Paleontology News

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...

This is an illustration of Captorhinus, a captorhinid reptile that lived during the Permian period, showing breakable tail vertebrae. Image credit: Robert Reisz.

Permian Reptiles Could Detach Their Tails to Escape from Predators

Mar 7, 2018 by News Staff

A new study shows how a group of ancient reptiles called captorhinids could detach their tails to avoid predation. This is an illustration of Captorhinus,...

Paleontologists Find ‘Bubbles of Oxygen’ in 1.6-Billion-Year-Old Stromatolites

Mar 6, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international research team led by Swedish Museum of Natural History scientists has found that stromatolites (solid, laminar structures of biological...

Artist impression of a juvenile enantiornithe bird. Image credit: Raúl Martín.

Early Cretaceous Bird Fossil Sheds New Light on Avian Evolution

Mar 5, 2018 by News Staff

The tiny fossil of a juvenile enantiornithe bird from the Early Cretaceous La Huérguina Formation of Spain is helping paleontologists understand how early...

Trachemys haugrudi represents a new species of fossil turtle that lived in what is now eastern Tennessee more than 5.5 million years ago. Image credit: Mary P. Williams.

Paleontologist Discovers New Fossil Turtle Species in Tennessee

Feb 27, 2018 by News Staff

University of Pennsylvania paleontologist Steven Jasinski has announced the discovery of a previously unknown species of fossil turtle in the Gray Fossil...

A well-preserved scale extracted from a lake sediment core. Image credit: Montoro Girona et al, doi: 10.3389/fevo.2018.00002.

Fossil Moth Scales Can Uncover Prehistoric Secrets, Scientists Say

Feb 23, 2018 by News Staff

A groundbreaking new technique for studying lake sediments can tell scientists more about the frequency and intensity of past and future insect epidemics,...

A reconstruction of Early Cretaceous Maryland featuring Acrocanthosaurus. Image credit: Chase D. Brownstein.

New Research Sheds Light on Dinosaurs of ‘Lost Landmass’ of Appalachia

Feb 21, 2018 by News Staff

Around 90 million years ago, eastern and western North America were isolated from each other by a salty sea, creating two landmasses: Appalachia and Laramidia....

Footprints of Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi), dated to 43,000 years ago, are seen in a portion of a trackway that was uncovered by Retallack et al in 2017 in an ancient dry lake bed in Lake County, Oregon. Image credit: Greg Shine, Bureau of Land Management.

Fossil Trackway Reveals Clues about Family Dynamics of Columbian Mammoths

Feb 14, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

Columbian mammoths (Mammuthus columbi) may have moved like modern elephants with infants in matriarchal groups. That’s according to a team of U.S. paleontologists...

Candelarhynchus padillai. Image credit: Oksana Vernygora.

Candelarhynchus padillai: New Species of Lizardfish, 90 Million Years Old

Feb 9, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of fossil fish from 90 million-year-old (Cretaceous period) deposits in Colombia. A paper reporting this...

Chimerarachne yingi resembles a spider in having fangs, male pedipalps, four walking legs and silk-producing spinnerets at its rear. However, it also bears a long tail. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Remarkable Tailed Arachnid Found in Burmese Amber

Feb 7, 2018 by News Staff

A remarkable tailed arachnid found in the mid-Cretaceous (approximately 100 million years ago) Burmese amber of Myanmar documents a key transition stage...

Reconstruction of Wahlisaurus massarae. Image credit: James McKay.

Paleontologists Find 200-Million-Year-Old Ichthyosaur Fossil

Feb 1, 2018 by News Staff

The 200 million-year-old specimen is only the second known example of Wahlisaurus massarae, a species of ichthyosaur announced recently by a University...

Life reconstruction of Mansourasaurus shahinae. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

New Species of Titanosaur Unearthed in Egypt: Mansourasaurus shahinae

Jan 30, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Egypt have found fossil fragments from a new species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that walked the Earth around 80 million years...

Kootenayscolex barbarensis. Image credit: Danielle Dufault / Royal Ontario Museum.

Cambrian Period Worm Had Hair-Sized Bristles on Its Head and Body

Jan 29, 2018 by News Staff

A new species of bristle worm that lived about 508 million years ago (Cambrian period) has been identified from fossils found in Marble Canyon and Burgess...

Paleontologists Propose New Theory on Horse Evolution

Jan 26, 2018 by News Staff

Researchers have long wondered how horses evolved from a five-toed ancestor to the single-toed animal we know today. While it is largely believed that...

Caihong juji lived in China about 161 million years ago and may have used its impressive feathers to attract mates. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski, Field Museum.

Caihong juji: Jurassic Bird-Like Dinosaur Had Iridescent Feathers

Jan 17, 2018 by News Staff

A newly discovered species of bird-like dinosaur, Caihong juji, had a beautiful iridescent coloration, according to a study published in the journal Nature...

Artist’s impression of two Diluvicursor pickeringi foraging on the bank of a high-energy river within the Australian-Antarctic rift valley. Image credit: Peter Trusler.

New Dinosaur Species Discovered in Australia

Jan 16, 2018 by News Staff

A new species of turkey-sized herbivorous dinosaur being named Diluvicursor pickeringi has been unearthed in southeastern Australia. Artist’s impression...

Fossilized scales of moths and butterflies from a drilled core in Germany. Image credit: van Eldijk et al.

Earliest Fossil Evidence of Butterflies and Moths, Dating Back 200 Million Years, Found in Germany

Jan 12, 2018 by News Staff

An international group of paleontologists has found the oldest fossilized remains of insects from the order Lepidoptera known to date. The fossils, mostly...

An artist’s impression of the New Zealand greater short-tailed, or burrowing, bat (Mystacina robusta) that went extinct last century. Vulcanops jennyworthyae is the biggest burrowing bat yet known. It also represents the first new bat genus to be added to New Zealand's fauna in more than 150 years. Image credit: Gavin Mouldey.

Fossils Reveal Giant New Species of Burrowing Bat: Vulcanops jennyworthyae

Jan 11, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists say they’ve found the fossilized remains of a new genus and species of bat that lived in New Zealand between 19 and 16 million years...

Artistic reconstruction of Habelia optata. This creature and its relatives were active predators of the Cambrian sea floors, hunting for small shelly sea creatures, such as small trilobites -- arthropods with hard, mineralized exoskeletons that were already very diverse and abundant during Cambrian times. Image credit: Joanna Liang, Royal Ontario Museum.

Cambrian Sea Predator Had ‘Jackknife’ Head

Dec 25, 2017 by News Staff

Habelia optata, a close relative of the ancestor of modern-day spiders, scorpions and horseshoe crabs, evolved an extremely complex head to hunt and eat...