Vertebrate paleontology is the scientific discipline within paleontology that focuses on the study of fossilized remains of vertebrate animals, including their morphology, systematics, evolutionary relationships, and paleoecology. It integrates anatomical analysis, comparative biology, stratigraphy, and geochronology to reconstruct the origin, diversification, and extinction patterns of vertebrates through deep time. Research in vertebrate paleontology often involves detailed examination of skeletal elements, functional morphology, and phylogenetic methods to infer evolutionary trajectories and biogeographic histories, as well as to interpret environmental and climatic conditions recorded in vertebrate fossil assemblages and associated sedimentary contexts.
The mass extinction at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods was catastrophic, wiping out much of life on Earth. Vertebrate groups that dominated at the time, such as dinosaurs and many large marine reptiles, ...
Evolution
Mar 25, 2026
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A major gap in South Korea's prehistoric record has been filled with the discovery of Onggwanoolithus aphaedoensis, the first known bird-type dinosaur eggs from the Cretaceous period of South Korea. The find, which is detailed ...
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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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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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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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 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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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 ...
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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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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