https://phys.org/biology-news/paleontology/ en-us News about paleontology, important paleontological discoveries and fossil studies With their slender bodies and long front legs, Miracinonyx trumani—often nicknamed the "American cheetah"—was long thought to be a North American analog of the African big cat. But in a new study published in the journal Current Biology, researchers reveal that the extinct cat was more closely related to pumas. Some populations living near the Arctic preyed almost exclusively on fish, challenging the long-held assumption that these "cheetahs" chased fast-running prey, such as pronghorns. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-extinct-american-cheetah.html Evolution Sun, 06 Sep 2026 11:00:01 EDT news707573172 A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has overturned decades of assumptions about Miracinonyx trumani, the extinct predator popularly known as the American cheetah. By analyzing nuclear paleogenomes and stable isotopes from fossils found as far north as the Yukon, scientists have discovered that this iconic cat was not a true cheetah but a highly adaptable relative of the puma that specialized in eating fish to survive in the Arctic. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-cheetah-ancient-dna-reveals-arctic.html Evolution Fri, 04 Sep 2026 11:00:07 EDT news707572984 Two tiny ant fossils recovered in southern Saskatchewan are helping scientists better understand the evolutionary history of modern ants. Ant fossils dating from 72–56 million years ago are rare. What happened to insects such as ants during this period that saw a mass extinction wipe out all non-bird dinosaurs? How did that event reshape their world? https://phys.org/news/2026-09-tiny-fossils-reveal-big-insights.html Evolution Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:20:01 EDT news707668441 About 200 million years ago, furry, little egg-laying creatures evolved the ability to feed their offspring with a secretion from special glands: milk. Their evolutionary journey continued, and by about 160 million years ago, the first mammals with a real placenta had come into being. Instead of laying eggs, they gave birth to live young that had been connected directly to their mother via a placenta during pregnancy, allowing the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and waste products. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-early-mammals-werent-loners-pairs.html Evolution Thu, 03 Sep 2026 16:00:02 EDT news707660041 A broken rib from Scotty, the largest T. rex skeleton discovered, is helping scientists uncover new information about life on Earth 66 million years ago. Scotty's rib preserves something rarely seen in the fossil record: a healing injury frozen in time. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-neutron-bone-imaging-rex-life.html Biotechnology Thu, 03 Sep 2026 13:20:11 EDT news707652061 We often think of microbes as organisms that live around us, like the Salmonella bacteria and flu viruses that cause illness. But some of our most intimate relationships are with the microbes living inside us. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-ancient-fossil-china-reveals-animalmicrobe.html Evolution Wed, 02 Sep 2026 16:20:08 EDT news707579761 As populations expanded in medieval England, key changes occurred in the uses of cattle and sheep to produce food and materials, according to a study published Sept. 2, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Matilda Holmes of the University of Leicester, United Kingdom, David Orton of the University of York, United Kingdom, and colleagues. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-animal-bone-reveal-cattle-sheep.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 02 Sep 2026 14:00:01 EDT news707400708 Fossilized bones can reveal a wealth of details about animals, including their size, appearance, what they ate and any injuries they may have suffered. In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers in Spain describe a swollen patch on the shinbone of an Iguanodon, which they say may be evidence of an advanced skin ulcer that had reached the underlying bone. If so, this could be the first time this type of response to a bacterial infection has been reported in a dinosaur. https://phys.org/news/2026-09-iguanodon-shinbone-growth-evidence-infected.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 02 Sep 2026 12:40:03 EDT news707561891 What did dinosaurs eat? Teeth provide important clues to understanding the ecology of dinosaurs, which became extinct approximately 66 million years ago. Their shape, structure and patterns of wear can help scientists reconstruct how these animals obtained and processed their food. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-qa-dinosaur-teeth-reveal-diet.html Evolution Mon, 31 Aug 2026 18:00:09 EDT news707412242 Despite the importance and dominance of angiosperms ("flowering plants") in the current ecosystem, it is rather surprising that we know so little about their origin and early evolution. Paleobotanists have been making efforts to decipher these enigmas. Unfortunately, their efforts are characterized by an "unbroken record of failure," as Tom Harris put it. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-permian-fossil-reveal-oldest.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 31 Aug 2026 17:00:01 EDT news707392802 A new study led by Flinders University has flipped the historical narrative about Australia's thylacine, finding the native apex predator known as the "Tasmanian tiger" was significantly different from the wolves and wild dogs it was likened to before being hunted to extinction. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tiger-wolf-australian-thylacine-skull.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 31 Aug 2026 05:00:02 EDT news707131441 Thirty-five years on—well, 12 million, technically—Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park continues to offer important glimpses of prehistoric life in Nebraska. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-tracks-tooth-reveal-bone-dogs.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 28 Aug 2026 11:40:04 EDT news707135102 The formation of complex terrestrial ecosystems was a significant innovation in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. This event signified the expansion of life beyond marine environments and marked the beginning of a new phase in the diversification of terrestrial biota. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-texas-fossil-reveals-early-insects.html Evolution Thu, 27 Aug 2026 17:20:05 EDT news707064181 Using a new combination of computational tools to analyze ancient DNA, Yale researchers have discovered two ancient, extinct giant tortoise lineages that once lived on the Galapagos Islands. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-degraded-dna-reveals-extinct-galapagos.html Evolution Thu, 27 Aug 2026 09:40:03 EDT news707039701 Imagine the Western Plains of North America, from Texas to Alaska, submerged under a broad, shallow seaway. To the west lay the ancestral Rocky Mountains. To the east were low-lying plains traversed by large, sluggish rivers. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rare-dinosaur-tracks-coniacian-age.