Paleontology News

Flowering Plants May Have Originated Earlier than Previously Thought

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.
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 between 252 and 247 million years ago, or even earlier. 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 evolved from extinct plants related to conifers, ginkgos, cycads, and seed...

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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...

The lepidosaurs were the ancestors of lizards, snakes and tuatara. This image shows the extant tuatara Sphenodon punctatus. Image credit: Keres H / CC BY 3.0.

Paleontologists Discover Earliest Fossil Record of Lepidosaurs

Sep 25, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Two skull fossils unearthed in Germany provide the first direct evidence that lepidosaurs – reptiles closely related to lizards, snakes and tuatara...

The scientists have tried to extract ancient DNA from two stingless bees Trigonisca ameliae. This image shows Trigonisca ameliae bee in Colombian copal. Image credit: Dr David Penney / University of Manchester.

Extracting Dinosaur DNA from Amber Fossils Impossible, Scientists Say

Sep 17, 2013 by News Staff

According to Dr David Penney and his colleagues at the University of Manchester, UK, the existence of ancient DNA in amber fossils is highly unlikely. The...

This is an artist's reconstruction of Archaeanthus, an ancestor of the tulip tree. Image credit: David Dilcher.

Archaeanthus: Paleontologists Identify Ancient Ancestor of Tulip Tree

Sep 13, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

The modern-day tulip tree (Liriodendron tulipifera) traces its lineage back to the Lower Cretaceous period – a time when dinosaurs roamed the Earth,...

The cranium of juvenile Lufengpithecus lufengensis found at the site of Shuitangba (Xue-Ping Ji / Yunnan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology).

Rare Skull Fossil of Miocene Ape Lufengpithecus Found

Sep 9, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of a 6.1-million-year-old relatively complete and largely undistorted juvenile cranium...

Sting of Gondwanascorpio emzantsiensis (RW Gess / University of the Witwatersrand).

Paleontologist Finds 360-Million-Year-Old Scorpion Fossil

Sep 3, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Dr Robert Gess from the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg has discovered what he says is the oldest known land-living animal from Gondwana,...

Leedsichtys problematicus (Dmitry Bogdanov / CC BY 3.0).

Leedsichthys, Biggest Fish Ever, Could Grow More Than 50 Feet Long

Aug 28, 2013 by News Staff

Recently discovered fossils of Leedsichthys – the biggest fish that ever swam in oceans – show that the prehistoric creature could grow to 26 –...

The pig-size Permian anomodont Dicynodon lacerticeps (Marlene Donnelly / Field Museum of Natural History).

Research Sheds Light on Recovery of Anomodonts after end-Permian Mass Extinction

Aug 14, 2013 by News Staff

A new study, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, shows how anomodonts – ancient relatives of modern mammals – recovered in...

Life reconstruction of Megaconus mammaliaformis. It was a nocturnal animal, foraging mostly in the night (April Isch / Zhe-Xi Luo / University of Chicago).

Megaconus: Furry Proto-Mammal Stuns Paleontologists

Aug 8, 2013 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has discovered a well-preserved fossil of a proto-mammal, named Megaconus mammaliaformis, that lived in what is...

1.75-million-year-old ambergris fossil (Angela Baldanza et al).

First-Ever Ambergris Fossils Found in Italy

Aug 1, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Italian paleontologists have reported the discovery of enigmatic fossils in Pleistocene shallow-marine clay deposits in central Italy. 1.75-million-year-old...

Archaeopteryx lithographica, one of the earliest known birds (Carl Buell / Nicholas Longrich).

Flightless Dinosaurs Had Flight-Ready Brains, Study Says

Aug 1, 2013 by News Staff

A team of researchers reporting in the journal Nature has revealed that some non-avian dinosaurs had brains that were as large or larger than that of Archaeopteryx...

The origin of vertebrates, over a time-scale from roughly 700 to 400 million years ago. The red curve indicates our direct ancestors, beginning with early metazoans, and the numbers along the curve denote major branchings that are significant to the evolution of the vertebrate eye (Trevor D. Lamb)

Eyes 500 Million Years Old, Australian Scientist Says

Jul 30, 2013 by News Staff

Prof Trevor Lamb of the Australian National University has published a major scientific review of the origin of the vertebrate eye and vision, summarizing...

Oreopithecus bambolii (© Museo di Storia Naturale della Maremma)

Prehistoric Ape Oreopithecus Did Not Walk on Two Legs Like Human

Jul 26, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new study published online in the Journal of Human Evolution refutes a long body of evidence, suggesting that a 9-million-year-old ape called Oreopithecus...

Fouldenia is shown swimming along the bottom of a tropical freshwater floodplain about 348 million years ago (John Megahan)

Long-Extinct Fouldenia Sheds Light on Origin of Ray-Finned Fishes

Jul 25, 2013 by News Staff

New research reported in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society shows that the previously known but misclassified small predatory fish Fouldenia...

Only known specimen of the Early Eocen marsupial Archaeonothos henkgodthelpi from southeastern Queensland, Australia; scale bar - 1mm (Robin M.D. Beck)

New Fossils Challenge Marsupial Evolution Theory

Jul 25, 2013 by News Staff

Two tiny marsupial fossils from Australia are prompting an overhaul of theory about marsupial evolution after they revealed unexpected links to South America...

Bright, irregularly shaped structures are Diskagma buttonii (Gregory J. Retallack et al)

Two Billion Year Old Fossils Point to Early Terrestrial Life

Jul 23, 2013 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Precambrian Research, describes evidence that primitive forms of life existed on land 2.2 billion years ago. Bright,...

Reconstruction of the pachycephalosaurid Pachycephalosaurus wyomingensis with cranial lesion (Peterson JE et al)

Study Confirms Head-Butting Behavior in Dome-Headed Dinosaurs

Jul 22, 2013 by Natali Anderson

According to a study by scientists at the University of Wisconsin and Yale University, small, herbivorous, dome-headed dinosaurs from the late Cretaceous...

Reconstruction of Ocepechelon bouyai (Bardet N et al / C. Letenneur / MNHN / CC-BY)

Ocepechelon: Giant Prehistoric Sea Turtle from Morocco

Jul 22, 2013 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have described a new extinct genus and species of sea turtle that lived in shallow seas about 67 million years ago during Late Cretaceous. Reconstruction...

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