Paleontology News

‘Sonic Hedgehog Pathway’ Underlies Evolutionary Emergence and Diversity of Feathers, Study Suggests

Cooper & Milinkovitch demonstrate that an intravenous injection of sonidegib, a potent Shh pathway inhibitor, at embryonic day 9 (E9) temporarily produces striped domains (instead of spots) of Shh expression in the skin, arrests morphogenesis, and results in unbranched and non-invaginated feather buds -- akin to proto-feathers -- in embryos until E14. Image credit: Fabrice Berger & Michel Milinkovitch.
Mar 20, 2025 by News Staff

Molecular signaling pathways are communication systems that transmit messages within and between cells. According to a new study by University of Geneva scientists, inhibiting one such system, called the sonic hedgehog (Shh) pathway, strongly perturbs feather development in chickens by restricting feather bud outgrowth, invagination and branching. Cooper & Milinkovitch demonstrate that an intravenous injection of sonidegib, a potent Shh pathway...

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A 30,000-year-old fossilized feather of griffon vulture preserved with the volcanic rock from the Colli Albani volcanic complex, Rome, Italy. Image credit: Edoardo Terranova.

30,000-Year-Old Fossil Feathers of Griffon Vulture Found in Italy

Mar 19, 2025 by News Staff

Fossil feathers are usually preserved as carbonaceous films and impressions in lacustrine and marine sediments, or embedded in amber, but rarely mineralized....

Wind turbine blades, made from difficult to recycle materials, may be among the most surprising fossils found by future paleontologists. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Wind Turbine Blades May Be among Most Surprising Technofossils for Future Paleontologists

Mar 18, 2025 by News Staff

University of Leicester paleontologists Sarah Gabbott and Jan Zalasiewicz have published a new book on how all the different kinds of so-called technofossils...

Habitus and fin positions of Ferruaspis brocksi. Scale bar - 8 mm. Image credit: McCurry et al., doi: 10.1080/02724634.2024.2445684.

Miocene-Period Freshwater Fish Had Opportunistic Benthopelagic Diet

Mar 18, 2025 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the Australian Museum Research Institute, the University of New South Wales, the University of Canberra and CSIRO have described a...

Speculative restoration of Infernodrakon hastacollis. Image credit: Jun-Hyeok Jang / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Species of Azhdarchid Pterosaur Unearthed in Montana

Mar 17, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of azhdarchid pterosaur being named Infernodrakon hastacollis has been discovered by a team of paleontologists from Idaho State...

Tentative reconstruction of Clavusodens mcginnisi (modeled after Netsepoye) feeding on phyllocarid crustaceans on the sea floor of a crinoidal forest from the Joppa Member of the Ste. Genevieve Formation, with the ctenacanth Glikmanius careforum swimming overhead. Image credit: Benji Paysnoe / NPS Illustration.

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Carboniferous-Period Shark

Mar 17, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of obruchevodid petalodont (petal-toothed) shark from multiple teeth unearthed at Mammoth Cave...

Life reconstruction of Shenshou lui, an extinct squirrel-like euharamiyidan species from the Middle Jurassic of China. Image credit: Nobu Tamura, http://spinops.blogspot.com.

Early Mammals Had Dark and Dusky Grayish-Brown Fur, Study Suggests

Mar 13, 2025 by News Staff

Pelage coloration, which serves numerous functions, is crucial to the evolution of behavior, physiology, and habitat preferences of mammals. However, little...

Artist’s impression of Zeta Puppis, an O-type star approximately 1,400 light-years away in the constellation Puppis. Image credit: Tahina Ramiaramanantsoa.

Nearby Supernova Explosions May Have Caused Several Mass Extinctions on Earth

Mar 13, 2025 by News Staff

According to new research from Keele University and the Universidad de Alicante, near-Earth explosions of giant O- and B-type stars occur at a rate of...