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 26 Aug 2026 18:00:05 EDT news706968249 The sights and sounds of the Jurassic era are long gone, and we will never know for sure what that ancient world looked and sounded like. Fossils can offer clues, and reconstructions can give us a sense of the noises some animals might have made. Now scientists have turned their attention to insects and reconstructed the calls of Jurassic relatives of modern-day crickets and katydids (grasshopper-like insects). https://phys.org/news/2026-08-reconstructed-jurassic-insect-evoke-million.html Evolution Wed, 26 Aug 2026 12:50:01 EDT news706966915 During the Late Cretaceous period, parts of Egypt were covered in water. A new study, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, describes new evidence that this tropical sea was home to a diverse community of sharks. The study adds five new species to the region's history, found in what the authors refer to as a "shark graveyard." https://phys.org/news/2026-08-egypt-home-diverse-shark-community.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 25 Aug 2026 11:30:02 EDT news706874558 In productive marine environments, a square meter (10.8 square feet) of seafloor can be perforated by hundreds to thousands of isolated and interconnected tunnels through which crawl and writhe a cornucopia of clams, shrimp, sea stars, sand dollars, snails, worms and other animals. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-twenty-years-fossils-reveal-blurs.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 21 Aug 2026 13:00:07 EDT news706530721 A study by the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), the National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH) and the University of Alcalá offers a new explanation for the decline of African megaherbivores. These animals, weighing more than a tonne (2,200 pounds) and today including elephants and hippopotamuses, are known for acting as ecosystem engineers. The results, published in Nature Communications, reveal that their loss of diversity throughout history was not due to their being more vulnerable to extinction, as had previously been proposed, but rather that their decline was driven by particularly low rates of speciation—the emergence of new species. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-scarce-emergence-species-drove-decline.html Ecology Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:40:04 EDT news706455541 The most prominent difference between human male and female skeletons is the pelvis, which anthropologists often use to determine the sex of ancient remains. Scientists have long believed the human pelvis evolved mainly as a compromise between walking on two legs and giving birth to large-brained babies. This idea is known as the Obstetrical Dilemma Hypothesis. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-neanderthal-hips-hypothesis-childbirth-bipedal.html Evolution Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:10:02 EDT news706445057 Take a walk in London's Trafalgar Square this summer, and people of all body sizes—some tall, some short—will be wilting in the heat: a real mix of sizes. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-denisovans-tall-ancient-humans-skeptical.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 19 Aug 2026 17:40:01 EDT news706362662 Recent advances in our understanding of human evolution challenge the way we currently name and classify our ancestors, according to new research from Monash University. The study, published in the American Journal of Biological Anthropology, argues that we need a rethink and proposes reclassifying all species of humans and our closely related fossil relatives that have lived in the past 4–5 million years as part of the genus Homo. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-rethinking-human-ancestors-evolutionary-discoveries.html Evolution Tue, 18 Aug 2026 18:30:05 EDT news706291921 A new study by the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, published in Scientific Reports, offers an explanation for one of the striking differences between men and women: the evolutionary development of the modern human pelvis. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-male-neanderthal-pelvises-resemble-modern.html Evolution Mon, 17 Aug 2026 19:20:03 EDT news706196701 New research suggests that no matter what we eventually determine the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees to be, we'll learn it was a primate that climbed trees. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-common-ancestor-humans-chimpanzees-vertical.html Evolution Mon, 17 Aug 2026 16:10:01 EDT news706200721 Insects rely on a wide range of strategies to sense their surroundings and communicate with their peers. Fireflies (Lampyridae) and some related beetles are known for their ability to produce visible light through chemical reactions that take place in specialized light-producing organs. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-amber-fossil-reveals-firefly-unprecedented.html Evolution Mon, 17 Aug 2026 07:20:05 EDT news705920747 South America was a frightening place during the Miocene. More than 10 million years ago, a vast lake covered much of the continent, home to giant turtles and crocodylians. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-giant-crocodylians-dominated-food-chain.html Ecology Sun, 16 Aug 2026 21:00:04 EDT news705927781 The closest living relatives of crocodiles and alligators are, perhaps surprisingly, birds. Both are archosauriforms, a group of species that originated about 250 million years ago near the beginning of the Triassic period. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-crocodiles-fly-birds-scientists-figured.html Paleontology & Fossils Fri, 14 Aug 2026 07:10:01 EDT news705906771 How many sharks should a coral reef have? It sounds like a simple question, but almost nowhere on Earth is there a reef that has not at some time been fished or otherwise affected by humans, so there is no yardstick against which to measure what has been lost or what recovery would look like. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-oceans-country-sharks-prehistoric-pacific.html Ecology Thu, 13 Aug 2026 19:40:01 EDT news705856143 If you want to know how rapidly pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will affect future forest ecosystems, you have to look into the distant past. The researchers behind a new study published in Science have done just that, reconstructing the forest canopy of 56 million years ago, during a massive and abrupt emission of carbon into the atmosphere during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). For the first time, the study's authors used fossilized leaf cells to reconstruct the tree canopy of the PETM, Earth's most recent period of comparable global warming, with chilling implications for our near future. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-paleontologists-reconstruct-forests-million-years.html Ecology Thu, 13 Aug 2026 14:00:06 EDT news705678121 An international team of researchers from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and the U.S. has reconstructed the evolution of body mass in carnivorous mammals during the Paleogene—a crucial window in the diversification of mammals that followed the extinction of dinosaurs. This work, published in Biology Letters, challenges the long-standing hypothesis that competition decided the fate of ancient top predators. https://phys.org/news/2026-08-climate-predator-million-years.html Ecology Thu, 13 Aug 2026 13:40:03 EDT news705841742