Paleontology News

100-Million-Year-Old Assassin Flies Found in Burmese Amber

Burmapogon bruckschi, male. Image credit: David Grimaldi.
Apr 23, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described a new species of assassin fly found preserved in two pieces of 100-million-year-old Burmese amber. Burmapogon bruckschi, male. Image credit: David Grimaldi. Assassin flies are named for their fierce predation strategy – they ambush and catch their prey in flight. Once caught, the flies puncture the armor-like skeleton of their prey, inject them with digestive fluids and extract the nutrients within. For more than...

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This is an artist's reconstruction of Eocasea martini. Image credit: Danielle Dufault.

Eocasea martini: Scientists Discover Oldest Known Ancestor of Land Herbivores

Apr 17, 2014 by News Staff

Eocasea martini, a carnivorous animal that lived in what is today Kansas during Carboniferous period, about 300 million years ago, is the oldest known...

Great white shark at Isla Guadalupe, Mexico, August 2006. Image credit: Terry Goss / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Ozarcus mapesae: Fossil Species Reveals Sharks aren’t Living Fossils

Apr 17, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the American Museum of Natural History have described a shark species that lived during Carboniferous period, about 325 million years...

Reconstruction of the Daohugou fauna featuring feathered dinosaurs, pterosaurs, early mammals and amphibians among others. Image credit: Julia Molnar.

Doahugou Biota: Study Describes 30 Species from Jurassic of China

Apr 16, 2014 by News Staff

A new paper published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes 30 Jurassic creatures – five salamanders, one anuran, two lizards, 13 pterosaurs,...

Prehistoric Harvestmen Had Two Pairs of Eyes

Apr 11, 2014 by News Staff

A 305-million-year-old fossil found in eastern France reveals that primitive harvestmen had two sets of eyes rather than one. Reconstruction of Hastocularis...

Ichnological record of animal-matground interactions across the transition between Ediacaran, left, and Cambrian, right, periods. Image credit: Luis A. Buatois et al.

Study Sheds Light on Life during Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition

Apr 11, 2014 by News Staff

A study led by Prof Luis Buatois from the University of Saskatchewan provides new evidence to understand the development of life at Ediacaran-Cambrian...

Nimbacinus dicksoni. Image credit: Anne Musser. Background: Hopetoun Falls in Victoria, Australia. Image credit: David Iliff / CC-BY-SA 3.0.

Nimbacinus dicksoni: Australia’s Extinct Marsupial Hunted Large Prey

Apr 10, 2014 by News Staff

Nimbacinus dicksoni, an ancient meat-eating marsupial that lived in Australia during Oligocene and Miocene between 24 and 5.3 million years ago, had the...

520-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals Oldest Known Cardiovascular System

Apr 9, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists from China, the United States and United Kingdom have discovered a 3-inch-long fossil of a prehistoric shrimp-like animal with the earliest...

In this illustration, Atlantochelys mortoni is depicted with the outline of a human diver to indicate scale. Image credit: Jason Poole / Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University.

Paleontologists Find Fossil Bone of Giant Turtle Atlantochelys mortoni

Apr 3, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists say they have made a surprising discovery – a fossil bone of an extinct turtle species scientifically known as Atlantochelys mortoni. In...

This is a reconstruction of the stick insect Cretophasmomima melanogramma among the gymnosperm plant Membranifolia admirabilis. Image credit: Fernandez S.

Earliest Known Stick Insect Fossils Discovered in China

Mar 20, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists led by Dr Maomin Wang from Capital Normal University in China say the newly discovered stick insect Cretophasmomima melanogramma may have...

This is an artist's impression of Anzu wyliei. Image credit: Mark Klingler / Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

Anzu wyliei: New Bird-like Dinosaur Discovered

Mar 19, 2014 by Enrico de Lazaro

U.S. paleontologists have discovered a new raptor dinosaur that lived in western North America during the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. This...

Semirostrum ceruttii: Scientists Discover Extinct Porpoise with Unique Underbite

Mar 14, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists led by Dr Rachel Racicot of Yale University have described a new species of extinct porpoise that lived off the coast of what is now California...

Nanuqsaurus hoglundi: New Tyrannosaur Discovered in Alaska

Mar 13, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, have discovered the fossils of a new diminutive tyrannosaur that lived in what...

Torvosaurus gurneyi. Image credit: © Sergey Krasovskiy.

Torvosaurus gurneyi: New Giant Dinosaur Discovered in Portugal

Mar 6, 2014 by News Staff

Two paleontologists from Portugal have described a new species of giant dinosaur that lived in what is today Europe during the Jurassic period, about 150...

The early ape Proconsul, center, and the primate Dendropithecus, upper right, inhabited a warm and relatively wet, closed canopy tropical seasonal forest 18 million years ago in equatorial eastern Africa – on Rusinga Island, Kenya. Image credit: Jason Brougham.

Proconsul, Dendropithecus: New Research Sheds Light on Life of Early Apes

Mar 5, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists and anthropologists led by Dr Kieran McNulty from the University of Minnesota have discovered definitive evidence of the widespread, dense,...

Archaeopteryx lithographica, one of early birds. Image credit: H. Raab / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Study Sheds More Light on Origin of Birds

Feb 25, 2014 by News Staff

According to new research on the first birds and bird-like dinosaurs (Paraves) which lived 160 to 120 million years ago, bird wings and small body size...

This is an artist's impression of Atopodentatus unicus. Image credit: © Nobu Tamura, 2014 (spinops.blogspot.com).

Atopodentatus unicus: Bizarre New Fossil Reptile Discovered in China

Feb 17, 2014 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists led by Dr Xiao-Chun Wu from Canadian Museum of Nature say they have discovered a new genus and species of reptile that lived in what is...

Trilobites by Heinrich Harder, 1916.

Research Sheds New Light on Life of Trilobites

Feb 17, 2014 by News Staff

A new study published in the journal Geology suggests extinct arthropods known as trilobites were likely able to venture into very shallow water of the...

248-million-years-old fossil of the ichthyosaur Chaohusaurus. Image credit: Motani R et al.

Chaohusaurus Fossil Shows Oldest Live Reptile Birth

Feb 14, 2014 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists led by Dr Guan-bao Chen of Anhui Geological Museum, China, says a newly discovered fossil of a Mesozoic ichthyosaur reveals the...

Scientists say that long-lasting volcanic eruptions in a large region in Russia known as the Siberian Traps may have caused the end-Permian extinction - the most severe mass extinction in the history of life on our planet. This image shows the lava lake of the Nyiragongo Volcano, the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Image credit: Cai Tjeenk Willink / CC BY-SA 3.0.

End-Permian Mass Extinction Took Only 60,000 Years, Say Researchers

Feb 11, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists have determined that the end-Permian extinction – the Earth’s most severe mass extinction that peaked about 252.3 million years...

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