Paleontology News

Milwaukee’s Gift to Devonian Paleontology

The linguliform brachiopod, Barroisella? milwaukeensis, showing color patterns, MPM P236. Image credit: Kenneth C. Gass / CC BY-SA 4.0 International.
Jul 10, 2023 by Kenneth C. Gass

Now known for its sports teams, Harleys, and beer, early Milwaukee County, Wisconsin was one of the nation’s leading producers of natural cement, and the fossils from its cement mines revealed one of the country’s most diverse assemblages of animals and plants of their age (Middle Devonian, ~385 million years ago). With the depletion of the cement rock, so went the ‘era of discovery’ of those fossils, but the few remaining exposures have become...

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A small piece of Burmese amber preserving feathers interpreted as belonging to a juvenile enantiornithine bird: (A) amber with the dorsal surface of the feather cluster exposed; (B) ventral surface exposed; (C) close up of the ventral surface (region marked in B); (D) close up of the ventral surface region marked in (C); (E) close up of the ventral surface region marked in (D); (F) close up of the dorsal surface marked in (A, larger rectangle); (G) close up of the dorsal surface marked in (A, smaller rectangle). Dotted lines indicate desiccation surfaces. Scale bars - 0.5 mm in (A, B, D and F), 0.1 mm in (C); 0.3 mm in (E); and 0.2 mm in (G). Anatomical abbreviations: ipl - immature plumaceous feather; ipn - immature pennaceous feather; ks - keratinous sheath; pf - probable filamentous ‘protofeathers.’ Image credit: O’Connor et al., doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105572.

99-Million-Year-Old Burmese Amber Preserves Feathers of Immature Enantiornithine Bird

Jul 7, 2023 by News Staff

The specimen provides the first unequivocal evidence of immature feathers in the Mesozoic fossil record. A small piece of Burmese amber preserving feathers...

Primary sequential molt in Microraptor; the arrow indicates the location of the molt-related gap within the primary feathers. Scale bar - 10 cm. Image credit: Y. Kiat & J.K. O’Connor, doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05048-x.

Rarity of Molt Evidence in Feathered Dinosaurs Suggests Annual Molt Evolved Later among Flying Birds

Jul 6, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Feathers are a primitive trait among pennaraptoran dinosaurs, which today are represented by living birds, the only clade of dinosaurs to survive the end-Cretaceous...

Life reconstruction of Anomalocaris. Image credit: Katrina Kenny.

Cambrian Radiodont Was Speedy, But Not Strong Enough to Crack Trilobite Shells

Jul 5, 2023 by News Staff

Anomalocaris canadensis — the iconic 60-cm radiodont from the 508-million-year-old Burgess Shale of Canada — is one of the largest Cambrian...

Hypothesized reconstruction of Vampyrofugiens atramentum. Image credit: A. Lethiers.

Jurassic Vampire Squid Had Ink Sac and Luminous Organs

Jul 3, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of vampyromorph coleoid from a fossil specimen found in the Middle Jurassic La Voulte-sur-Rhône...

Massospondylus carinatus. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com / Patty Jansen / Sci.News.

South African Fossil Reveals Smallest Jurassic Sauropodomorph Dinosaur

Jun 29, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

This dinosaur weighed around 75 kg, making it one of the smallest known sauropodomorph species, and the smallest ever reported from the Jurassic period. Massospondylus...

Jurassic bone fragments (white) in gray-tan, sandy limestone matrix; rock hammer for scale. Image credit: May et al., doi: 10.24872/rmgjournal.58.1.19.

Paleontologists Unearth Texas’ First Vertebrate Fossils of Jurassic Age

Jun 27, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists say they collected numerous vertebrate specimens from the Late Jurassic Malone Formation in the Malone Mountains of western Texas, the...

Otodus megalodon went extinct 3.6 million years ago. Image credit: Alex Boersma / PNAS.

Megalodon Was Partially Warm-Blooded, New Research Shows

Jun 27, 2023 by News Staff

Otodus megalodon was a gigantic megatooth shark that lived in the world’s oceans from 23 to 3.6 million years ago. It could grow to the enormous size...

Life reconstruction of the extinct bear-dog Amphicyon ingens, a very distant relative of Eoarctos vorax. Image credit: Roman Uchytel.

