Paleontology News

Reconstruction of Wahlisaurus massarae. Image credit: James McKay.

Wahlisaurus massarae: Forgotten Fossil is New Species of Ancient Dolphin-Like Reptile

Jun 14, 2016 by News Staff

A new species of ichthyosaur that lived about 200 million years ago has been identified from a fossil found in a quarry in Nottinghamshire, England. Reconstruction...

Early Mammals Began Their Diversification Long Before Demise of Dinosaurs

Jun 7, 2016 by News Staff

Therian mammals, the ancestors of most modern mammals, began their massive diversification 10-20 million years before the extinction of dinosaurs, according...

This map shows the location of the ice-free corridor and Paleo-Indian sites. Image credit: Roblespepe / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Researchers: ‘Ice-Free Corridor’ along Rocky Mountains Opened Up 13,000 Years Ago

Jun 7, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Evidence from bison fossils has enabled researchers to shape a more accurate timeline for the so-called ‘ice-free corridor’ — a route for Pleistocene...

Life-like reconstruction of Ceratomyrmex ellenbergeri. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

‘Unicorn’ Ant with Oversized Jaws Found in Burmese Amber

Jun 2, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper published last week in the journal Current Biology, scientists described a new species of trap-jaw ant found in 99 million-year-old pieces of...

Malleodectes mirabilis. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Malleodectidae: Extinct Family of Snail-Eating Marsupials Discovered

May 27, 2016 by News Staff

Fossil remains of a previously unknown group of snail-eating marsupials that lived in Australia between 10 and 15 million years ago have been discovered...

Reconstruction of typical Cretaceous marine environment in Antarctica, including the paperclip-shaped ammonite Diplomoceras. Image credit: James McKay.

Animals Weren’t Safer in South Polar Regions during end-Cretaceous Extinction

May 26, 2016 by News Staff

The end-Cretaceous mass extinction event, also known as the K/T extinction — the event that wiped out the dinosaurs as well as nearly 50% of all...

Sclerocormus parviceps. Image credit: Da-Yong Jiang.

Sclerocormus parviceps: Ancient Ichthyosaur-Like Reptile Discovered

May 24, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of ichthyosauriform marine reptile that lived about 248 million years ago (Early Triassic) has been identified from fossils found in Anhui...

An artist’s rendering of Spiclypeus shipporum. Image credit: Mike Skrepnick.

Spiclypeus shipporum: New Dinosaur Species Identified in Montana

May 19, 2016 by Natali Anderson

A new species of ceratopsid (horned) dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered a decade ago in the Judith River Formation in Montana. An artist’s...

Borophagine dog Cynarctus. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Cynarctus wangi: New Species of Ancient Dog Found in Maryland

May 12, 2016 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists has discovered a new species of fossil dog that was about the size of a coyote and lived on the coast of eastern North America...

Paleo-Indian hunters scout a herd of Bison antiquus. Hunters often killed large numbers of bison by driving a herd over a cliff. Image credit: Mark Marcuson / University of Nebraska State Museum.

Scientists Unearth 14K-Year-Old Bones of Extinct Bison antiquus

May 12, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists from Florida Atlantic University has uncovered the 14,000-year-old bones of Bison antiquus — a large-horned, extinct relative...

Life restoration of Atopodentatus unicus. Image credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology.

Atopodentatus unicus: Earth’s Earliest Herbivorous Marine Reptile

May 9, 2016 by News Staff

Nearly two years ago, an international team of paleontologists discovered a bizarre fossil — Atopodentatus unicus, a 10 feet (3 m) long marine reptile...

The EOT transition functioned as a critical filtering episode during the evolutionary history of primates. Image credit: Xijun Ni

Ten Fossil Species from China Reveal Divergence between Afro-Arabian and Asian Primate Evolution

May 6, 2016 by News Staff

In a study published online in the journal Science, paleontologists from China and the United States report the discovery of a diverse primate fauna from...

Reconstruction of Sarmientosaurus musacchioi. Image credit: Mark A. Klingler, Carnegie Museum of Natural History / WitmerLab, Ohio University.

Sarmientosaurus musacchioi: New Titanosaur Species Discovered in Argentina

Apr 27, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

A remarkable new species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur being named Sarmientosaurus musacchioi has been discovered by a team of paleontologists led...

A map showing the migration of dinosaurs from Europe during the Early Cretaceous. Image credit: Alex Dunhill / University of Leeds.

Dinosaurs Left Europe during Early Cretaceous, Says New Study

Apr 25, 2016 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists led by University of Leeds scientist Dr. Alexander Dunhill has used the so-called ‘Network Theory’ to visually depict the...

A number of bird-like dinosaurs reconstructed in their Cretaceous environment. Middle ground and background: two different dromaeosaurid species hunting vertebrate prey (a lizard and a toothed bird). Foreground: hypothetical toothless bird closely related to the earliest modern birds. Image credit: Danielle Dufault.

Paleontologists: Seed Diet May Have Played Key Role in Survival of Early Birds

Apr 22, 2016 by News Staff

Ecological changes following the dinosaur-ravaging Chicxulub impact 65 million years ago may have been more detrimental to meat-eating bird-like dinosaurs,...

Baby Rapetosaurus krausei is compared to neonatal mammals: the dinosaur was only 14 inches tall at the hip, and weighed around 40 kg when it died a few weeks after hatching. This body size is similar to that of some large-bodied mammalian newborns: black rhinoceros calves are 35-45 kg at birth and stand a little taller at the shoulder than baby Rapetosaurus krausei at 25.6 inches (65 cm); African elephants are close to 39 inches (1 m) high at the hip and weigh between 90 and 120 kg at birth; hippo newborns are the closest in both height and mass to the specimen of Rapetosaurus krausei, checking in between 24-45 kg at birth with a shoulder height of 14.6 inches (37 cm). Image credit: D. Vital.

Titanosaurs Hatched with Adult-Like Proportions, Paleontologists Say

Apr 22, 2016 by News Staff

A rare specimen of the titanosaur Rapetosaurus krausei from the Cretaceous of Madagascar sheds light on early life in the smallest stage of one of the...

The skull of Gryposuchus pachakamue, a proto-Amazonian gavialoid from the Miocene lakes and swamps of the Pebas Mega-Wetland System, in dorsal, ventral, and lateral view. Scale bar - 5 cm. Image credit: Salas-Gismondi R. et al.

Discovery of Miocene Crocodilian Suggests Parallel Evolution of Protruding Eyes

Apr 21, 2016 by News Staff

Fossils of a 13-million-year-old extinct gavialoid crocodilian from the Peruvian Amazon suggest that South American and Indian gavialoids evolved separately...

A white-headed capuchin (Cebus capucinus) in Costa Rica. Image credit: Geoff Gallice / CC BY 2.0.

Panamacebus transitus: First North American Monkey Fossils Unearthed in Panama

Apr 21, 2016 by Enrico de Lazaro

Seven fossil teeth recovered from the Miocene layers of the Las Cascadas Formation in the Panama Canal Basin are the first evidence of a monkey on the...

Reconstruction of the giant, short-faced North American bear Arctodus simus. Image credit: Daniel Reed / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ancient Mitochondrial DNA Reveals Convergent Evolution of Giant Bears in the Americas

Apr 20, 2016 by Sergio Prostak

A study led by Dr. Kieren Mitchell of the University of Adelaide sheds new light on the evolution of what are believed to be the largest bears that ever...