Paleontology News

Reconstruction of Spea labreae (center and right) in La Brea Tar Pits compared with Spea hammondii (left), the species currently present in the area, and the presence of the Mexican burrowing toad (bottom). Image credit: Arturo Dávalos.

La Brea Tar Pits Yield New Species of Ice Age Toad

Aug 5, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists studying the La Brea Tar Pits, one of the world’s richest Ice Age fossil sites, have identified a previously unknown species of spadefoot...

Tetonius homunculus (colorized) by R. Bruce Horsfall from W.B. Scott’s History of Land Mammals in the Western Hemisphere.

Tiny New Primate Species Emerges from 50-Million-Year-Old Wyoming Sandstone

Aug 5, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in southern Wyoming have identified a previously unknown species of omomyid primate, adding a new chapter to the story of one of...

An artist’s impression of Yantaloong lini. Image credit: TotalDino / CC BY 4.0.

Fossil Find in China Reveals Dinosaur Family Never Before Seen in East Asia

Aug 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in southern China have identified a new species of sauropod dinosaur that appears to belong to a group never before documented...

Life reconstruction of Austronaga minuta. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

244-Million-Year-Old Fossil Preserves Earliest Reptilian Digestive System

Aug 4, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

An exquisitely preserved specimen of Austronaga minuta, a small, long-necked marine reptile from the Triassic of China, contains a fossilized stomach,...

Life reconstruction of Eoceras shaanxiense. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

520-Million-Year-Old Fossil from China Fills Gap in Evolutionary History of Cephalopods

Jul 30, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified the earliest-known cephalopod equipped with a siphuncle — a tubular extension of the mantle found in shelled cephalopods...

Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large armored dinosaur species, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, falling on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Image credit: Fabio Manucci.

Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Didn’t Just Strike Earth, Its Dust Cloud Cooked It

Jul 29, 2026 by News Staff

The Chicxulub impact not only plunged Earth into an impact winter but also produced a dust blanket that later overheated the planet, according to new research...

Life reconstruction of Musango matusadonaensis. Image credit: Mark Witton.

New Species of Triassic Dinosaur Discovered on Shores of Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba

Jul 29, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of paleontologists has identified a new species of early sauropodomorph dinosaur in Zimbabwe, adding to growing evidence that southern...

Apis aibai. Image credit: Y. Takahashi & J-ichi Takahashi, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1255.162389.

Japanese Fossil Bee Fills Two-Million-Year Gap in Honeybee History

Jul 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new fossil honeybee species that fills a long-standing gap in the evolutionary record of the genus Apis. Apis...

An artist’s reconstruction of Miyumba chrisdickmani in the Early Miocene rainforests of northern Australia. Image credit: Nellie Pease.

Early Miocene Fossil Rewrites Family Tree of Little Carnivorous Marsupials

Jul 24, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists at the University of New South Wales have described a new genus and species of dasyurid marsupial from the Early Miocene of Australia,...

Life reconstruction of Tametara mirim. Image credit: Gabriel Ugueto.

Did Early Snakes Burrow, Swim or Crawl? 80‑Million‑Year‑Old Fossil Suggests: All Three

Jul 23, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed a remarkably preserved fossil snake in Brazil that is reshaping ideas about how the earliest snakes lived and complicating...

An artist’s impression of the end-Triassic fern spike interval. Image credit: Mark Garlick.

Fern-Fueled Wildfires Raged across Europe for Millennia during End-Triassic Mass Extinction

Jul 23, 2026 by News Staff

A 201-million-year-old climate catastrophe turned Europe into a landscape of fern savannahs that repeatedly caught fire, according to new research published...

An artist’s impression of the Kimmeridge Clay pliosaur. Image credit: Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth.

Jurassic Pliosaur Liopleurodon Was Big, but Not as Big as Once Feared

Jul 22, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For several decades, Liopleurodon ferox — a short-necked marine reptile that patrolled the seas of what is now England and France some 163 million...

Life reconstruction of Ceratocaudia antiqua, the earliest-known macronarian neosauropod species from India. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

Small Sauropod Dinosaur from Jurassic Period Discovered in India

Jul 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in India have unearthed a partial skeleton of a diminutive, previously unknown neosauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Gujarat’s...

Life reconstruction of Limnospondylus ajimuensis. Image credit: Kanon Tanaka.

3.5-Million-Year-Old Fossil from Japan Reveals Lost Lineage of Giant Salamanders

Jul 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of cryptobranchid salamander that lived in lakes in Japan about 3.5 million years ago has been identified from three fossil vertebrae,...

Carinasquama rusmithii. Image credit: Daza et al., doi: 10.3897/sjp.145.188227.

Oldest Known Male Gecko Found Preserved in Kachin Amber

Jul 20, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of ancient gecko found in two pieces of amber from the 99-million-year-old (mid-Cretaceous) amber...

The Middle Devonian Hujiersite amber. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh1266.

385-Million-Year-Old Amber Found in China

Jul 17, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in China have discovered what they say is the earliest confirmed pieces of amber ever found, a fossilized resin roughly 385 million years...

Life reconstruction of Edmontosaurus annectens. Image credit: Dani Navarro.

Tyrannosaurus rex Scavenged Duck-Billed Dinosaurs in Ancient Wyoming, Bite Marks Reveal

Jul 15, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Thousands of fossilized bones from a Cretaceous-period bonebed in Wyoming, the United States, offer rare physical evidence that Tyrannosaurus rex fed on...

Life reconstruction of Plesiolophus warnerensis. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

New Crested Dinosaur Species Identified in Canada

Jul 14, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur has been identified in southern Alberta, Canada, dating back 77 million years to the Campanian...

Mesetasaurus protector. Image credit: Merlina Ramírez.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Titanosaur in Uruguay

Jul 13, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Uruguay have identified a new species of aeolosaurine titanosaur from a pair of remarkably well-preserved tailbones unearthed in the...