Paleontology News

Ray-Finned Fish Lineages Were Not as Hard Hit by End-Devonian Extinction as Previously Thought

Palaeoneiros clackorum skull and shoulder girdle. Image credit: Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University / President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Nov 17, 2022 by News Staff

Many accounts of the early history of ray-finned fishes (actinopterygians) posit that the end-Devonian mass extinction event 359 million years ago had a major influence on their evolution. This episode could have acted as a bottleneck, paring the early diversity of the group to a handful of survivors. Paleontologists have now identified a new genus and species of ray-finned fish — named Palaeoneiros clackorum — that lived in the Appalachian...

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An artistic reconstruction of the two new opabiniid-like animals, with Mieridduryn bonniae at the front and the smaller unnamed animal at the back. Image credit: Franz Anthony.

Fossils of Two Bizarre Ordovician Animals Found in Wales

Nov 16, 2022 by News Staff

Two specimens of euarthropods from the Middle Ordovician Castle Bank Biota in Wales, the United Kingdom, have striking similarities to Opabinia, an iconic...

Life reconstruction of a macronarian dinosaur. Image credit: Levi Bernardo / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Species of Jurassic Sauropod Dinosaur Uncovered in China

Nov 15, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Yuzhoulong qurenensis is one of the earliest-diverging members of the sauropod dinosaur clade Macronaria. Life reconstruction of a macronarian dinosaur....

Specimen of Gangtoucunia aspera preserved in situ in a dwelling tube with soft tissues and life reconstruction: (a) overview of oralmost region of part, boxed region shown in (d); (b) overview of oralmost region of counterpart; (c) interpretative drawing combining information from both part and counterpart; (d) detail of oral region and tentacular apparatus of part; (e) close up of tentacles in part; (f) close up of tentacles in counterpart; (g) life reconstruction of Gangtoucunia aspera. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang / Zhang et al., doi: 10.1098/rspb.2022.1623.

Paleontologists Solve Mystery of Problematic Tubular Fossils from Cambrian Period

Nov 14, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists have examined the 514-million-year-old specimens of Gangtoucunia aspera, a tube-building marine animal from the Guanshan Lagerstätte of...

An artist’s impression of Devonian forest. Image credit: Eduard Riou / Rursus.

Evolution of Tree Roots Triggered Series of Devonian Mass Extinctions, Study Suggests

Nov 11, 2022 by News Staff

The Devonian period, which occurred 419 to 358 million years ago, prior to the evolution of life on land, is known for a series of catastrophic mass extinction...

Life reconstruction of Stenoscelida aurantiacus. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes / Universidade Federal de Santa Maria.

New Species of Triassic Crocodile-Like Reptile Identified in Brazil

Nov 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered a new fossil reptile that lived during the Late Triassic epoch in southern Brazil. Life reconstruction of Stenoscelida...

Diorama of Ediacaran organisms displayed at the Smithsonian Institution. Image credit: Ryan Somma / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Study: Decreased Global Oxygen Availability Caused End-Ediacaran Mass Extinction

Nov 9, 2022 by News Staff

Mass extinctions are well recognized as significant steps in the evolutionary trajectory of life on Earth. In new research, geobiologists from Virginia...

Cymatioa cooki. Image credit: P. Valentich-Scott & J.H.R. Goddard, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1128.95139.

Fossil Clam Species Found Living Off Southern California

Nov 8, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Cymatioa cooki, a species of small bivalve mollusk previously only known from the Pleistocene period, has been found living intertidally near Santa Barbara,...

Hand sample of Dresser Formation stromatolite with domical topography (arrowed). Image credit: Hickman-Lewis et al., doi: 10.1130/G50390.1.

3.5-Billion-Year-Old Australian Stromatolites Have Biogenic Origin, New Research Confirms

Nov 7, 2022 by News Staff

Stromatolites are solid, laminar structures reflecting complex interplays between microbial communities and their environment. Hand sample of Dresser Formation...

Life reconstruction of the thescelosaurine dinosaur Parksosaurus warreni, a close relative of Nevadadromeus schmitti. Image credit: Steveoc 86 / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Plant-Eating Dinosaur Species Uncovered in Nevada

Nov 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists from the Nevada Science Center, Idaho State University and Montana State University have described a new genus and species of thescelosaurine...

