Paleontology News

99-Million-Year-Old Amber Preserves Earliest-Known Mosquito Larva

Larva of Cretosabethes primaevus. Image credit: Amaral et al., doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2025.09.011.
Oct 28, 2025 by Sergio Prostak

The new fossil, encased in a piece of amber from the Kachin region of Myanmar, represents both the first mosquito larva preserved in amber and the first immature mosquito from the Mesozoic Era, named as a new genus and species Cretosabethes primaevus. This discovery provides strong support for the Jurassic origin of the mosquito family Culicidae and suggests that their larval morphology has remained relatively conserved for at least the past 99 million...

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Whiteia anniae in right lateral view, holotype. Image credit: Dai et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-20229-w.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Early Triassic Coelacanth

Oct 27, 2025 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists in China have described a new species of the coelacanth genus Whiteia on the basis of two fossilized specimens. This discovery extends...

An artist’s impression of Wadisuchus kassabi. Image credit: Nathan Dehaut / MUVP.

80-Million-Year-Old Fossils of Long-Snouted Crocodile Unearthed in Egypt

Oct 27, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered two partial skulls and three partial jaws from an early-diverging dyrosaurid crocodyliform in the layers of the Quseir...

Life reconstruction of the St Bathans bowerbird (Aeviperditus gracilis). Image credit: Sasha Votyakova / Te Papa / CC BY 4.0.

Tiny Fossil Reveals Previously Unknown Songbird Lineage from New Zealand

Oct 27, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the 2.9-cm-long fossilized foot bone of a possible bowerbird species at the Miocene locality of St Bathans in Aotearoa New Zealand. Life...

The right lower canine of a large proborhyaenid sparassodont from the Tremembé Formation, Brazil. Scale bars - 5 mm in (A-E) and 20 mm in (H). Image credit: Rangel et al., doi: 10.4072/rbp.2025.2.0534.

Fossil of Carnivorous ‘Swamp Monster’ Found in Brazil

Oct 24, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have uncovered the fossilized lower right canine of a large proborhyaenid sparassodont in the Taubaté Basin of Brazil. The right lower...

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

Two New Specimens of Edmontosaurus annectens Preserve Fine Details of Scales and Hooves

Oct 23, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists have examined two exceptional specimens of the end-Cretaceous, duck-billed dinosaur Edmontosaurus annectens. Using an array of imaging...

Flynn et al. analyzed Alamosaurus fossils found in northwestern New Mexico and discovered these dinosaurs were very different but the same age as dinosaurs found further north in Wyoming and Montana. Image credit: Natalia Jagielska.

Latest Cretaceous Dinosaurs Lived in Vibrant, Regionally Distinct Communities

Oct 23, 2025 by News Staff

The most iconic mass extinction in Earth history occurred around 66 million years ago, as rapid environmental destruction led to the extinction of around...

Megafaunal animals from Mammoth Cave about 50,000 years ago: the giant long-beaked echidna Murrayglossus hacketti, the giant kangaroo Procoptodon browneorum, the giant diprotodontid Zygomaturus trilobus, and the thylacine (Thylacinus cynocephalus). Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Australia’s First Peoples Were Fossil Collectors, New Study Suggests

Oct 22, 2025 by News Staff

In a new study, University of New South Wales Professor Mike Archer and colleagues re-examined the fossilized tibia (lower leg bone) of a now-extinct,...

Life reconstruction of Brontotholus harmoni. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

New Species of Dome-Headed Dinosaur Identified in Montana

Oct 20, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of pachycephalosaurid dinosaur from five fossil specimens found in the Late Cretaceous Two Medicine...

Huayracursor jaguensis. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Triassic Long-Necked Dinosaur

Oct 16, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have unearthed a new assemblage of Triassic fossils at the Quebrada Santo Domingo site of the Northern Precordillera Basin in northwestern...

An artist’s reconstruction of Anteavis crurilongus. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

New Species of Triassic Carnivorous Dinosaur Identified in Argentina

Oct 15, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of theropod dinosaur being named Anteavis crurilongus has been described by a team of paleontologists from the Universidad Nacional...

The 166-million-year-old sauropod dinosaur trackways at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire, England. Image credit: University of Birmingham.

Europe’s Longest Sauropod Dinosaur Trackway Unearthed in England

Oct 14, 2025 by News Staff

In 2024, a major new sauropod dinosaur track site was uncovered at Dewars Farm Quarry, near Bicester in Oxfordshire, England. This year, paleontologists...

Life reconstruction of Xiphodracon goldencapensis. Image credit: Bob Nicholls.

Fossil of Long and Narrow-Snouted Ichthyosaur Uncovered in England

Oct 13, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

University of Manchester paleontologist Dean Lomax and his colleagues have identified a new genus and species of leptonectid ichthyosaur from a fossilized...

A reconstructed illustration of Polistodon chuannanensis. Image credit: Chuang Zhao / PNSO.

Two Jurassic Mammal Relatives Had Uniquely Shaped Jaw Joints

Oct 13, 2025 by News Staff

The evolution of the modern mammal jaw is more complex than previously thought, according to a new analysis of fossils belonging to two mammaliamorph species:...

Radiocarbon dating reveals the mid-Weichselian presence of common hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) in the Upper Rhine Graben in Germany. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Hippos Lived in Central Europe around 40,000 Years Ago, New Study Suggests

Oct 13, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A small, isolated population of common hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius) was present in the Upper Rhine Graben in southwestern Germany during the middle...

Life reconstruction of Ahshislesaurus wimani based on the holotype and closely related species. Image credit: Sergey Krasovskiy.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Flat-Headed Herbivorous Dinosaur

Oct 6, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of hadrosaurid dinosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period in what is now New Mexico has been identified and named by paleontologists...

An artist’s reconstruction of the Weberian apparatus in Acronichthys maccognoi; the Weberian structure (gold-colored bones at center) arose from a rib (shown in gray attached to several back bones in the spine) and connect the fish’s air bladder (left) with the inner ear (right). Image credit: Ken Naganawa, University of California, Berkeley.

Oceanic Fish Transitioned to Freshwater Multiple Times, Paleontologists Say

Oct 6, 2025 by News Staff

The fish supergroup Otophysi, known for their enhanced hearing, comprises two-thirds of living freshwater fish species. Previously, they were thought to...

Geological map showing the location of Vitosaura colozacani in the Los Llanos Formation, La Rioja Province, Argentina. Image credit: Jiménez Velandia et al., doi: 10.5710/AMGH.24.09.2025.3653.

New Species of Abelisaurid Dinosaur Discovered in Argentina

Oct 3, 2025 by News Staff

A new genus and species of abelisaurid theropod dinosaur has been discovered by a team of paleontologists from Argentina, Brazil and the United Kingdom. Geological...

Abundance of Archaea across samples collected from the Permafrost Research Tunnel near Fairbanks, Alaska. Image credit: Caro et al., doi: 10.1029/2025JG008759.

Researchers Revive Pleistocene-Age Microbes

Oct 2, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists have resurrected ancient microbes from permafrost cores of Late-Pleistocene age (up to 40,000 years old) collected from four locations within...

Life reconstruction of Breugnathair elgolensis. Image credit: Brennan Stokkermans / National Museums Scotland.

New Jurassic Lizard Species Has Confusing Set of Features Seen in Snakes and Geckos

Oct 1, 2025 by News Staff

Breugnathair elgolensis — a species of hook-toothed lizard that lived during the Middle Jurassic, about 167 million years ago — displays a...

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