Paleontology News

Left: 3.48 billion-year-old macrostructures from the Dresser Formation in Pilbara, Western Australia. Right: possible modern equivalents. Scale bars - 1 cm. Image credit: Nora Noffke et al.

3.48 Billion-Year-Old Fossilized Ecosystems Found in Australia

Nov 12, 2013 by News Staff

Dr Nora Noffke from Old Dominion University in Norfolk and her colleagues have unearthed evidence of complex microbial ecosystems in 3.48 billion year...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Deinogalerix koenigswaldi, the largest known Deinogalerix species. Image credit: © Roman Yevseyev / Other-worlds.ucoz.ru.

Deinogalerix masinii: New Giant Fossil Hedgehog from Italy

Nov 11, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of giant, spineless hedgehog that lived in what is today the Gargano peninsula of Italy during the late Miocene,...

This is an artist's impression of a pair of copulating froghoppers, Anthoscytina perpetua. Image credit: Li S et al.

Oldest Known Fossil of Copulating Insects Discovered in China

Nov 7, 2013 by News Staff

A team of scientists has found a well-preserved, 165-million-year-old fossil of copulating froghoppers, Anthoscytina perpetua, at the Daohugou village...

Reconstructed head of Lythronax argestes. Image credit: Gary Staab.

Lythronax argestes: Remarkable New Species of Tyrannosaur Found in Utah

Nov 7, 2013 by News Staff

Paleontologists have unearthed a huge new predatory dinosaur in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, southern Utah. Artist’s impression of...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Obdurodon tharalkooschild. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Obdurodon tharalkooschild: Fossil of Giant, Toothed Platypus Discovered

Nov 5, 2013 by News Staff

An Australian-U.S. team of paleontologists has found a unique fossil of a huge, carnivorous platypus that lived in what is now Australia during the late...

Paleontologists Digitally Reconstruct Giant Dinosaur Argentinosaurus

Oct 31, 2013 by News Staff

Using an advanced computer modeling technique, researchers from UK and Argentina recreated walking and running movements of the 130-feet-long Argentinosaurus...

Cretaceous bird tracks on a slab of sandstone found at Dinosaur Cove, southern Victoria, Australia. Image credit: Alan Tait.

105-Million-Year-Old Bird Tracks Discovered in Australia

Oct 29, 2013 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Palaeontology, two footprints found at Dinosaur Cove in southern Victoria are the oldest avian tracks...

This artwork shows a juvenile Neoparadoxia cecilialina in swimming posture. Image credit: Doyle V. Trankina.

Neoparadoxia cecilialina: Mysterious Prehistoric Marine Mammal Found

Oct 28, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologist from Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County has described an odd new hippopotamus-like animal that lived in what is now California...

This chronogram shows a pattern of early diversification in Xylocopinae bees, followed by a long period during which development effectively stalled, and then followed by further rapid diversification. The K-T boundary is shown in grey. Image credit: Rehan SM et al.

Scientists Find Evidence for Mass Extinction of Bees 65 Million Years Ago

Oct 24, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers from Australia and the United States have documented a massive extinction among bee populations, concurrent with an event that wiped out dinosaurs...

This is an artist's impression of the baby Parasaurolophus. Image credit: Lukas Panzarin; background: Juliane Hinz et al, 2010 / Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments.

Paleontologists Find Rare Fossil of Young Dinosaur Parasaurolophus

Oct 22, 2013 by News Staff

Scientists have reported the discovery of what they say is the youngest, smallest and most complete fossil skeleton yet known for Parasaurolophus, a duck-billed...

This is the fossil of Alalcomenaeus. Image credit: N. Strausfeld / University of Arizona.

Alalcomenaeus: Unusual Cambrian Animal with Spider-Like Brain

Oct 17, 2013 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found a well-preserved fossil of a megacheiran – distant relative of scorpions and spiders – that lived in Cambrian seas...

This image shows a 46-million-year-old blood-engorged female mosquito from northwestern Montana. Image credit: Dale E. Greenwalt et al.

Blood Component Found in 46-Million-Year-Old Mosquito Fossil

Oct 15, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Scientists led by Dr Ralph Harbach of Natural History Museum in London have reported a stunning discovery: a well-preserved 46-million-year-old female...

Researchers from Australia and Germany have identified seventy individual steroids, including stenols, steradienols, stanols, stanones, sterenes, steradienes, diasterenes, diasteranes, mono- and triaromatic steroids, in this 380-million-year-old fossil. Image credit: Ines Melendez, Curtin University's WA Organic and Isotope Geochemistry Centre.

Cholesterol, Other Steroids Found in 380-Million-Year-Old Crab-Like Fossil

Oct 9, 2013 by News Staff

Scientists led by Ines Melendez from Curtin University have identified 70 intact steroidal compounds in a 380-million-year-old crustacean fossil from the...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Saurichthys curionii. Image credit: University of Zurich.

Saurichthys: Unusual 240-Million-Year-Old Fossil Fish

Oct 8, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

A newly discovered fossil of an early ray-finned fish, named Saurichthys curionii, from the Middle Triassic of Switzerland reveals a previously unknown...

This is an artist's impression of the Upland Moa, Megalapteryx didinus, by George Edward Lodge, 1907.

Paleontologists Reconstruct Diet of Four Moa Species

Oct 3, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Scientists from Australia and New Zealand have analyzed more than fifty fossilized feces of the South Island Giant Moa, Upland Moa, Heavy-footed Moa and...

12-million-year-old sea cow fossils found in Papua New Guinea. Image credit: Erich M. G. Fitzgerald et al.

Scientists Find 12-Million-Year-Old Fossils of Sea Cow

Oct 2, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists from Museum Victoria, Australia, and the Smithsonian Institution have rediscovered what they claim are the oldest sirenian fossils ever...

This image shows a 240-million-year-old pollen grain from northern Switzerland, scale bar - 10 μm. Image credit: Hochuli PA and Feist-Burkhardt S.

Flowering Plants May Have Originated Earlier than Previously Thought

Oct 2, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Well-preserved fossilized pollen grains found in northern Switzerland provide evidence that flowering plants may have originated in the early Triassic...

Completely enrolled specimen of the olenellid Mummaspis muralensis from the early Cambrian Mural Formation, Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. Image credit: Javier Ortega-Hernández.

Paleontologists Find Oldest Evidence of Enrollment in Trilobites

Sep 30, 2013 by News Staff

Olenellids – an early group of trilobites – were able to roll themselves up defensively, according to Dr Javier Ortega-Hernández from the...

Entelognathus: Paleontologists Find 419-Million-Year-Old Jawed Fish

Sep 26, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

A team of paleontologists from China, the United States and Sweden has found a well-preserved fossil of ancient fish that lived in what is now China about...