All articles tagged with #paleontology
Thai scientists announce Uragasaurus kalasinensis, a newly identified plant-eating dinosaur thought to have lived about 150 million years ago and about the length of a cricket pitch.
A micro-sized Late Triassic jaw fossil of Cargninia enigmatica from southern Brazil preserves 12 teeth (likely up to 18) and, via micro-CT, reveals trigeminal nerve patterns resembling living lepidosaurs. Large phylogenetic analyses consistently place Cargninia as a non-lepidosaur lepidosauromorph, suggesting it predates true lepidosaurs and helps illuminate the early evolution of lizards and their relatives; the find dates to about 225 million years ago and was described online July 4, 2026 in The Anatomical Record.
A paleontologist at UC Berkeley reexamined a dusty fossil tucked in a drawer at the American Museum of Natural History, initially labeled as a generic cat. Using 3D scans and comparison with Adelphailurus kansensis, she linked it to an early saber-tooth lineage and contrasted it with Smilodon, revealing greater diversity among sabertooths and suggesting their fragile teeth helped drive extinction. The find also underscores how many such fossils may lie unopened in drawers worldwide.
Scientists analyzing more than 100 Spriggina fossils from South Australia found that roughly twice as many specimens bent to the left as to the right, meaning the animals’ bodies would have curved to the right in life. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, suggest Spriggina had a directional preference (handedness) about 550 million years ago, indicating an early nervous system capable of biased movement and laying groundwork for the handedness seen in many animals today.
A University of Oklahoma team reports a 450-million-year-old crinoid fossil (Dendrocrinus simcoensis) that preserves soft tissue—the oldest crinoid fossil with soft tissue and only the second example overall—offering rare insights into early reef life and crinoid feeding via tube feet, well before dinosaurs, and highlighting the enduring value of museum collections for new discoveries.
In Colchester, UK, a 2nd‑century CE fossil pit yielded an ichthyosaur spinal bone that a Romans-era collector tucked among pottery and spoons; paleontologists say this is the oldest known example of deliberate ichthyosaur fossil collecting, suggesting Romans may have curated fossils perhaps influenced by Greek myths about sea monsters, with a roughly 1,800‑year gap before similar discoveries.
Chinese paleontologists describe Zhengheornis buyu, a small 148–150 million-year-old Jurassic bird with a 15-vertebra tail that remains unfused (no pygostyle), showing that vertebral tail shortening occurred before pygostyle formation in early birds. With an estimated body mass of 74–163 g, this mosaic anatomy suggests a stepwise tail evolution and supports a rapid diversification of avialans by the late Jurassic, published in Science Advances.
Scientists have identified the second-ever crinoid fossil with preserved soft tissues, dating to about 450 million years ago; found in a Montreal museum, the specimen offers rare insights into ancient crinoid biology and behavior and was detailed in Royal Society Open Science.
A 2025 Science study of the Naashoibito Member in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin dates fossils to roughly the final 380,000 years before the mass extinction, revealing a diverse, thriving dinosaur ecosystem that included Tyrannosaurus, Torosaurus and Alamosaurus—challenging the long-held view of a global dinosaur decline. The site shows two distinct regional communities, but experts caution this is one location and not a worldwide census, so more dated sites are needed to confirm whether the end of the dinosaurs was the result of an external catastrophe or a broader decline.
New research suggests Homo floresiensis survived on scavenged Stegodon leftovers rather than actively hunting big game or using fire, based on bone-cut marks compared to Komodo dragon tooth marks and the absence of charred bones in the cave; the findings imply a simpler behavioral repertoire and a possibly different evolutionary path from Homo erectus.
UNAM researchers describe Ambystoma quetzalcoatli, the first formally identified fossil salamander from Mexico and the oldest Ambystoma record in the country, based on scans of specimens from Hidalgo. The fossils show distinctive skull and skeleton features, including an elongated skull opening, a unique palate, and 17 trunk vertebrae, setting it apart from living axolotls. By comparing with 13 extant Ambystoma species and modern CT data, they concluded the species likely exhibited neoteny and lived in a Pliocene-era lake system, expanding our understanding of axolotl evolution and Mexico’s ancient biodiversity.
A Danish-led study revisits Otodus megalodon’s size using 11-million-year-old vertebrae rediscovered in Denmark, reinforcing estimates that these giants exceeded 24 meters, with a newborn around 3.6 meters and a lifespan near a century, while also illustrating how fossils can be lost or misplaced in museums and later recovered, offering new research opportunities.
New fossil and geological evidence place the shark lineage around 450 million years ago in the Middle Ordovician, predating the first broad leaves and forests on land, showing that modern sharks are the result of a long marine evolution rather than unchanged fossils, with land plants and forests arising much later in Earth’s history.
A fossil bone tucked away in the British Antarctic Survey archives for 40 years has been confirmed as Antarctica's earliest dinosaur, a Late Cretaceous sauropod tail vertebra from James Ross Island. Reanalyzed by BAS scientists, the lithostrotian titanosaur adds to Antarctica's rare dinosaur record and could shed light on Gondwana dispersal; the find, published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, is only the second sauropod fossil known from the continent.
A rare titanosaur tail bone from Antarctica, found in 1985 on James Ross Island and stored for decades, has been identified by researchers; the fossil suggests Antarctica once hosted lush forests and a hospitable habitat for dinosaurs, though the exact species remains unidentified.