Paleontology News

Sep 6, 2019 by Natali Anderson

A new genus and species of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur has been identified from bones discovered six years ago in Japan. Life reconstruction of Kamuysaurus japonicus with a carcass of a mosasaur (Phosphorosaurus ponpetelegans), a sea turtle (Mesodermochelys undulates), and shells of ammonoids (Patagiosites compressus and Gaudryceras hobetsense) and bivalves (Nannonavis elongatus) on the beach. Image credit: Kobayashi et al, doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-48607-1. The...

Sep 5, 2019 by News Staff

Tyrannosaurus rex, a species of carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 68 million years ago, had an internal thermostat in its head, according to a study...

Aug 27, 2019 by News Staff

A new study led by Uppsala University researchers provides the first direct evidence of filter feeding in Jurassic pterosaurs and shows that they had a...

Aug 27, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of cynodont has been identified from a fossilized skull found in the San Juan province, Argentina. An artist’s impression of Pseudotherium...

Aug 22, 2019 by News Staff

A team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Texas Austin has used a new technique to analyze tiny amounts of gas...

Aug 22, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Morocco have found fossil fragments from a new genus and species of stegosaur that walked the Earth about 168 million years ago (Jurassic...

Aug 15, 2019 by News Staff

The fossilized bones of a large-sized penguin species that lived during the Paleocene epoch (between 66 and 56 million years ago) have been discovered...

Aug 12, 2019 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered a 360-million-year-old (Devonian period) fossilized forest of lycopsid trees near Xinhang in China’s Anhui province —...

Aug 7, 2019 by News Staff

An international group of paleontologists has found two incomplete bones from an ancient parrot with a mass of 7 kg, double that of the heaviest known...

Aug 6, 2019 by News Staff

A new genus and species of sauropodomorph dinosaur has been described — after its fossilized remains spent more than three decades sitting in a museum. The...

Aug 5, 2019 by News Staff

New research, published recently in the journal Evolution, shows that some dinosaurs may have taken flight thanks to sex appeal. Persons & Currie explored...

Aug 1, 2019 by News Staff

A new species of marine predator that lived about 506 million years ago (Cambrian period) has been identified from exceptionally well-preserved fossils...

Jul 24, 2019 by News Staff

Our highly mobile tongues, which allow us to swallow chewed food and suckle milk as babies, may have evolutionary origins in some of our most early mammal...

Jul 23, 2019 by News Staff

Fossil clams found in southwestern Florida contain ancient microtektites, tiny (about 200 μm in diameter) glass beads that form when the explosive impact...

Jul 22, 2019 by News Staff

A new species of carnivorous bird-like dinosaur being named Hesperornithoides miessleri has been discovered by an international team of paleontologists...

Jul 16, 2019 by News Staff

A new genus and species of primitive hadrosaurid dinosaur — named Aquilarhinus palimentus — has been identified from fossils found in Big Bend...

Jul 16, 2019 by News Staff

The ancient bird, named Elektorornis chenguangi, lived 99 million years ago (Cretaceous period) and had a hyper-elongated third toe. An artist’s reconstruction...

Jul 12, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have uncovered a nearly complete, fully articulated skeleton of Microraptor zhaoianus, a pigeon-sized, four-winged dinosaur that...

Jul 9, 2019 by News Staff

Mackerel (lamniform) sharks include some of the most iconic shark species, like the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) and the extinct Carcharocles...

Jun 28, 2019 by News Staff

A veggie diet arose in extinct crocodyliforms — the distant cousins of living crocodylians (alligators, caimans, crocodiles, and gharials) —...