paleontology8.475 min read
Peruvian Fossil Reveals Record-Breaking Size for Extinct Freshwater Turtle
4 days ago•Source: Sci.News
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7.54 min•11 days ago
New Chinese Fossil Confirms Flight Evolved Independently in Birds and Dinosaurs
A newly described 57-centimeter dinosaur, Norellraptor barsboldi, from 120-million-year-old Chinese rock beds, provides strong evidence that flight evolved independently in birds and their closest non-avian relatives. While sharing about 30% of anatomical features with birds, the sequence of these adaptations differs, challenging the idea of a shared ancestral flight blueprint.
8.165 min•13 days ago
New 120-Million-Year-Old Fossil in China Rewrites Marsupial Origins
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North Sea Drill Cores Reveal Plesiosaur Vomit and Feeding Habits
Sci.News•18 days ago
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Spain’s Blue Amber Reveals a Rich Albian Forest Snapshot
Sci.News•26 days ago
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New Tanzanian Dicynodont Rewrites the Timeline for Early Dinosaurs
Paleontologists describe a new Tanzanian dicynodont, Dinodontosaurus isiyavamanda, extending the genus outside South America and linking Lifua Member rocks to a younger late Ladinian–Carnian age (≈242–227 Ma), which reshapes timelines for early dinosaurs and related fossils like Nyasasaurus.
Spain Discovers Diplodocus Fossil, First Outside North America, Hinting at Jurassic Faunal Exchange
Spanish researchers identify a 25-meter Diplodocus at La Tejería, Teruel—the first confirmed Diplodocus outside North America—strengthening evidence that Late Jurassic dinosaurs dispersed between Europe and North America via fleeting land bridges.
Tiny to towering: Montana Troodon fossils reveal full growth from embryo to adult
New Montana Troodon formosus fossils provide a near-complete record of pelvic and hindlimb ontogeny from embryo to adult, revealing mostly consistent bone shapes across growth with stage-specific changes in bone strength, texture, and fusion; the femur lengthens relative to the tibia in adults, indicating steady growth. The sample also shows adult size variation and common foot pathologies, and it underpins a proposed taxonomic shift away from a tooth-based type specimen to pelvic/hindlimb fossils, pending ICZN approval. Together, the findings illuminate locomotion and life history in troodontids.
Ancient Aquatic Bird Feathers Unearthed Inside 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Coprolite
Paleontologists in Montana have found exceptionally preserved feathers from an ancient aquatic bird inside a large dinosaur coprolite from the Hell Creek Formation. The find includes the first known hesperornithiform feathers and reveals a mix of modern-like waterproof feathers and smaller primitive feathers, suggesting an evolutionary middle ground between living birds and their dinosaur ancestors. The feathers likely came from the same bird that produced the coprolite, possibly a theropod predator (such as Tyrannosaurus Rex or Nanotyrannus), and offer rare insights into predator–prey interactions and feather evolution around the end-Cretaceous extinction. The study by Jingmai O’Connor and colleagues is published in Current Biology.
Deep-Drilled 115-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Expands Bayan Gobi Range
Scientists recovered the 208GPV01 dinosaur fossil from a 473 m deep drill core in the Bayan Gobi Formation’s western Yin’gen-Ejinaqi Basin, Inner Mongolia, dating to about 115 million years ago. The specimen, consisting mainly of tail vertebrae and associated elements, is an ornithischian with vertebral proportions most similar to Psittacosaurus, but due to limited material it is not assigned to a genus or species. The find expands the known geographic range of Bayan Gobi fossils and was published Sept. 5, 2026 in Earth History and Biodiversity.
Ancient Giant Cephalopod Bears Clues of Deadly Chase in Manitoba Fossil
Researchers studying Enchoteuthis's gladius from the Cretaceous Pierre Shale (about 81 million years ago) identified two bite-mark pathologies: a front mark indicating a fatal attack with no healing, and a second, ambiguous mark; while the predator cannot be identified from tooth spacing, plausible culprits include mosasaurs such as Latoplatecarpus and predatory fish like Cimolichthys, illustrating predator–prey dynamics in the Western Interior Seaway. The findings, based on 3D scans and silicone casts of the fossilized gladius, were published August 28, 2026 in Cretaceous Research.
Antarctica's First Mammal Predator Footprint Reshapes Eocene Ecology
A partial manus-pes footprint from King George Island’s Fossil Hill Formation dates to about 55 million years ago (the Eocene) and represents the first mammal track found in Antarctica, likely from a small sparassodont-sized predator. The find suggests land mammals occupied Antarctic forests after the dinosaur extinction and points to a more complex early Antarctic ecosystem with connections to South American predators via ancient land bridges.
19th-Century Skull Rediscovers a New Glyptodont Species in South America
A 19th-century glyptodont skull from Lagoa Santa, Brazil, is described as Glyptotherium deuterophractum, a new species that lived 60,000–17,000 years ago across Brazil and into Venezuela, underscoring how older museum collections can hide previously unrecognized biodiversity.
Epicyon: Miocene's bear-sized bone-crushing canid
Epicyon haydeni was a bear-sized early canid (about 2.5 m long, 1 m tall, ~125 kg) that specialized in crushing bones during the Miocene across North America. A top predator among borophagines, it likely hunted in bursts with powerful jaws and may have hunted in packs. It went extinct around 2.5 million years ago, with cats migrating into North America as a key factor that outcompeted borophagines and helped shape the rise of modern dogs and wolves.
Jurassic Katydids Sing in Ultrasound, Pre-Bat Era
Researchers reconstructed the calls of 165‑million‑year‑old insects from fossilized wings found in Inner Mongolia, China, using lasers, computer models and AI. Most species produced low calls around 5 kHz, but Sigmaboilus peregrinus likely vocalized above 20 kHz (ultrasonic), making it the oldest known ultrasonic animal vocalization and predating bats. The findings challenge the idea that bat predation was the sole driver of ultrasonic signaling and suggest predators beyond bats and acoustic niche competition shaped early insect communication. The work combined phylogenetics, laser vibrometry, wing‑vibration simulations, and machine learning, and was published in PNAS.