Paleontology News

Ancient Flea, Possible Ancestor of Bubonic Plague Found Preserved in Dominican Amber

Atopopsyllus cionus may carry evidence of an ancestral strain of the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis). Image credit: George Poinar Jr.
Sep 30, 2015 by News Staff

Dr George Poinar Jr. of Oregon State University has found a fossilized flea carrying ancient coccobacillus bacteria. The discovery was announced in the latest issue of the Journal of Medical Entomology. Atopopsyllus cionus may carry evidence of an ancestral strain of the bubonic plague (Yersinia pestis). Image credit: George Poinar Jr. Dr Poinar determined that the flea, named Atopopsyllus cionus, is entirely new to science. It was preserved in a...

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Life reconstruction of Palaeochiropteryx sp. Image credit: Obsidian Soul / CC BY-SA 3.0 / adapted by Sci-News.com.

Paleontologists Determine Original Color of Extinct Bats

Sep 29, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United States and the United Kingdom has discovered the reddish brown color of extinct bats from fossils dating back...

Early evolution of enamel. Colored stars indicate first appearance of a tissue. Image credit: Qingming Qu et al.

New Study Sheds Light on Origin of Enamel

Sep 24, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study, published this week in the journal Nature, enamel evolved in the skin and colonized the teeth much later. Early evolution of...

Komodo dragon (Varanus komodoensis). Image credit: Arturo de Frias Marques / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Australia’s First Humans Coexisted with Giant Lizards, Say Scientists

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Australia’s early human inhabitants had to contend with giant killer lizards, according to a team of paleontologists from the University of Queensland,...

Pseudomegachasma sharks had a large mouth with many small teeth. Image credit: Kenshu Shimada.

Pseudomegachasma: New Genus of Prehistoric, Planktivorous Sharks Discovered

Sep 23, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologist Prof. Kenshu Shimada of DePaul University and his colleagues have discovered a new genus of extinct planktivorous (plankton-eating) sharks. Pseudomegachasma...

An artist’s depiction of what paleontologists believe Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis looked like. Image credit: James Havens.

Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis: New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Species Discovered in Alaska

Sep 22, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of hadrosaurid dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered in the Prince Creek Formation of northern Alaska. An artist’s depiction...

Serenichthys kowiensis holotype. Image credit: University of Witwatersrand.

Serenichthys kowiensis: Fossils Reveal New Genus and Species of Coelacanth

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

A new genus and species of coelacanth has been identified from fossils found in a 360 million year-old fossil estuary near Grahamstown, in the Eastern...

Artist's rendering of Bunostegos (Marc Boulay)

Bunostegos akokanensis is Earliest Known Creature to Walk Upright on All Fours

Sep 21, 2015 by News Staff

Bunostegos akokanensis – a Permian cow-sized, herbivorous reptile with a knobby skull and bony armor down its back – is the oldest known creature...

New Species of Dinosaur Nicknamed Lightning Claw Found in Australia

Sep 14, 2015 by News Staff

A remarkable new species of theropod dinosaur has been unearthed in an underground mine in north-central New South Wales, Australia. Illustration of the...

Desmatochelys padillai: Paleontologists Find Oldest Known Species of Sea Turtle

Sep 7, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of ancient sea turtle has been identified from fossils found in Colombia. The fossils are at least 120 million years old, about 10 million...

Top panel: a schematic map of the Greater Antilles showing the relative location of fossil sites Cueva Padre Nuestro, where the newly-discovered fossil specimen (labeled a) of the Hispaniola monkey (Antillothrix bernensis) was found, and Samana Bay. Lower panel: fossil tibiae of the species from the Dominican Republic; the views are (left to right) anterior, lateral, and posterior aspects. Image credit: Alfred L. Rosenberger et al.

Paleontologists Find 1.3-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Hispaniola Monkey

Sep 7, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational group of paleontologists has dated a species of fossil monkey, the Hispaniola monkey (Antillothrix bernensis), to over one million years...

Life restoration of Eunotosaurus africanus. Image credit: Smokeybjb / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study Reveals Important Information about Evolutionary Origin of Turtle Skull

Sep 2, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologists have determined that Eunotosaurus africanus – a 260 million year old fossil reptile from the Karoo Basin of South Africa and a relative...

Life reconstruction of Isthminia panamensis, feeding on a flatfish, which would have been abundant in the neritic zone of the late Miocene equatorial seas of Panama. Image credit: Julia Molnar.

Isthminia panamensis: Fossil of River Dolphin that Lived 6 MY Ago Found in Panama

Sep 2, 2015 by News Staff

The fossil of a freshwater river dolphin that lived 5.8 – 6.1 million years ago has been found in Panama. Life reconstruction of Isthminia panamensis,...

This is an artist’s rendering of Pentecopterus decorahensis. Image credit: Patrick Lynch / Yale University.

Pentecopterus decorahensis: Ancient Giant Sea Scorpion Unearthed in Iowa

Sep 1, 2015 by News Staff

The fossil of a previously unknown species of eurypterid that lived 460 million years ago (Middle Ordovician period) has been discovered in Iowa. This...

These rocks, recovered by the Ocean Drilling Program on board the drilling vessel JOIDES Resolution, are from the Earth’s upper mantle that underwent intense alteration by heated seawater. The rocks show a systematic change in color from rusty brown (top) to green and black (bottom), reflecting the chemical gradients across the fluid mixing zone. These chemical gradients played a key role in supporting microbes with chemical energy and the substrates they needed to thrive. Fossilized microbes were found in white veins consisting of the minerals calcite and brucite. Image credit: Ocean Drilling Program.

Scientists Find Evidence of Ancient Microbial Life in Sub-Seafloor Mantle Rocks

Sep 1, 2015 by News Staff

Traces of ancient microbial communities have been found in rock samples of Earth’s mantle from a seafloor hydrothermal system that was active more than...

Gobisaurus, an ankylosaur with a stiff tail but no knob of bone at the end, compared with Ziapelta, an ankylosaur with a fully developed tail club. Image credit: Sydney Mohr.

New Study Traces Evolution of Ankylosaur’s Distinctive Tail

Aug 31, 2015 by News Staff

Ankylosaurs are a large group of herbivorous armored dinosaurs that lived during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. The typical ankylosaur had a wide...

Gueragama sulamericana inhabited a desert environment. This lizard was found in an ancient oasis along with pterosaurs of the species Caiuajara dobruskii. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

New Ancient Iguana Species Discovered in Brazil

Aug 27, 2015 by News Staff

A fossilized jawbone from a newly-described species of acrodontan iguana, Gueragama sulamericana, that lived about 80 million years ago has been unearthed...

This is an artist’s rendition of a woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Image credit: Flying Puffin / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Paleontologist Releases Most Accurate Map Yet of Woolly Mammoth Distribution

Aug 25, 2015 by News Staff

Prof Ralf-Dietrich Kahlke from the Senckenberg Research Station for Quaternary Paleontology in Weimar, Germany, has recorded the maximum geographic distribution...

Papio hamadryas. Image credit: Moataz Tawfik Igbaria / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Earliest Baboon Found in South Africa

Aug 21, 2015 by News Staff

A two-million-year-old partial skull of the extinct baboon Papio angusticeps has been unearthed at Malapa, in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage Site,...

Early canids Hesperocyon (left) and Sunkahetanka were both ambush-style predators. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Canids Evolved with Climate Change, Says New Study

Aug 19, 2015 by News Staff

A new study of North American canid fossils published in the journal Nature Communications suggests that the evolutionary path of the family Canidae (dogs...

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