (marked). Scale bars - 2 cm. Image credit: Chen et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aao6691.
Jun 12, 2018 by News Staff

The oldest known animal ‘footprints’ on Earth, left by bilaterian animals with paired appendages about 545 million years ago, have been discovered in the Yangtze Gorges area of South China. Trackways and burrows excavated in situ from the Shibantan Member, Dengying Formation, China: (A and B) epirelief (top bedding surface) and hyporelief (bottom bedding surface), respectively; trackways (TW1 and TW2) and undermat burrows (UB1 to UB3) are labeled;...

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The three hair-covered forms (left) represent species of plankton found inside the crater. The geometric form (bottom left) is a species of algae. Small organisms like these moved into the crater so quickly that bones from animals that were killed by the impact, such as the mosasaur pictured here, may have still been visible. Image credit: John Maisano, University of Texas Jackson School of Geosciences.

Sea Life Recovered Surprisingly Rapidly at Impact Crater of Dino-Killing Asteroid

Jun 5, 2018 by News Staff

The Cretaceous/Paleogene mass extinction ended the reign of the dinosaurs and wiped out 76% of species on Earth. It was caused by the impact of an asteroid...

Megachirella wachtleri. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Megachirella wachtleri: World’s Oldest Squamate Fossil Found

May 31, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed the world’s oldest squamate fossil — 240-million-year-old specimen of a species called Megachirella wachtleri —...

The largest and the smallest specimens of Spinosaurus known to date. Image credit: D. Bonadonna.

Paleontologists Find Fossil of Smallest Spinosaurus

May 31, 2018 by Natali Anderson

A tiny fossil of an early juvenile Spinosaurus has been discovered by a duo of Italian paleontologists. The largest and the smallest specimens of Spinosaurus...

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Impact Devastated Forests, Wiped Out Tree-Dwelling Birds

May 30, 2018 by News Staff

Ground-dwelling birds survived while their close, tree-dwelling relatives went extinct during the end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, caused by the impact...

A pair of Beipiaosaurus dinosaurs. Image credit: Pavel Riha / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Paleontologists Find Fossilized Dandruff of Feathered Dinosaurs

May 29, 2018 by News Staff

An international research team led by scientists at University College Cork, Linyi University, and China’s Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology...

Cifelliodon wahkarmoosuch. Image credit: Jorge A. Gonzalez / Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, Los Angeles.

Paleontologists Discover Fossil of Early Mammal Relative in Utah

May 25, 2018 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists has discovered and described the nearly complete fossilized skull of a previously unknown mammal relative that lived about 130...

The sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas). Image credit: Llez / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Sweet Potatoes May Have Originated in Asia

May 24, 2018 by News Staff

57-milion-year-old leaf fossils from eastern India suggest that the worldwide-distributed morning glory family (Convolvulaceae), which includes sweet potatoes...

An artist’s impression of Magyarosuchus fitosi. Image credit: Marton Szabo.

Magyarosuchus fitosi: 180 Million-Year-Old Fossil is ‘Missing Link’ in Crocodile Evolution

May 14, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered a fossil of a 180-million-year-old crocodyliform that they say is a long-sought missing link in the evolution of some ancient...

A life-like reconstruction of Llanocetus denticrenatus. Image credit: Carl Buell.

Earliest ‘Baleen Whales’ Had Large Teeth and Gums

May 11, 2018 by News Staff

The discovery of Llanocetus denticrenatus — an ancient whale species that swam in Antarctic waters 34 million years ago, during a period called the...

White Sands footprints tell the story of a group of humans tracking and hunting a giant ground sloth. Image credit: Alex McClelland, Bournemouth University.

Ice Age Humans Hunted Giant Ground Sloths, Fossilized Footprints Show

Apr 26, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has found evidence of an interaction between Ice Age humans and now-extinct giant ground sloths. White Sands footprints...

A paleoartist’s reconstruction of Mandasuchus tanyauchen. Image credit: Mark Witton / Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London.

Triassic Reptile from Tanzania Finally Gets Scientific Name: Mandasuchus tanyauchen

Apr 20, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the Natural History Museum, London, the University of Birmingham and Virginia Tech has formally given an...

A life-scene from 232 million years ago, during the Carnian Pluvial Episode after which dinosaurs took over: a large rauisuchian lurks in the background, while two species of dinosaurs stand in the foreground, and some rhynchosaurs sit on the logs to the left; based on data from the Ischigualasto Formation in Argentina. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

Mid-Carnian Mass Extinction Paved Way for Dinosaur Expansion

Apr 17, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists believe that all non-avian dinosaurs were wiped out when a giant asteroid or comet collided with Earth some 65 million years ago, resulting...

Tratayenia rosalesi crosses a stream in what is now Patagonia, Argentina roughly 85 million years ago. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

New Carnivorous Dinosaur Unveiled: Tratayenia rosalesi

Apr 16, 2018 by News Staff

A partial skeleton of a megaraptorid dinosaur unearthed over a decade ago in northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, has been recognized as belonging to a new...

Ecological restoration of moths in the Cretaceous Burmese amber forest. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Fossil Study Sheds Light on Mesozoic Butterfly and Moth Wing Colors

Apr 13, 2018 by News Staff

New research by a team of scientists from the University of Exeter and elsewhere offers an illuminating insight into iridescent colors found on the earliest...

Giant ichthyosaurs Shonisaurus. Image credit: Nobumichi Tamura.

Giant Triassic Ichthyosaur is One of Biggest Animals Ever

Apr 11, 2018 by News Staff

According to a study released this week in the journal PLoS ONE, an isolated bone from the lower jaw of a prehistoric marine reptile found in Somerset,...

Jurassic Dinosaur Footprints Found on Scotland’s Isle of Skye

Apr 4, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists from the University of Edinburgh, Staffin Museum and Chinese Academy of Sciences has discovered a new dinosaur...

Eocene Monitor Lizard Had Four Eyes: Study

Apr 3, 2018 by News Staff

According to a new study, Saniwa ensidens — an extinct monitor lizard that lived in what is now Wyoming 51-49 million years ago (Eocene epoch) —...

An artist’s rendering of Colobops noviportensis. Image credit: Michael Hanson.

Paleontologists Discover New Reptile from Triassic Period

Mar 26, 2018 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from Yale University, Smithsonian Institution and Johns Hopkins University has discovered a new species of reptile that lived...

An artist’s impression of what Archaeopteryx lithographica, one of the earliest known birds, would have looked like in flight. Image credit: Carl Buell / Nicholas Longrich.

Archaeopteryx Was Active Flyer, Paleontologists Say

Mar 14, 2018 by News Staff

Archaeopteryx is an iconic fossil species with feathered wings from the Late Jurassic of Germany. The question of whether this dino-bird was an elaborately...

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