Paleontology News

Scansoriopteryx Study Challenges Hypothesis that Birds Evolved from Dinosaurs

Scansoriopteryx, a hatchling. Image credit: Matt Martyniuk / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Jul 10, 2014 by News Staff

The re-examination of Scansoriopteryx – a sparrow-sized, pre-Archaeopteryx, bird-like creature that lived in what is today China during the Jurassic period, about 154 million years ago – challenges the widely accepted hypothesis that birds are derived from land-dwelling dinosaurs that gained the ability to fly. Scansoriopteryx, a hatchling. Image credit: Matt Martyniuk / CC BY-SA 3.0. Unearthed in Inner Mongolia in 2002, Scansoriopteryx...

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This image shows 3D reconstruction of Palaeocharinus sp., an arachnid that lived about 410 million years ago. Image credit: Jason Dunlop.

Paleontologists Recreate Walking Gait of 410-Million-Year-Old Spider

Jul 9, 2014 by News Staff

Scientists from Germany and the United Kingdom have used exceptionally preserved fossils of Palaeocharinus – a prehistoric spider that lived during...

Reconstruction of the early Eocene fauna that inhabited the rainforest around a northern British Colombia lake: Heptodon sp. drinks in the shallows, while the small hedgehog Silvacola acares stalks the green lacewing Pseudochrysopa harveyi in the foreground. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Prehistoric Hedgehog, Tapir Species Discovered in Canada

Jul 9, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered fossil remains of two previously unknown mammals that lived in what is now British Columbia in Canada during the early...

Life reconstruction of Proceratosaurus. Image credit: Nobumichi Tamura.

Dinosaurs of British Isles: New Dino-Book

Jul 8, 2014 by News Staff

“Jurassic Britain was a ‘dinosaur paradise’ with more than 100 different species described in the scientific literature to date,” sys to Dean Lomax,...

Pelagornis sandersi: Paleontologist Discovers Largest-Ever Flying Bird

Jul 8, 2014 by Enrico de Lazaro

Pelagornis sandersi – a newly discovered extinct species of bird that lived in what is now North America about 28 million years ago – is the largest...

Footprint of an adult hadrosaur found at Denali National Park, Alaska. Image credit: Anthony R. Fiorillo et al.

Remarkable New Dinosaur Tracksite Discovered in Alaska

Jul 7, 2014 by Sergio Prostak

 A new tracksite filled with hadrosaur footprints has been discovered in Denali National Park, Alaska, by a team of paleontologists led by Dr Yoshitsugu...

Reconstruction of Archaeopteryx in flight. Image credit: R. Liebreich / Bavarian State Collection for Paleontology and Geology, Munich.

Archaeopteryx: New Specimen Reveals Amazing Details about Feathers of Oldest-Known Bird

Jul 4, 2014 by News Staff

German paleontologists led by Dr Oliver Rauhut of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität in Munich, Germany, have discovered a new specimen of Archaeopteryx...

Triceratops models at JuraPark in Solec Kujawski, Poland. Image credit: CLI / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Research Provides New Insights into Evolution of Triceratops

Jul 1, 2014 by News Staff

A new study led by paleontologist John Scannella of Montana State University provides a detailed look at shifts in the morphology of Triceratops –...

This image shows the extant sand tiger shark Carcharias taurus. Image credit: Richard Ling / CC BY-SA 2.0.

Shark Fossils Point to Brackish Arctic Ocean in Eocene

Jul 1, 2014 by News Staff

A new study on the teeth of extinct sand tiger sharks Striatolamia macrota and Carcharias spp. has provided the first estimate of Eocene (50 million years...

Qiyia jurassica: Bizarre Bloodsucking Parasite from Jurassic of China

Jun 25, 2014 by News Staff

An international group of paleontologists has described an aquatic larva of a prehistoric fly that lived in what is now Inner Mongolia, China, about 165...

This is an artist's reconstruction of the fauna of Zanda basin - the richest basin on the Tibetan Plateau - from the Pliocene (about 5 to 3 million years ago). Image credit: Julie Selan / Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County.

New Fossil Fox Discovery Supports Out-of-Tibet Hypothesis

Jun 19, 2014 by News Staff

The exciting discovery of an extinct species of Tibetan fox adds more credence to the out-of-Tibet hypothesis, in which the Tibetan Plateau served as a...

Mercuriceratops gemini. Image credit: Danielle Dufault / Gerhard Boeggemann.

Mercuriceratops: New Long-Horned Dinosaur Discovered

Jun 18, 2014 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists from Canada and the United States has discovered a new genus and species of horned, plant-eating dinosaur that lived during the...

Artistic reconstruction of Herpetocetus morrowi in the late Pliocene Pacific Ocean off southern California. The fish depicted in the upper left is a sheephead, Semicossyphus sp. Image credit: Robert Boessenecker.

Herpetocetus morrowi: New Fossil Species of Dwarf Baleen Whale Discovered

Jun 18, 2014 by Natali Anderson

A new species of diminutive baleen whale that lived between 3.5 and 2.5 million years ago (Late Pliocene) has been described by U.S. paleontologists led...

Megamastax amblyodus: Largest Silurian Vertebrate Discovered in China

Jun 13, 2014 by News Staff

A newly discovered fossil fish named Megamastax amblyodus is the largest vertebrate known in the Silurian fossil record, says a group of paleontologists...

Reconstruction of Metaspriggina walcotti. Image credit: M. Collins.

505-Million-Year-Old Fish Fossils Shed Light on Origin of Jaws

Jun 13, 2014 by News Staff

Several fossil specimens of a Cambrian fish called Metaspriggina walcotti recently discovered in Canada shed new light on the development of the earliest...

Tyrannosaurus rex.

Were Dinosaurs Cold- or Warm-Blooded? New Study Tries to Answer Longstanding Question

Jun 13, 2014 by News Staff

Dinosaurs fit in between warm-blooded mammals and cold-blooded reptiles, according to a study reported in the journal Science. The study is the first to...

Life restoration of Hamipterus tianshanensis. Image credit: Chuang Zhao.

New Pterosaur Species, Well-Preserved Eggs Found in China

Jun 6, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered remains of about 40 male and female individuals of a new pterosaur species with five exceptionally well-preserved 3D eggs...

The famous Titanoboa would have been a formidable threat to the newly discovered Anthracosuchus balrogus. Image credit: University of Florida.

Anthracosuchus balrogus: Giant Prehistoric Crocodile Discovered

Jun 4, 2014 by News Staff

Paleontologists have discovered a new species of crocodile-like reptile that swam in the rivers of what is now Colombia during Paleocene, about 60 million...

This image shows a near-complete skeleton of the Early Cretaceous ichthyosaur Platypterygius hauthali from the Tyndall Glacier, Chile. Image credit: Wolfgang Stinnesbeck et al.

46 Near-Complete Ichthyosaur Specimens Found in Chile

Jun 3, 2014 by News Staff

A team of paleontologists led by Dr Patricio Zambrano Lobos from the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg in Germany has unearthed the well-preserved...

Aradus macrosomus, a 9.2-mm-long female, in dorsal and ventral view. Image credit: Ernst Heiss.

New Fossil Bug Species Found in 45-Million-Year-Old Baltic Amber

Jun 3, 2014 by News Staff

Dr Ernst Heiss from the Tiroler Landesmuseum in Innsbruck, Austria, has described a new extinct species of flat bug. Aradus macrosomus, a 9.2-mm-long female,...

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