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Paleontology & Fossils news
Fossil X-ray reveals new species of baby dino named for iconic Korean cartoon
Cute, green, and sporting two sprigs of hair on his head, a mischievous baby dinosaur named Dooly is one of the most beloved cartoon characters in South Korea. So, when researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 19, 2026
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Fossilized whale skulls reveal feeding secrets of sharks 5 million years ago
A new study analyzing two fossilized whale skulls from around 5 million years ago has revealed fragments of sharks' teeth lodged inside them. This provides rare evidence of how sharks fed on whales in north European waters ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 18, 2026
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Past intensive whaling threatens the future of bowhead whales
A unique collection of prehistoric bowhead whale bones, dating back 11,000 years, reveals a previously untold story of the relative impacts of humans on nature. The time series of ancient fossils show that commercial hunting ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 17, 2026
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Dinos hatched eggs less efficiently than modern birds, researchers show
What do we really know about how oviraptors—bird-like but flightless dinosaurs—hatched their eggs? Did they use environmental heat, like crocodiles, or body heat from an adult, like birds? In a new Frontiers in Ecology ...
Evolution
Mar 17, 2026
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Hunted by Neanderthals, giant elephants traveled hundreds of kilometers across ice-age Europe
Neumark-Nord in northeastern Germany was a lake landscape in the last interglacial period. It is rich in archaeological finds discovered during lignite mining. The area in Saxony-Anhalt is one of the most important European ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 16, 2026
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Paleontologists uncover a new Spinosaurus species by following a clue from a decades‑old book into the Sahara Desert
My fixation on a small, desolate locale in the heart of the Sahara Desert started with a single line buried in a 630-page tome in French about the rocks of the central Sahara: "Dent de Carcharodontosaurus saharicus Depéret," ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 16, 2026
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Crocodiles can have extra growth cycles in a year: Why this matters for estimating the age of dinosaurs
In biology and paleontology (the study of extinct organisms) there are a few ways to estimate the age of an animal's skeleton. One is the extent of fusion of sutures in the skeleton—how much the plates of bone have joined ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 14, 2026
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The fish were biting in ancient Alabama: Tooth found embedded in Cretaceous apex predator's neck
The oceans of the Cretaceous of North America teemed with life. Gigantic fish and enormous marine reptiles hunted the Western Interior Sea. A unique new fossil demonstrates rare evidence of direct conflict between these apex ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 13, 2026
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Huge dinosaur bone may reveal the origins of T. rex
Tyrannosaurus rex is one of the most recognizable names of the dinosaur world, a hulking and terrifying meat-eating behemoth. While fossil remains have been extensively studied, not much is known about its family history ...
Meet Crocodylus lucivenator, a 12- to 15-foot predator that hunted iconic Lucy's species
More than 3 million years ago, when our ancient ancestors embodied by the iconic Lucy were roaming the African landscape, they would have feared a big, bad crocodile with a prominent lump on its head, patiently lurking in ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 12, 2026
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Howler monkey ancestors began eating leaves 13 million years ago, changing course of primate history in South America
Thirteen million years ago, a group of medium-sized monkeys known for guarding their territory among the treetops with fearsome "howls" started doing something new. These monkeys, among the oldest known ancestors of the modern ...
Evolution
Mar 11, 2026
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Bromacker deposit is 4 million years older than previously thought, new dating reveals
Analysis of a volcanic ash tuff layer, only a few millimeters thick and discovered during excavations in 2024, revealed that the fossil-bearing Bromacker rocks are 294 million years old—four million years older than previously ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 11, 2026
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Ancient DNA reveals Ice Age mammals thrived after volcanic eruption
For the first time, scientists have used DNA preserved in ancient sediments to examine how a major natural disaster affected animal populations. A new study of a catastrophic volcanic eruption during the Ice Age has found ...
Ecology
Mar 11, 2026
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Scientists document Europe's first Jurassic lizard trackways in Asturias
The article presenting the research results was published online at the end of February in the journal Ichnos. The study focuses on two trackways (T1 and T2) preserved as convex hyporeliefs on the underside of a Late Jurassic ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 10, 2026
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'Peculiar' crocodile ancestor started life on four legs before learning to walk on two
A "peculiar" ancient relative of the crocodile which experts believe began life on four legs before, in adulthood, it learned how to walk on just two has been revealed in a new study. Named Sonselasuchus cedrus, this archaic ...
Evolution
Mar 9, 2026
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New fossil reveals the weird 'tooth cushions' of an apex predator from 425 million years ago
Roughly 425 million years ago, in the warm seas over what is now southern China, there lived a meter-long bony fish with jaws full of clusters of spiky teeth.
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 8, 2026
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Largest known Mesozoic crocodyliform egg clutch discovered in Brazil
In a study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, researchers Dr. Giovanna M. X. Paixão and her colleagues analyzed the fossilized remains of three Upper Cretaceous egg clutches. One of these clutches, totaling ...
New species of ancient mollusk found in South Korean waters
Scientists have discovered a new species of chiton, an ancient marine mollusk that has remained virtually unchanged for the last 300 million years. Chitons have an elongated oval shape with a shell composed of eight interlocking ...
Paleontologists challenge use of bone growth rings to age crocodiles, dinosaurs
Do the bones of all Nile crocodiles have the same number of growth marks as their age? And can such growth rings be counted to accurately gauge the age of these reptiles? Is this also an accurate method to use when trying ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 5, 2026
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The Black Death's counterintuitive effect: As human numbers fell, so did plant diversity
Between 1347 and 1353, Europe was gripped by the most catastrophic pandemic in its history: the Black Death. Killing many millions, the plague wiped out between one-third and a half of Europe's population.
Ecology
Mar 5, 2026
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More news
Brazilian fossil site yields smallest rhynchosaur fossil ever recorded
Late scientist's notebooks help finish study of rare 55-million-year-old tarpon fossil
First 3D reconstruction of the face of 'Little Foot' completed
Exceptionally preserved 551-million-year-old site suggests Avalon biota lasted longer
Forget flatfooted lumbering T. rex. New research shows it walked on tiptoes
First plesiosaurian fossil discovered in Algeria fills a Cretaceous gap
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Quantum computers could have a fundamental limit after all
Discovery of genetic switch could help turn rice into a perennial crop
Moby Dick 'ship sinking' sperm whales caught headbutting on camera
How soil microbes may control the future of our planet
'Tiny' dinosaur, big impact: A 90-million-year-old fossil rewrites history
Vertebrate paleontology has a numbers problem. Computer vision can help
Rare fossil at Montana museum records Tyrannosaurus attack
Why cultivating drought-resistant plants disappoints: Soil physics may be the real bottleneck
New findings on the first steps in protein synthesis
Study reshapes understanding of interaction between organelles in animal cells
