Paleontology News

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...

A landscape from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil showing Cargninia enigmatica being observed by the sauropodomorph dinosaur Macrocollum itaquii. Image credit: Marcio L. Castro.

Tiny Triassic Reptile Sheds Light on Early Lizard Evolution

Jul 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Today, lepidosaurs — the reptile group that includes lizards, snakes and New Zealand’s tuatara — are among the most diverse vertebrates on...

Fossils of Spriggina floundersi from South Australia; white arrows highlight lifted areas, white triangle indicates divergent bend angle of adjacent modules. Scale bars - 10 cm. Image credit: Evans et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-026-53857-x.

Ediacaran Sea Creature May Hold Earliest Evidence of Right-Handedness

Jul 10, 2026 by News Staff

Spriggina floundersi, a marine species that lived during the Ediacaran period 550 million years ago, is one of Earth’s earliest bilaterally symmetrical...

Life reconstruction of a herd of five individuals of Uragasaurus kalasinensis inhabiting a Late Jurassic forest in Thailand, accompanied by a pair of rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs and a metriacanthosaurid theropod. Image credit: Pakorn Chotchaiyaporn.

New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Identified in Thailand

Jul 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in northeastern Thailand have identified a new species of mamenchisaurid sauropod dinosaur, offering fresh evidence that a group...

Life reconstruction of Zhengheornis buyu. Image credit: Chung-Tat Cheung.

New Jurassic Fossil Reveals How Birds Lost Their Dinosaur Tails

Jul 7, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have described a small, previously unknown Jurassic bird whose short tail offers new evidence for how the earliest birds traded...

Life reconstruction of the Antarctic titanosaur. Image credit: Andrew McAfee, Carnegie Museum of Natural History.

83-Million-Year-Old Fossil Rewrites Timeline of Antarctica’s First Dinosaur Discovery

Jul 1, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A small fossil collected on an Antarctic island more than four decades ago is a tail vertebra of a titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that roamed Antarctica...

An artist’s impression of Urokodia aequalis, a marine predator that lived in the Cambrian seas around 518 million years ago. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang.

Ancient Sea Creature Pushes Back Origins of Spider Fangs to 518 Million Years Ago

Jul 1, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Urokodia aequalis, an early Cambrian marine predator from the Chengjiang biota of China, preserves the earliest known evidence of chelicerae — the...

Although Panthera pardus burgtonnae was roughly similar in length to modern African leopards (Panthera pardus pardus), its skeleton suggests a much stockier build. Image credit: Thomas Fuhrmann / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Fossils from German Quarry Reveal New Subspecies of European Leopard

Jun 30, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Named Panthera pardus burgtonnae, the newly-identified leopard subspecies roamed Europe during the Eemian interglacial period and was far more heavily...

Walters et al. compared theoretical pterosaur wings with published reconstructions over a series of shape and function tests to understand whether the current scientific understanding of pterosaur wing shape is likely to accurately represent the diversity of pterosaur wing shapes and whether issues in depicting pterosaurs stem from the style or substance of life reconstructions; their results revealed that reconstructions do not perform as expected and thus do not accurately represent the flight abilities of pterosaurs. Image credit: Mark P. Witton.

Pterosaurs May Have Sported Far More Varied Wings than Paleontologists Imagined

Jun 30, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

New research from the University of Bristol suggests that pterosaurs — the first vertebrates to achieve powered flight — probably displayed...

Life appearance of Adelphailurus kansensis based on the newly described material. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.

Early Saber-Toothed Cat Gets New Face after Decades of Mystery

Jun 29, 2026 by Natali Anderson

A nearly complete skull unearthed decades ago in Arizona has given paleontologists their clearest look yet at Adelphailurus kansensis, an enigmatic felid...

Reconstruction of the forest floor of the 74.6 million-year-old Dori’s Tuff flora, featuring hypothetical angiosperm-disperser interactions. The plants depicted, including the foliage, fruits, seeds and flowers, were illustrated in life position based on the fossil plants found at the site and their inferred growth habits. The mammalian and dinosaur seed dispersers depicted were based on the known fauna from the broader region during the Late Campanian age of the Cretaceous period. Image credit: Brian Engh, livingrelicproductions.com.

Flowering Plants Were Already Thriving before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Hit

Jun 29, 2026 by News Staff

Fossils from the Jose Creek Formation in New Mexico reveal that angiosperms (flowering plants) had built dense, fruit-bearing forests nearly 75 million...

Life reconstruction of Silescelida acristata. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes Gadelha.

Distant Cousin of Crocodiles Stalked Brazil 240 Million Years Ago

Jun 26, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in Brazil have identified a previously unknown species of archosauriform that lived about 240 million years ago and may belong...