Paleontology News

Fossils Reveal Unique Walking Behavior of Quetzalcoatlus

An artist’s rendition of Quetzalcoatlus northropi. Image credit: James Kuether.
Dec 8, 2021 by News Staff

With a 11-12-m wingspan (37-40 feet), Quetzalcoatlus is the largest flying organism ever known and one of the most familiar pterosaurs to the public. Its fossils were first discovered in 1971 by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Douglas Lawson in Big Bend National Park, Texas, the United States. Despite a half century of interest, Quetzalcoatlus remains very incompletely described. Some paleontologists think the ancient giant rocked forward...

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An artist’s impression of a pig-nosed turtle. Image credit: Monash University.

5-Million-Year-Old Pig-Nosed Turtle Fossil Found in South-Eastern Australia

Dec 7, 2021 by News Staff

The upper Miocene to lower Pliocene fossil from Beaumaris in Victoria, south-eastern Australia, completely rewrites the evolution of pig-nosed turtles. An...

The skull of ‘Tristan Otto.’ Image credit: Hamm.

Tyrannosaurs Suffered from Bone Infections, New Research Shows

Dec 2, 2021 by News Staff

Using a CT scanner and a technique called dual-energy computed tomography (DECT), a team of scientists in Germany has identified a bone disease called...

New Zealand’s Extinct Giant Bird Killed Like Eagle, Ate Like Condor

Dec 1, 2021 by News Staff

The Haast’s eagle (Hieraaetus moorei), the largest known eagle, habitually killed prey larger than itself, then applied feeding methods typical of vultures...

Life reconstructions of Kyhytysuka sachicarum. Image credit: Dirley Cortés.

New Species of Hypercarnivorous Ichthyosaur Identified

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

A new species of Cretaceous hypercarnivorous ichthyosaur, Kyhytysuka sachicarum, has been described from a fossil found in Colombia. Life reconstructions...

Map showing the locality where Tarchia tumanovae was discovered: (a) map of Mongolia; (b) enlarged map of the dotted lined rectangle of A marked with the fossil locality; (c) photo of the excavation site; (d) quarry map showing bone location; (e-f) skeletal diagram of the specimen in dorsal (e) and left lateral (f) views (white bones represent recovered elements); (g) skeletal reconstruction with dermal armor. Abbreviations: 7os - Type 7 osteoderm; csr - caudosacral vertebra; dr - dorsal rib; dsr - dorsosacral vertebra; il - ilium; maj os - major osteoderm; ot - ossified tendon; sk - skull. Image credit: Park et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-02273-4.

New Species of Armored Dinosaur Discovered

Nov 29, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a new species of the ankylosaurid dinosaur genus Tarchia that lived during the Upper Cretaceous epoch...

Life reconstruction of Effigia okeeffeae. Image credit: Mark Witton.

Triassic Crocodile Relative was Specialist Herbivore, Study Reveals

Nov 29, 2021 by News Staff

Effigia okeeffeae, a shuvosaurid (an ancient relative of the crocodiles) that lived in North America during the Triassic period, was a specialist herbivore...

Life reconstruction of Kaririavis mater. Image credit: Divulgação.

Fossil of 115-Million-Year-Old Bird Found in Brazil

Nov 23, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists working in Brazil have uncovered the fossil of an ornithuromorph bird that lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch. Life reconstruction...

Life reconstruction of Berthasaura leopoldinae. Image credit: de Souza et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01312-4.

New Ceratosaur Species Unearthed in Brazil

Nov 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of toothless noasaurid ceratosaur has been identified from an exceptionally complete skeleton found in southern Brazil. Life reconstruction...

Cretaceous ‘Four-Limbed Snake’ Turns Out To Be Long-Bodied Lizard

Nov 18, 2021 by News Staff

The origin of snakes remains one of the most contentious evolutionary transitions in vertebrate evolution. The discovery of snake fossils with well-formed...

A 40-million-year-old cone of Pinus cembrifolia in a piece of Eocene Baltic amber. Image credit: George Poinar Jr., Oregon State University.

Germinating Pine Cone Found Encased in Baltic Amber

Nov 17, 2021 by News Staff

Seed germination — a crucial stage in the development of all plants — normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother...

Reconstruction of Mawsonia sp. roaming in the brackish or fresh water costal environment of Texas during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Zubin Erik Dutta.

Fossils of Cretaceous-Period Coelacanth Discovered in Texas

Nov 16, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

The fossils are estimated to be around 96 million years old and belong to the first Cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth from North America. Reconstruction...

Fordham et al. revealed a 20,000-year pathway to the extinction of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius). Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Study: Humans Played Significant Role in Extinction of Woolly Mammoths

Nov 11, 2021 by News Staff

New research shows that the role of humans in the extinction dynamics of the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) began well before the Holocene epoch,...

Paleontologists Unearth New Species of Iguanodontian Dinosaur

Nov 11, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of iguanodontian dinosaur has come to light in Isle of Wight rocks dating to the Lower Cretaceous epoch. Reconstruction of the...

Pleurosaurus, a remarkable, long-bodied swimming rhynchocephalian that lived during the Late Jurassic epoch, some 150 million years ago, in what is now Germany. Image credit: Roberto Ochoa.

Fast-Evolving Species More Likely to Become Extinct, Paleontologists Say

Nov 10, 2021 by News Staff

‘Slow and steady wins the race,’ according to a new study of lepidosaurs (lizards, snakes, amphisbaenians, and tuatara) published in the journal Palaeontology. Pleurosaurus,...

New Herbivorous Dinosaur Species Identified in Greenland

Nov 9, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of plateosaurid sauropodomorph dinosaur has been identified from two fossilized skulls found in Jameson Land, a peninsula in eastern...

Ordovician sea life. Image credit: Fritz Geller-Grimm / National Museum of Natural History / CC BY-SA 2.5.

New Research Explores Cause of End-Ordovician Mass Extinction

Nov 2, 2021 by News Staff

The end-Ordovician mass extinction, the first of the ‘Big Five’ mass extinctions occurred 445 million years ago and was characterized by the disappearance...

Life restoration of Nochelaspis maeandrine. Image credit: Dinghua Yang.

Early Devonian Fish Had Triangular Head Shield

Nov 1, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleoichthyologists in China have re-described Nochelaspis maeandrine, a species of large-sized eugaleaspiform fish that lived 415 million years ago (Devonian...

A detail from the 1988 Mark Hallett mural, ‘Trapped in Time,’ depicting saber-toothed cats digging into prey. Image credit: La Brea Tar Pits.

Saber-Toothed Cats were Social Animals, New Study Suggests

Nov 1, 2021 by News Staff

A team of researchers has reconstructed and analyzed the external and internal bone morphology of a deformed hip bone from Smilodon fatalis, one of the...

An artist’s impression of hatchling pterosaurs. Image credit: Megan Jacobs.

Babies of Cretaceous Giant Pterosaurs Outcompeted Adults of Smaller Pterosaur Species: Study

Oct 28, 2021 by News Staff

Pterosaurs reached only modest sizes in the Triassic and Jurassic periods. By contrast, the Cretaceous period saw a trend toward large to giant size (2...

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