All articles tagged with #paleontology
A nearly complete stegosaur skull from Spain, attributed to Dacentrurus armatus, reveals skull features that define a new Neostegosauria lineage and forces a major revision of stegosaur evolution, suggesting this group ranged across Africa, Europe, North America, and Asia from the Middle Jurassic to Early Cretaceous.
A study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B analyzed 85 dinosaur species and found that tiny arms in T. rex and other giant carnivores are an evolutionary trade-off for increasingly large skulls; as skull strength rose to deliver more bite power, forelimbs shrank across multiple lineages around the world over roughly 180 million years, though their exact function remains unclear.
Paleontologists on Denman Island, off British Columbia, recovered a tail vertebra from an 80–75 million-year-old ornithomimosaur, the second dinosaur skeletal material found in the Nanaimo Group and the first from Canadian outcrops. The fossil suggests bird-like, ostrich‑like dinosaurs inhabited the ancient Pacific coastline and may have reached Denman Island via coastal currents, shoreline transport, or drifting carcasses. Dating to the Campanian, the find informs on the latitudinal distribution of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs along western North America and raises questions about coastal biogeography; the study was published in FACETS by Evans and colleagues.
A new study analyzing 85 dinosaur species finds Tyrannosaurus rex’s three-foot forearms shrank as the skull grew larger and stronger to tackle big prey, indicating an evolutionary trade-off where energy is diverted to head strength at the expense of the arms; the pattern appears across several giant carnivorous dinosaurs.
An 83-million-year-old crocodile lizard jaw from Villeveyrac, France, is the oldest European pan-shinisaur record and pushes their European origin back by about 30 million years, linking the lineage to the modern endangered Chinese crocodile lizard and implying a once-widespread, semi-aquatic predator in Late Cretaceous Europe.
Paleontologists have unearthed clusters of dinosaur eggs dating to about 72 million years ago, roughly the size of small melons. The discovery at a fossil site provides new insights into nesting behavior and reproduction in dinosaurs, enriching our understanding of late Cretaceous life.
A Perot Museum mosasaur specimen, previously identified as Tylosaurus proriger, has been reclassified as a new species, Tylosaurus rex, making it a 13.2-meter-long apex predator with a powerful jaw and serrated teeth; researchers also reassigned 12 other large mosasaurs to T. rex, prompting a rethink of mosasaur evolution and the diversity of Late Cretaceous oceans.
Paleontologists describe a new genus and species of pan-shinisaur lizard, Acutodon villeveyracensis, from a 2.8 cm upper jaw found in Villeveyrac, France, dating to about 83 million years ago (Campanian). This is the oldest pan-shinisaur in Europe, pushing the lineage’s European presence back roughly 30 million years and prompting questions about its paleobiogeography. The fossil suggests a predator over 1 meter long, with teeth and jaw features linking it to living crocodile lizards (Shinisauria). The living relative, Shinisaurus crocodilurus, is endangered in China and Vietnam, highlighting the long and precarious history of this group. The study appears in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, online May 20, 2026.
Scientists shined ultraviolet light on cassowaries and discovered that the casque on these birds glows green-blue, with southern and northern cassowaries showing strong, species-specific fluorescence patterns while dwarf cassowaries show little glow. While not yet proven as a social signal, the glow could help with species or individual recognition and offers a modern cue for studying extinct dinosaurs; the study examined 95 birds and preserved specimens, and researchers aim to test the cue’s relevance under natural rainforest light in future work.
Paleontologists describe a gigantic new mosasaur, Tylosaurus rex, up to 43 feet long with serrated teeth, discovered mainly in Texas. Larger than the previously known Tylosaurus proriger, it indicates a formidable open-water predator in North America’s Western Interior Seaway, with several famous museum specimens reclassified under the new species and findings published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History.
Scientists describe a new mosasaur species, Tylosaurus rex, from 80-million-year-old Texas fossils that could reach about 43 feet in length, possessed finely serrated teeth and powerful jaws, and likely dominated ancient seas; several specimens previously labeled as Tylosaurus proriger have been reclassified as this new species, highlighting ongoing revisions in mosasaur evolution and the Western Interior Seaway ecosystem.
A 100‑million‑year‑old insect preserved in Myanmar amber has been named Carcinonepa libererrantes in homage to the K-pop group Stray Kids, notable for its rare crablike front claws likely used for grasping prey; CT scans helped place it among true bugs, highlighting convergent evolution with crustaceans.
A Mackenzie Mountains fossil site in Canada has yielded 100+ Ediacaran specimens, including six taxa not previously found in North America, dating roughly 567–575 million years ago. Sediment analysis suggests these organisms lived in deeper water than previously thought, pushing the emergence of complex animal life back by five to ten million years and implying that deep-sea environments may have been the cradle of early multicellularity before life expanded into shallower seas. The finding complements other 2026 discoveries, such as deuterostome relatives from China, and signals a substantial revision of the traditional shallow-water origin narrative.
New analysis of 1.7‑billion-year-old mudstone cores from northern Australia identified over 12,000 microfossils and found that eukaryotic fossils occur only in oxygenated settings, while oxygen-poor rocks contain only prokaryotes, supporting the idea that oxygen availability helped drive the rise of complex life on Earth.
A fossil-rich site in Canada’s Northwest Territories yields over 100 Ediacaran specimens, including Dickinsonia, Funisia, and Kimberella, with six taxa not previously found in North America. Some fossils date to about 567 million years ago, pushing back the White Sea assemblage by roughly 5–10 million years compared with finds in Europe, Asia and Australia. The discovery implies complex, mobile animals evolved in North America earlier than once believed and may indicate a deep-water origin that reshapes late-Ediacaran Earth history.