Placental Mammals Survived End-Cretaceous Extinction, Paleobiologists Claim

Jun 27, 2023 by News Staff

Placental mammals — the evolutionary lineage that includes humans — co-existed with non-avian dinosaurs for a short time before the dinosaurs...

The Wilson’s little penguin (Eudyptula wilsonae). Image credit: Simone Giovanardi.

3-Million-Year-Old Fossils Support Zealandian Origin for Smallest Living Penguins

Jun 27, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Eudyptula wilsonae is the smallest extinct crown penguin yet known and is a possible ancestor of the kororā or New Zealand little penguin (Eudyptula minor...

Gonkoken nanoi. Image credit: Gabriel Diaz Yantén (Paleogdy).

Relict Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unearthed in Chilean Patagonia

Jun 26, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Gonkoken nanoi is the first non-hadrosaurid duck-billed dinosaur known from the southern supercontinent of Gondwana. Gonkoken nanoi. Image credit: Gabriel...

Life reconstruction of Olympicetus thalassodon pursuing a school of fishes alongside plotopterid birds (background) somewhere in the eastern North Pacific Ocean. Image credit: Cullen Townsend.

Paleontologist Describes New Species of Ancient Toothed Whale

Jun 23, 2023 by News Staff

Olympicetus thalassodon is one of several that are helping us understand the early history and diversification of modern dolphins, porpoises and other...

Life restoration of Macrocollum itaquii. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com / Alan Frijns / Sci.News.

Pneumatic Air-Filled Bones First Appeared in Sauropod Dinosaurs 225 Million Years Ago: Study

Jun 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have examined an almost complete skeleton of Macrocollum itaquii, an unaysaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived in what is now Brazil...

Plantar (underneath) view of feet of a four-toed tapir (left) and a one-toed horse (right). In the middle, a reconstruction of the extinct three-toed horse Hipparion. Image credit: Nuria Melisa Morales-García / Karolina Suchan-Okulska.

Ancestors of Modern Horses Had Hooved Toes Instead of Single Hoof

Jun 20, 2023 by News Staff

Ancient horses such as Hyracotherium leporinum, a tiny horse relative from the Eocene of England, had feet like those of a modern tapir: four toes in front...

Life reconstruction of the mosasaur Plioplatecarpus, a distant relative of Sarabosaurus dahli. Image credit: Sci.News / Dmitry Bogdanov.

New Species of Mosasaur Identified in Utah

Jun 20, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

A new genus and species of mosasaurid being named Sarabosaurus dahli has been discovered by a team of paleontologists from the United States, the Netherlands...

Spiral arranged leaves can be identified at the shoot tip of Asteroxylon mackiei. Image credit: Turner et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adg4014.

407-Million-Year-Old Fossil Overturns Thinking on Evolution of Leafy Plants

Jun 20, 2023 by News Staff

Aerial parts of plants arrange their organs around stems, and this arrangement defines their structure. In most existing plant species, organs emerge at...

An artist’s impression of Nihohae matakoi. Image credit: Daniel Verhelst.

Oligocene-Period Dolphin Had Procumbent Tusk-Like Teeth

Jun 19, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Nihohae matakoi’s tusk-like teeth suggest adaptive advantages for horizontally procumbent teeth in ancient dolphins. An artist’s impression of Nihohae...

An artistic rendition of the decapitation scene of Tanystropheus hydroides. Image credit: Roc Olivé, Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont / FECYT.

Triassic Reptiles with Extraordinarily Long Neck were Decapitated by Predators, Paleontologists Say

Jun 19, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists have studied the unusual necks of two species of Tanystropheus, a type of aquatic reptile that lived during the Triassic period some 242...

Vectipelta barretti. Image credit: Stuart Pond.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Ankylosaur

Jun 16, 2023 by News Staff

A new genus and species of armored ankylosaurian dinosaur has been identified from fossils found on the Isle of Wight, the United Kingdom. Vectipelta barretti....

A group of Australopithecus afarensis. Image credit: Matheus Vieeira.

Paleoanthropologist Reconstructs Missing Soft Tissues of 3.2 Million-Year-Old ‘Lucy’

Jun 14, 2023 by News Staff

Soft tissues rarely preserve in the fossil record, rather scientists are mostly left with just the skeletal material. Yet, muscles animate the body. They...

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