Paleontology News

September 9, 2016

New Reptile Species from 212 Million Years Ago

360-Million-Year-Old Tetrapod Rewrites Sea ...

Strange Fossil: Snake Eats Lizard Eats Beetle

How Ancient and Modern Fish Survived Youth

Latest Headlines

updated 1:01am EDT

An Exceptional Palaeontological Site Going Back 100,000 Years Is Unearthed in Arrasate

Sep. 6, 2016 — An important site containing at least 40 species reflecting fauna during the Upper Pleistocenewas discovered in 2012 by ... read more

Can Melting of Frozen Methane Explain Rapid Climate Change 56 Million Years Ago?

Sep. 1, 2016 — The release of methane from the seafloor was much slower than previously thought during a rapid global warming event 56 ... read more

Paleontology: A Monster Put in Its Place

Sep. 1, 2016 — An analysis of the fossil known as the Minden Monster has enabled paleontologists to assign the largest predatory dinosaur ever found in Germany to a previously unknown genus, among a group that ... read more

Life Thrived on Young Earth: Scientists Discover 3.7-Billion-Year-Old Fossils

Aug. 31, 2016 — A team of Australian researchers has uncovered the world's oldest fossils in a remote area of Greenland, capturing the ... read more

Fossil Pollen 'Sneeze' Caught by Research Team

Aug. 30, 2016 — Researchers have recorded the only known example of prehistoric pollen caught in explosive mid-discharge from a fossil flower. The team describes this "freeze-frame" ... read more

Smarter Brains Are Blood-Thirsty Brains

Aug. 30, 2016 — A new project has overturned the theory that the evolution of human intelligence was simply related to the size of the brain -- but rather linked more closely to the supply ... read more

A Rare Small Specimen Discovered from the Age of Flying Giants

Aug. 30, 2016 — A rare small-bodied pterosaur, a flying reptile from the Late Cretaceous period approximately 77 million years ago, is the first of its kind to have been discovered on the ... read more

Plant Roots Built Beachhead for Life on Land

Aug. 30, 2016 — Plants -- even relatively small ones -- played a crucial role in establishing a beachhead for life on land, according to recent work by an international team of researchers. ... read more

Fish Were More Prominent in Early Alaskans' Diets, Isotope Study Determines

Aug. 29, 2016 — Ice age inhabitants of Interior Alaska relied more heavily on salmon and freshwater fish in their diets than previously thought, according to a new study. A team of researchers made the discovery ... read more

New Species of Pterosaur Discovered in Patagonia

Aug. 30, 2016 — Scientists today announced the discovery of a new species of pterosaur from the Patagonia region of South America. The cranial remains were in an excellent state of preservation and belonged to a new ... read more

Huge Dinosaur Track Found in Bolivia

Scientists Find New Stubby-Armed Dinosaur in Argentina

Stegosaurus Had a Bite Like a Sheep

Investigating the Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs

Cracking the Coldest Case: How Lucy, the Most Famous Human Ancestor, Died

Aug. 29, 2016 — Lucy, the most famous fossil of a human ancestor, probably died after falling from a tree, according to a new study. Researchers have found that the injury Lucy sustained was consistent with a ... read more

A Mammoth Undertaking: Can De-Extinction Be Ecologically Responsible?

Aug. 25, 2016 — Can the woolly mammoth be brought back from the dead? Scientists say it's only a matter of time. A conservation ecologist and colleagues have examined ecologically responsible de-extinction, and ... read more

300 Teeth: Duck-Billed Dinosaurs Would Have Been Dentist’s Dream

Aug. 25, 2016 — Imagine how much dental care you'd need if you had 300 or more teeth packed together on each side of your ... read more

Endangered Cuban Solenodon Evolved After the Extinction of Dinosaurs

Aug. 24, 2016 — The Caribbean islands form a natural laboratory for the study of evolution due to their unique biological and geological features. There has been heated discussion since the early 20th century on how ... read more

Whales in the Desert?

