Paleontology News

Unique Fossil of Juvenile Pleurosaurus Unearthed in Germany

Pleurosaurus, a remarkable, long-bodied swimming rhynchocephalian that lived during the Late Jurassic epoch, some 150 million years ago, in what is now Germany. Image credit: Roberto Ochoa.
Aug 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Rhynchocephalians — members of a sister group of squamates (lizards, snakes, and worm lizards) that includes the living tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) — from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Archipelago have been known for almost two centuries. The number of their specimens and species is constantly increasing, but little is known about the development of these animals. The well-documented marine rhynchocephalian genus Pleurosaurus, which lived...

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Life reconstruction of Astigmasaura genuflexa. Image credit: Mattia Yuri Messina.

95-Million-Year-Old Plant-Eating Dinosaur Discovered in Argentina

Jul 28, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Patagonia, Argentina, have unearthed a portion of a postcranial skeleton that belonged to a previously unknown rebbachisaurid sauropod...

A herd of ceratopsians (Styracosaurus albertensis) accompanied by an ankylosaur (Euplocephalus tutus) walk through an old river channel under the watchful eyes of two tyrannosaurs (Gorgosaurus libratus). Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Paleontologists Discover First Evidence of Multispecies Dinosaur Herding

Jul 28, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists say they have discovered the 76-million-year-old footprints of a ceratopsian dinosaur-dominated herd in Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta,...

Life reconstruction of Nektognathus evasmithae. Image credit: Bob Nicholls.

Cambrian Nectocaridids are Early Descendants of Arrow Worms, New Fossil Shows

Jul 24, 2025 by News Staff

Nectocaridids are enigmatic Paleozoic animals with a controversial position. These creatures were adapted for swimming, having fins, a head region with...

Mirasaura grauvogeli in its natural forested environment, hunting insects. Image credit Gabriel Ugueto.

Crested Diapsid Reptile from Middle Triassic Shakes Up Feather Evolution Theories

Jul 23, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of Triassic drepanosauromorph diapsid with striking integumentary appendages — which are neither...

Environmental reconstruction of the Montceau-les-Mines Lagerstätte with Palaeocampa anthrax: a large Palaeocampa anthrax is depicted at the edge of a shallow inland streambed, shadowed by the lush vegetation and mist of a coal forest, flanked by several euthycarcinoids, Sottyxerxes multiplex, and a pair of freshwater xiphosurans, Alanops magnificus; the nearest ocean environment is several hundred km southwest. Image credit: Knecht et al., doi: 10.1038/s42003-025-08483-0.

Long-Misidentified Fossil is First Known Nonmarine Lobopodian, Paleontologists Say

Jul 23, 2025 by News Staff

First published in 1865 as a caterpillar, nearly fifty years before the discovery of Canada’s Burgess Shale, Palaeocampa anthrax shuffled between classifications...

Mollisonia symmetrica is characterized by a backward-folded unsegmented brain. Image credit: Strausfeld et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2025.06.063.

Arachnids Originated in Cambrian Seas, New Research Suggests

Jul 22, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have analyzed the fossilized features of the brain and central nervous system of Mollisonia symmetrica, an extinct animal that lived in...

Articulated skull of the new massopodan sauropodomorph dinosaur in right lateral view. Scale bars - 5 cm. Image credit: Lania et al., doi: 10.1186/s13358-025-00373-6.

Fossil of Triassic Sauropodomorph Dinosaur Discovered in Switzerland

Jul 21, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered the skeletal remains of an entirely new, yet-to-be-named species of massopodan sauropodomorph dinosaur in the Klettgau...

Life representation of Sphenodraco scandentis in the palaeoenvironment of the Solnhofen Archipelago. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

Tree-Dwelling Tuatara Relative Lived in Solnhofen Archipelago 145 Million Years Ago

Jul 18, 2025 by News Staff

The Solnhofen Archipelago is a series of islands that existed during the Late Jurassic epoch in what is now Bavaria, Germany. Life representation of Sphenodraco...

