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.
They say everything's bigger in Texas. And that appears to be true, at least in the case of a group of ancient near-marsupials scientists call Swaindelphys.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 23, 2025
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178
Pterosaurs, which dominated the skies of the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, first evolved to take to the air in warm and humid conditions during the Late Triassic, a new study suggests.
Evolution
Jun 18, 2025
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116
A giant, strong-jawed salamander once tunneled through ancient Tennessee soil. And thanks to a fossil unearthed near East Tennessee State University, scientists now better understand how it helped shape Appalachian amphibian ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 17, 2025
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286
A team of archaeologists, natural scientists, evolutionary specialists and paleontologists affiliated with a number of institutions across Europe, and also Russia and the U.K., has found evidence strongly suggesting that ...
The dinosaur that welcomes visitors to the Natural History Museum harbors a fascinating history. Researchers have identified a severe bone infection in the dinosaur, which lived around 220 million years ago in Switzerland ...
Biotechnology
Jun 16, 2025
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87
Ten thousand years ago, mastodons vanished from South America. With them, an ecologically vital function also disappeared: the dispersal of seeds from large-fruited plants. A new study led by the University of O'Higgins, ...
Ecology
Jun 13, 2025
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394
Paleontologists have identified a new species of dinosaur, Khankhuuluu, which is being described as the closest-known ancestor to the giant Tyrannosaurs.
Evolution
Jun 11, 2025
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124
A fossilized colony of small burrowing reptiles that lived some 250 million years ago was recently found in South Africa. It's the first time that the Procolophon trigoniceps, which lived in the lowlands of what was then ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jun 10, 2025
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213
