Paleontology News

Aug 18, 2015 by News Staff

A unique fossil of a 20 million-year-old salamander has been found encased in a chunk of amber from an unlikely place – the Dominican Republic, where all salamanders are now extinct. Palaeoplethodon hispaniolae, lying trapped for more than 20 million years in a piece of amber, is almost perfectly preserved; note the leg and foot, in lower center of image, that lacks normal toes. Image credit: George Poinar, Jr. / Oregon State University. The...

Aug 18, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the United States, France, Germany and Spain has identified a Lower Cretaceous freshwater plant named Montsechia vidalii...

Aug 3, 2015 by News Staff

A new study has found that Ediacaran organisms known as rangeomorphs reproduced by taking a joint approach: they first sent out an ‘advance party’...

Jul 28, 2015 by News Staff

Members of Theropoda, the only clade of predominantly predatory dinosaurs, were successful predators partly due to a unique, deeply serrated tooth structure...

Jul 24, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists, led by Dr Dave Martill from the University of Portsmouth, UK, has found a unique four-legged specimen in the Crato Formation...

Jul 23, 2015 by News Staff

Short, rapid warming events, known as interstadials, coincided with major extinction events, according to a team of scientists from Australia and the United...

Jul 16, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of dinosaur with bird-like wings has come to light in China’s rocks dating to some 125 million years ago. An artist’s impression of Zhenyuanlong...

Jul 9, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists has discovered a new genus and species of horned dinosaur, called Wendiceratops pinhornensis, in southern Alberta, Canada. Life...

Jul 7, 2015 by News Staff

According to an international team of scientists, the ancient monkey, known as Victoriapithecus, had tiny but remarkably wrinkled brain. Brain of Victoriapithecus...

Jul 3, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A remarkable new genus and species of oviraptorid dinosaur has been unearthed in the Ganzhou area of Jiangxi Province, southern China. An artist impression...

Jul 2, 2015 by News Staff

A new species of basilisk (or so-called Jesus lizard, named so for their ability to walk on water) that lived about 48 million years ago during Eocene,...

Jul 2, 2015 by News Staff

A new study reported in the journal PLoS ONE shows that the teeth of the fearsome saber-toothed cat (Smilodon fatalis) fully emerged later in life than...

Jun 29, 2015 by News Staff

A multinational team of paleontologists has discovered the remains of a new species of sauropodomorph dinosaur that roamed what is now South Africa at...

Jun 29, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists, co-led by Dr Xi-guang Zhanga and Dr Jie Yang of Yunnan University, has described a new species of super-armored...

Jun 25, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists has discovered a new species of turtle-like reptile that lived in what is now Germany during the Middle Triassic period, approximately...

Jun 24, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the University of Toronto and the University of Cambridge, UK, have found that a weird creature from 505 million years ago, known...

Jun 16, 2015 by Natali Anderson

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences sheds light on why early dinosaurs were small, rare and species-poor in tropical...

Jun 10, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists headed by Dr Karl Bates from the University of Liverpool has shown that a supermassive titanosaurian dinosaur called Dreadnoughtus...

Jun 9, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists co-led by Drs Sergio Bertazzo and Susannah Maidment of Imperial College London has discovered what look like remnants of red...

Jun 8, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Science Advances, a 9-meter-long three-horned dinosaur called the Triceratops developed teeth that could...