Paleontology News

Reconstruction of Hallucigenia sparsa. Image credit: Lars Fields.

Hallucigenia: Paleontologists Reconstruct Cambrian Worm-Like Creature

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...

Around 212 million years ago in what is now northern New Mexico, early dinosaurs such as the meat-eating dinosaur in background were small and rare, whereas other reptiles such as the long-snouted phytosaurs and armored aetosaurs were quite common. Image credit: Victor Leshyk.

Why Early Dinosaurs Were Small and Rare in Tropics

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...

Rendering of Dreadnoughtus schrani in life. Image credit: Jennifer Hall.

Paleontologists Downsize Giant Titanosaur Dreadnoughtus schrani

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...

Density-dependent color scanning electron micrograph of an ungual claw of an indeterminate theropod dinosaur shows erythrocyte-like structures. Scale bar - 1 μm. Image credit: Sergio Bertazzo et al.

Paleontologists Detect Mineralized Soft Tissue in Cretaceous Dinosaur Bones

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...

Dental tissue evolution in Ceratopsia, a group of plant-eating dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during Cretaceous. Image credit: Gregory M. Erickson et al.

Triceratops: Research Reveals Complexity of Giant Horned Dinosaur’s Teeth

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...

Reconstruction of the lamniform shark Cretalamna appendiculata and the shark described by Dr Frederickson and his colleagues. Image credit: Frederickson JA et al.

Fossils of Prehistoric Shark Discovered in Texas

Jun 5, 2015 by News Staff

Three large vertebrae, believed to be that of an ancient, gigantic shark, have been discovered in Texas by members of the Paleontology Club of the University...

Regaliceratops peterhewsi: New Horned Dinosaur Discovered in Canada

Jun 5, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologists at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology in Drumheller, Canada, have described a new genus and species of ceratopsid (horned dinosaur)...

An artist’s reconstruction of Clevosaurus sectumsemper. Image credit: Katharine Whiteside / Sci-News.com.

Clevosaurus sectumsemper: New Species of Prehistoric Reptile Discovered

Jun 4, 2015 by News Staff

A group of paleontologists, led by Catherine Klein from the University of Bristol, UK, has put together the remains of a new small species of prehistoric...

Reconstruction of the fossil bird from the Cretaceous of the Crato Formation, Araripe Basin, Brazil. Image credit: Deverson Pepi, via novataxa.blogspot.com.

115-Million-Year-Old Bird Fossil Found in Brazil

Jun 4, 2015 by News Staff

The well-preserved fossil of a previously unknown toothed bird that lived during the Cretaceous period, some 115 million years ago, has been found in the...

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded, Scientist Suggests

May 29, 2015 by News Staff

Dinosaurs were endothermic (warm-blooded) like mammals, says paleontologist Dr Michael D’Emic of Stony Brook University. Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit:...

The beaver Microtheriomys brevirhinus lived in what is now John Day Basin, Oregon, about 29 million years ago. The image is an artist’s rendering of the extinct giant beaver Castoroides sp., by Charles R. Knight, 1904.

Paleontologists Discover 10 New Fossil Species of Rodents in Oregon

May 29, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologists Dr William Korth of Rochester Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Dr Joshua Samuels of John Day Fossil Beds National Monument have...

Artist’s rendering of an ancestral crown-group snake and the early mammal Yanoconodon. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Study Provides New Insights into Origin, Evolution of Snakes

May 20, 2015 by News Staff

According to a new study published online in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, the most recent common ancestor of all snakes was a nocturnal, stealth-hunting...

Two individuals of Saurornitholestes sullivani attack a subadult hadrosaur Parasaurolophus tubicen. Image credit: Mary P. Williams.

Saurornitholestes sullivani: New Dinosaur Discovered in New Mexico

May 12, 2015 by News Staff

Paleontologist Steven Jasinski of the University of Pennsylvania has described a new species of dromaeosaurid dinosaur that roamed what is now New Mexico...

Odaraia alata, a large swimming arthropod with a pair of bulbous eyes and a tubular carapace open ventrally. Image credit: Jean Bernard Caron, Royal Ontario Museum.

500M-Year-Old Fossil Brain Helps Paleontologists Understand Origins of Arthropods

May 8, 2015 by News Staff

Dr Javier Ortega-Hernández of the University of Cambridge, UK, has discovered one of the oldest fossil brains ever found, and used it to help identify...

Archaeornithura meemannae stood about 6 inches (15 cm) tall on two legs that had no feathers. Image credit: Zongda Zhang / Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Bejing.

Archaeornithura meemannae: Earliest Known Ancestor of Modern Birds Discovered in China

May 6, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has described a new ornithuromorph bird that lived during the Hauterivian stage of the Early Cretaceous epoch,...

Artist’s concept of Yi qi. Image credit: Dinostar.

Yi qi: Bat-Winged Dinosaur Discovered in China

Apr 30, 2015 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists, co-led by Dr Xing Xu and Dr Xiaoting Zheng of the Linyi University’s Institute of Geology and Paleontology, has discovered...

Chilesaurus diegosuarezi was up to 3 meters long; the different parts of its body were adapted to a particular diet and way of life, which was similar to other groups of dinosaurs. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.

Chilesaurus diegosuarezi: New Herbivorous Dinosaur Discovered in Chile

Apr 28, 2015 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists led by Dr Fernando Novas of the Bernardino Rivadavia Natural Sciences Museum in Buenos Aires has described a new...

Silhouettes of male and female Stegosaurus mjosi. Image credit: Evan Saitta.

Differences in Size, Shape of Bony Plates Offer Way to Tell Male, Female Stegosaurs Apart

Apr 23, 2015 by News Staff

According to paleontologist Evan Saitta of the University of Bristol, UK, stegosaur plates may have differed between males and females. Silhouettes of...

A close-up view of a male Osedax priapus. Scale bar - 0.3 mm. Image credit: Greg Rouse.

Prehistoric Bone-Devouring Osedax Worms Fed on Carcasses of Plesiosaurs

Apr 16, 2015 by News Staff

In a new paper in the journal Biology Letters, scientists reported fossil traces of Osedax – a genus of bone-devouring worms that both eat and inhabit...