Artistic reconstruction of the terrestrial ecological landscape during, before, and after the end of the Permian mass extinction based on fossil palynomorphs, plants, and tetrapods recovered, as well as sedimentological data from the South Taodonggou section in Xinjiang, China. Image credit: D.H. Yang.

New Fossils Reveal Diverse Terrestrial Ecosystem 75,000 Years after End-Permian Mass Extinction

Mar 12, 2025 by News Staff

Searching for land refugia becomes imperative for human survival during the hypothetical sixth mass extinction. Studying past comparable crises can offer...

Ornithischian trackmakers of the ichnospecies Anomoepus scambus. Image credit: University of Queensland.

200-Million-Year-Old Three-Toed Dinosaur Footprints Discovered in Australia

Mar 12, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have studied and described three previously unknown dinosaur track-bearing surfaces from a locality near Biloela in Queensland, Australia. Dinosaur...

Mixodectes pungens (foreground) inhabited the same forests as early primates like Torrejonia wilsoni (background). Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Mixodectes pungens: Enigmatic Mammal from Early Paleocene was Claw-Climbing Arborealist

Mar 11, 2025 by News Staff

A small mixodectid mammal called Mixodectes pungens had skeletal features adapted to living in trees, largely dined on leaves, and weighed about 1.3 kg,...

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

Study Provides New Insights into Biology of Megalodon

Mar 11, 2025 by News Staff

The megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, is an iconic shark represented primarily by its gigantic teeth in the Neogene fossil record, but the lack of well-preserved...

Chadititan calvoi. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.

New Titanosaur Species Discovered in Argentina

Mar 10, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in northern Patagonia, Argentina, have unearthed the fossils of a previously unknown species of small rinconsaurian titanosaur. Chadititan...

Jeholia longchengi is the first Mesozoic scorpion from China. Image credit: Jie Sun / Xuan et al., doi: 10.1016/j.scib.2025.01.035.

125-Million-Year-Old Scorpion Fossil Uncovered in China

Mar 7, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of extinct scorpion from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China. Jeholia longchengi is the...

Life reconstruction of the temnospondyl species Mastodonsaurus. Image credit: Mark P. Witton, https://www.markwitton.co.uk.

New Study Explains How Ancient Amphibians Survived End-Permian Mass Extinction

Mar 4, 2025 by News Staff

Primitive amphibians called temnospondyls survived the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction, which occurred about 252 million years ago, by feeding...

Lacewing larvae from 100-million-year-old Kachin amber. Image credit: Haug et al., doi: 10.1111/1744-7917.13509.

Cretaceous-Period Lacewing Larvae Had Sophisticated Eyes

Mar 4, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have found three lacewing larvae with large forward-directed stemmata (eyes in holometabolans) in 100-million-year-old Kachin amber from...

Artistic representation of a Middle-Late Triassic landscape of southern Brazil depicting two individuals of the proterochampsid archosauriform Retymaijychampsa beckerorum. Image credit: Caio Fantini.

New Species of Triassic Archosauriform Discovered in Brazil

Mar 3, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of proterochampsid archosauriform has been identified from an almost complete fossilized hindlimb found in southern Brazil. Artistic...

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

Giant Flying Squirrels Once Lived in North America

Feb 25, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have found the 4.9-million-year-old (Early Pliocene) fossilized remains of the extinct flying squirrel Miopetaurista webbi in Tennessee,...

An artist’s impression of a herd of lithostrotian dinosaurs (right). Image credit: ABelov / CC BY 3.0.

Large-Bodied Sauropod Dinosaur Lived on Cretaceous European Island

Feb 24, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of titanosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains found in the Hațeg Basin in Transylvania, western Romania. An artist’s...

The fossilized skeleton of Xingxiulong yueorum. Image credit: Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Sauropodomorph Dinosaur

Feb 21, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Meet Xingxiulong yueorum, a new species of early-diverging sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived in what is now China during the Early Jurassic epoch. The...

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