Paleontology News

The aridificaiton of Australia impacted the hunting effectiveness or preybase of the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex) contributing to its extinction. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Climate Change Played Major Role in Demise of Marsupial Lion

Oct 25, 2018 by News Staff

New evidence indicates the primary cause of the extinction of one of Australia’s top predators, the marsupial lion (Thylacoleo carnifex), around 40,000...

Piranhamesodon pinnatomus, 2.8 inches (7.1 cm) long, from the Late Jurassic of Ettling, Solnhofen Archipelago, Germany. Image credit: M. Ebert.

Jurassic Flesh-Eating Fish Had Piranha-Like Teeth

Oct 19, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A remarkable new species of predatory fish that lived about 152 million years ago (Jurassic period) has been identified from a fossil found in Germany. Piranhamesodon...

The yellow pot sponge (Rhabdastrella globostellata), a modern species of demosponge that makes the same 26-mes steroids that Zumberge et al found in ancient rocks. Image credit: Ria Tan, www.wildsingapore.com / CC BY 2.0.

Scientists Find New Biomarker Evidence for Neoproterozoic Animals

Oct 17, 2018 by News Staff

A team of scientists led by University of California, Riverside’s Professor Gordon Love has found the oldest evidence yet of animal life, dating back...

Life restoration of Sarahsaurus aurifontanalis. Image credit: Brian Engh, www.dontmesswithdinosaurs.com.

New Fossils of Ground Sloth-Like Dinosaur Could Help Reveal Why Sauropods Got So Big

Oct 16, 2018 by News Staff

Sauropods are a group of plant-eating dinosaurs which exceeded all other terrestrial vertebrates in body size. A new, in-depth anatomical description of...

Life appearance of the fossil flying squirrel Miopetaurista neogrivensis showing the animal ready to land on a tree branch. Image credit: Oscar Sanisidro / ICP.

World’s Oldest Flying Squirrel Fossil Discovered

Oct 10, 2018 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has found the world’s oldest flying squirrel fossil — an 11.63-million-year-old specimen of an extinct...

An illustration of the finds made by Jud et al. Image credit: Sae Bom Ra, Adelphi University.

Large Angiosperm Trees Grew in North America 15 Million Years Earlier than Thought

Oct 2, 2018 by News Staff

According to new research led by Dr. Nathan Jud of William Jewell College, angiosperm (also called broad-leaf, hardwood or deciduous) trees approaching...

An artist’s reconstruction of Ledumahadi mafube foraging in the Early Jurassic of South Africa; in the foreground, Heterodontosaurus. Image credit: Viktor Radermacher, University of the Witwatersrand.

New Jurassic Sauropodomorph Dinosaur Unveiled

Oct 1, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a completely unexpected new sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived 200 million years ago (Jurassic period)...

An artist’s illustration of a giant elephant bird. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos.

Vorombe titan: Researchers Name World’s Largest Ever Bird

Sep 28, 2018 by News Staff

After decades of conflicting evidence and numerous publications, a team of researchers at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology has...

Jinguofortis perplexus. Image credit: Chung-Tat Cheung.

New Species of Prehistoric Short-Tailed Bird Found in China

Sep 26, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists have found the remains — the well-preserved complete skeleton and feathers — of a short-tailed bird that lived 127 million...

Dickinsonia, which lived more than 550 million years ago, were flat, soft-bodied creatures that moved along the sea bed to eat microbes and algae. Image credit: University of California, Riverside.

Ancient Cholesterol Confirms Dickinsonia as One of Earth’s First Animals

Sep 21, 2018 by News Staff

The first complex organisms emerged during the Ediacaran period (635-541 million years ago). Ediacaran fossils are as ‘strange as life on another planet’...

Mesosaurus. Image credit: Roman Yevseyev / Graciela Piñeiro.

Mesosaurs: ‘Oldest-Known Aquatic Reptiles’ Were Semi-Aquatic, Paleontologists Say

Sep 20, 2018 by News Staff

According to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, mesosaurs — the oldest known reptiles that developed aquatic...

An artist’s impression of Jurassic marine reptiles. Image credit: Nikolay Zverkov.

Fossil Teeth Study Sheds Light on How Jurassic Marine Reptiles Adapted to Environmental Changes

Sep 5, 2018 by News Staff

Jurassic deep-water reptiles thrived as sea levels rose, while species that dwelled in the shallows waters disappeared, according to new research from...

An artist’s impression of a cynodont. Image credit: Jorge Blanco / A.G. Martinelli / M.B. Soares / C. Schwanke / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Jurassic Mammal Precursor Had Tiny Brain

Sep 3, 2018 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from the University of Texas at Austin has uncovered fossils of an adult female Kayentatherium wellesi — an extinct tritylodontid...

North American dinosaurs. Image credit: Davide Bonadonna.

New Jersey Fossils Shed Light on Theropod Dinosaurs of Eastern United States

Aug 30, 2018 by News Staff

On the east coast of North America, dinosaur fossils are rare finds. Owing to several factors, such as the mass-urbanization of the eastern seaboard, fossils...

Artist’s rendering of what Ekwiiyemakius walshi, Gunnelltarsius randalli and Brontomomys cerutti might have looked like. Image credit: Randy Kirk, University of Texas at Austin.

Paleontologists Discover Three New Fossil Primates

Aug 29, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists at the University of Texas at Austin have identified three new species of omomyine primates that lived between 42 and 46 million years...

Illustration of a female Xenomorphia resurrecta ovipositing into a puparium. Image credit: van de Kamp et al, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05654-y.

Researchers Find Ancient Parasitic Wasps in Fossil Fly Pupae

Aug 29, 2018 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology scientist Thomas van de Kamp has found ancient parasitoid wasps lurking inside 55 mineralized...

Xu et al report two new Early Cretaceous alvarezsaurian theropods representing transitional stages in alvarezsaurian evolution. The analyses indicate that the evolutionary transition from a typical theropod forelimb configuration to a highly specialized one was slow and occurred in a mosaic fashion during the Cretaceous period. Image credit: Xu et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2018.07.057.

Two New Alvarezsaurian Dinosaurs Unearthed in China

Aug 27, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists in China have found fossil fragments from two new dinosaur species — named Xiyunykus pengi and Bannykus wulatensis — that walked...

An artist’s depiction of Eorhynchochelys sinensis as it would have appeared in life 228 million years ago in China. Image credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences.

228-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals Complex Early History of Turtles

Aug 24, 2018 by News Staff

Paleontologists in China have discovered a 228-million-year-old extinct species of turtle, known for its weird disc-like body without a shell and its toothless...

An artistic conception of the early Earth. Image credit: Simone Marchi / NASA.

Common Ancestor of All Cellular Life on Earth Emerged Very Early in Planet’s History

Aug 23, 2018 by News Staff

New research from the Universities of Bristol and Bath suggests life originated on our planet a lot earlier than previously thought. An artistic conception...