Life reconstruction of Vulcanoscaptor ninoti. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra / IPHES-CERCA.

3.25-Million-Year-Old Fossil Identified as New Mole Species

Jul 15, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of mole (family Talpidae) from a partial skeleton discovered at the Pliocene-aged site of Camp...

The skeleton of Pulaosaurus qinglong in left lateral view. Image credit: Hailong Zhang.

New Neornithischian Dinosaur Unearthed in China

Jul 14, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a new species of early-diverging neornithischian dinosaur that was part of the Jurassic Yanliao Biota...

This scene depicts an oviraptorid dinosaur called Citipati being startled while resting on a sand dune. The creature raises its arms in a threat display, which reveals its wrists, highlighting the small migrated pisiform carpal (blue X-ray view) bone. Image credit: Henry S. Sharpe.

Key Wrist Bone Appeared in Bird Ancestors Millions of Years Earlier than Previously Thought

Jul 14, 2025 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from Yale University and Stony Brook University made this discovery after examining fossils from two species of bird-like dinosaurs...

Fossil remains of Tongnanlong zhimingi. Image credit: Wei et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09796-0.

New Species of Extremely Gigantic Sauropod Dinosaur Found in China

Jul 11, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have discovered the skeletal remains of a remarkable new genus and species of huge-sized mamenchisaurid dinosaur from the Late...

A paleoartist’s reconstruction of the three extinct species whose genomes were sequenced by Liu et al.: in the foreground is a Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum), and close behind are two Merck’s rhinoceroses (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis); in the far background is a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis). Image credit: Beth Zaiken.

Ancient Protein Analysis Sheds New Light on Rhino Family Tree

Jul 10, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have retrieved ancient enamel protein sequences from a fossilized tooth of Epiaceratherium sp., a rhinocerotid that lived in Canada’s...

An artist’s restoration of Novaculadon mirabilis. Image credit: Hamzah Imran.

New Species of Multituberculate Mammal Discovered in UK

Jul 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized dental remains from a new genus and species of plagiaulacid multituberculate in the Lower Cretaceous Lulworth...

The Turkana Basin within the East African Rift System preserves fossil assemblages that date back more than 66 million years; Green et al. collected powdered samples for paleoproteomic analysis from the dense interiors of enamel from large herbivores from the Early Pleistocene back to the Oligocene (29 million years). Image credit: Green et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-025-09040-9.

Paleontologists Find Ancient Proteins in 18-Million-Year-Old Mammal Tooth Enamel

Jul 9, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered protein sequences within dense enamel tissues of ancient rhinocerotid and proboscidean fossils collected at sites of Buluk...

An artist’s reconstruction of Eotephradactylus mcintireae, other animals, and plants found preserved in a remote bonebed in Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona, the United States. Image credit: Brian Engh.

Unusual Bonebed in Arizona Reveals North America’s Earliest-Known Pterosaur

Jul 8, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed the fossilized jawbone of a new pterosaur species alongside hundreds of other fossils — including one of the world’s...

Life reconstruction of Zhongyuansaurus junchangi. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

New Species of Armored Dinosaur Identified in China

Jul 7, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of the ankylosaurid dinosaur genus Zhongyuansaurus using a specimen found in China’s Henan province. Life...

This lithograph shows Loligo forbesii, a species of squid in the order Myopsida. Image credit: Comingio Merculiano.

Study: Squids Originated and Rapidly Radiated by 100 Million Years Ago

Jul 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using an innovative digital fossil-mining approach, paleontologists analyzed more than 250 fossil beaks from 40 ancient squid species. Their results suggest...

An artist’s reconstruction of Yinshanosaurus angustus. Image credit: X.-C. Guo, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

New Species of Permian Herbivorous Tetrapod Identified in China

Jun 30, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of mid-sized pareiasaur from two fossilized specimes found in China in 2018. An artist’s reconstruction...

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