Aug. 24, 2016 — In Cerro Colorado, located in the Ica Desert of Peru, sedimentary sequences dating back nine million years have been found to host the fossil skeletons of hundreds of marine vertebrates. In 2008, ... read more

New Tiny Species of Extinct Australian Marsupial Lion Named After Sir David Attenborough

Aug. 23, 2016 — The fossil remains of a new tiny species of marsupial lion which prowled the lush rainforests of northern Australia about 18 million years ago have been unearthed in the Riversleigh World Heritage ... read more

The Cave Bear: A Vegan Gone Extinct

Aug. 23, 2016 — Scientists have studied the feeding habits of the extinct Cave Bear. Based on the isotope composition in the collagen of the bears' bones, they were able to show that the large mammals subsisted ... read more

New Insights Into the Relationship Between Erosion and Tectonics in the Himalayas

Aug. 23, 2016 — Earth's climate interacts with so called surface processes -- such as landslides or river erosion -- and tectonics to shape the landscape that we see. In some regions, the sheer force of these ... read more

Beetles Pollinated Orchids Millions of Year Ago, Fossil Evidence Shows

Aug. 22, 2016 — When most people hear the word 'pollinator,' they think of bees and butterflies. However, certain beetles are known to pollinate plants as well, and new fossil evidence indicates that they ... read more

Paleontologists Discover Major T. Rex Fossil

Aug. 18, 2016 — Paleontologists have discovered a Tyrannosaurus rex, including a very complete skull. The find, which paleontologists estimate to be about 20 percent of the animal, includes vertebrae, ribs, hips and ... read more

Reinterpreting the Fossil Record on Jaws

Aug. 17, 2016 — Scientists use the fossil record to make judgments on the physiology and behavior of species. But are those interpretations correct? New research puts into question how we interpret the behavior of ... read more

New Species of Extinct River Dolphin Discovered in Smithsonian Collection

Aug. 16, 2016 — A fossil that has been in the collection of the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History since it was discovered in 1951 is today helping scientists piece together the evolutionary ... read more

Twenty-Five Little Bones Tell a Puzzling Story About Early Primate Evolution

Aug. 15, 2016 — A cache of exquisitely preserved bones, found in a coal mine in the state of Gujarat, India, appear to be the most primitive primate bones yet discovered, according to a new analysis. Their ... read more

Unearthed: The Cannibal Sharks of a Forgotten Age

Aug. 11, 2016 — Scientists have discovered incredible fossil evidence that a 300-million-year-old shark, which mildly resembled a modern-day bull shark, cannibalized its ... read more

Textbook Story of How Humans Populated America Is 'Biologically Unviable,' Study Finds

Aug. 10, 2016 — Using ancient DNA, researchers have created a unique picture of how a prehistoric migration route evolved over thousands of years -- revealing that it could not have been used by the first people to ... read more

Tracing the Evolution of Bird Reproduction

Aug. 10, 2016 — What really came first -- the chicken or the egg? Birds' reproductive biology is dramatically different from that of any other living vertebrates, and scientists have long wondered how and when ... read more

New Piltdown Hoax Analysis Points to Work of 'Lone Forger'

Aug. 10, 2016 — Latest analysis of the famous Piltdown Man forgeries points the finger of suspicion even more firmly at their discoverer, Charles ... read more

Archaeology Team Makes World-First Tool Discovery

Aug. 8, 2016 — How smart were human-like species of the Stone Age? New research reveals surprisingly sophisticated adaptations by early humans living 250,000 years ago in a former oasis near Azraq, ... read more

Geological Data Provide Support for Legendary Chinese Flood

Aug. 4, 2016 — Researchers have provided geological evidence for China's 'Great Flood,' a disastrous event on the Yellow River from which the Xia dynasty is thought to have been born. The flood ... read more

Whales' Ultrasonic Hearing Has Surprisingly Ancient History, Fossilized Ear Shows

Aug. 4, 2016 — All living toothed whales rely upon echoes of their own calls to navigate and hunt underwater, a skill that works best in conjunction with high-frequency hearing. Now, researchers who studied one of ... read more

Monday, August 29, 2016