Tag Archive for 'Denver Basin'

The skull of Mandrasuchus milleri, a species of alligatorid that lived nearly 65.4 million years ago in what is now Colorado, the United States. Image credit: Lessner et al., doi: 10.1080/02724634.2026.2712566.

Ancient Alligator Relative Lived Right After Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid

Sep 11, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified a new species of extinct alligatorid that lived in what is now Colorado just a few hundred thousand years after the asteroid...

Shortly after the end-Cretaceous mass extinction, the earliest known primates, such as Purgatorius mckeeveri shown in the foreground, quickly set themselves apart from their competition -- like the archaic ungulate mammal on the forest floor -- by specializing in an omnivorous diet including fruit found up in the trees. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin.

Southernmost Fossils of Earliest Primate Relative Unearthed in Colorado

Mar 3, 2026 by News Staff

The newly-discovered minuscule fossils of Purgatorius — a shrew-sized mammal considered the earliest known relative of all primates, including humans,...