UV light-induced fluorescence revealing residual color patterns in Pleuronectites laevigatus: (A-B) left valve with broad radial color bands showing continuation of bands after a growth line only under UV light, Upper Muschelkalk, Trochitenkalk Formation, Germany; (C-D) left valve with zigzag pattern, Upper Muschelkalk, Germany; (A, C) specimens under normal light; (B, D) specimens under UV light; note that in adult specimens of the species auricles are often not preserved. Scale bars - 1 cm. Image credit: Klaus Wolkenstein, doi: 10.1111/pala.12625.

240-Million-Year-Old Scallop Shells Glow under Ultraviolet Light

Nov 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

University of Bonn researcher Klaus Wolkenstein has examined the fossilized specimens of the Triassic scallop species Pleuronectites laevigatus with preserved...

Archaeocyclotus brevivillosus. Image credit: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum.

Cretaceous-Period Land Snail Had Hairy Shell

Oct 26, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of cyclophorid snail found in a piece of mid-Cretaceous amber excavated from a mine in Myanmar (formerly known...

Choanate vertebrates’ acoustic communication ancestral state reconstruction analysis: tree includes 1,800 choanatian species assigned either with the character presence or absence of acoustic communication; pie charts at ancestral nodes indicate likelihood of each character state; colors in the spectrograms represent sound intensity, with warm colors representing high intensity and cold colors (i.e. blue) representing low intensity or absence of sounds. Image credit: Jorgewich-Cohen et al., doi: 10.1038/s41467-022-33741-8.

Acoustic Communication May Have Appeared as Early as 407 Million Years Ago

Oct 26, 2022 by Sergio Prostak

Acoustic communication, broadly distributed among vertebrates, plays a fundamental role in parental care, mate attraction and various other behaviors....

An artist’s impression of Pteranodon. Image credit: Heinrich Harder.

New Species of Pterosaur Unearthed in Angola

Oct 24, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of pteranodontian pterosaur from fossilized bones found in the Republic of Angola. An artist’s...

Aepyornithomimus tugrikinensis. Image credit: Masato Hattori.

Ostrich-Like Dinosaurs Grew to Enormous Sizes in Cretaceous North America, Paleontologists Say

Oct 19, 2022 by News Staff

Some species of ornithomimosaurs that lived in what is now Mississippi, the United States, some 85 million years ago were among the world’s largest at...

An artist’s impression of Pangurban egiae. Image credit: Kyoto University / Jim Melli, San Diego Natural History Museum.

Eocene-Period Mammal Was Hypercarnivore with Serrated Teeth

Oct 14, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of saber-toothed mammalian carnivore has been identified from a fossil found in California, the United States. An artist’s impression...

Evidence of desiccation in Edmontosaurus. Image credit: Drumheller et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0275240.

New Research Indicates Simple Path to Preserving Dinosaur Soft Tissues

Oct 12, 2022 by News Staff

A new analysis of a natural ‘mummy’ of the hadrosaurian dinosaur Edmontosaurus from the Hell Creek Formation of southwestern North Dakota — which...

An artist’s impression of Nombe nombe (right) and other prehistoric animals from Nombe Rockshelter, Papua New Guinea. Image credit: Peter Shouten.

Some Megafaunal Species Survived in New Guinea until 20,000 Years Ago

Oct 9, 2022 by News Staff

Paleontologists have re-examined the remains of extinct, large-bodied marsupials recovered from Pleistocene-aged layers of Nombe Rockshelter in the highlands...

Artwork depicting one dinosaur’s experience of the Chicxulub impact. Image credit: Hermann Bermúdez.

Seismic Activity after Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Impact Lasted Weeks to Months: Study

Oct 7, 2022 by News Staff

About 66 million years ago, a massive asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in what is now Mexico. This impact coincides...

Lunataspis borealis specimens and interpretive drawings. Gray indicates preservation of organic cuticular material. Abbreviations: AN - axial node; CL - cardiac lobe; CN - cardiac node; FT - free tergites; LE - lateral eye; MR - marginal rim; OR - ophthalmic ridge; PT - pretelson. Scale bars - 1 mm. Image credit: Lamsdell et al., doi: 10.1017/S0016756822000875.

New Species of Ordovician Horseshoe Crab Unearthed in Canada

Oct 6, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Horseshoe crabs, or xiphosurans, are an order of marine and brackish water arthropods. Despite their common name, they are not really crabs, and are more...

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