https://phys.org/biology-news/paleontology/ en-us News about paleontology, important paleontological discoveries and fossil studies The glacial Arctic Ocean was not a barren ice desert but a breeding ground for the evolution of cold adaptation in marine fish. This is the main conclusion of a new scientific publication from Stockholm University that examines small fish bones found in deep-sea sediments during an expedition aboard the Swedish icebreaker Oden. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-fish-bones-reveal-arctic.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 15:20:01 EDT news711803702 Keeping to warm climates throughout their 250-million-year history may have helped crocodiles and their relatives survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs, finds a new study led by UCL (University College London) researchers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-climates-crocodiles-outlast-dinosaurs.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 14:00:49 EDT news711792541 Insects belong to a broader group of six-legged animals called hexapods. This group also includes other less well-known, small animals, including diplurans or two-pronged bristletails, wingless relatives of insects with two rear projections called cerci that resemble feelers or pincers. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-giant-jurassic-fossil-evolution-legged.html Evolution Wed, 21 Oct 2026 10:00:01 EDT news711793855 Legend has it that a giant elfin, owl-like creature called the chickcharney haunts the islands of the Bahamas. Those who encounter this cryptid on cordial terms are said to be blessed with good luck. Those who disrespect the chickcharney, however, don't fare as well. "If you see one shoe in the field, it means that chickcharney came, picked up this person and took them away," said Jessica Oswald, recounting a story she was told in the Bahamas. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-caribbean-islands-center-diversity-barn.html Evolution Tue, 20 Oct 2026 19:00:04 EDT news711714482 The Cambrian explosion was a major diversification of animal life that unfolded early in the Cambrian period, which began around 538.8 million years ago. During this interval, marine animals became much more varied, building the foundations for current marine ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-algae-fossils-cambrian-explosion-hint.html Cell & Microbiology Mon, 19 Oct 2026 10:30:01 EDT news711620351 A research team led by Dr. Lorenzo Marchetti of the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin described the earliest archosauriform footprints (Pachychirotherium gardenaensis) from the GEOPARC Bletterbach—UNESCO World Heritage Dolomites, Italy. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fossil-footprints-reveal-dinosaur-ancestors.html Evolution Thu, 15 Oct 2026 10:20:15 EDT news711275896 While many dinosaurs were fearsome predators with razor-sharp teeth, others were peaceful herbivores munching on plants. We can now add a new species to the list of plant-eaters, Infernogallus jamesi. Its name means hell chicken, and its fossilized remains were found in the Hell Creek Formation, a fossil-rich rock formation extending across parts of Montana, South Dakota and North Dakota. And it is providing fresh insights into how some dinosaur diets evolved. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-toothless-hell-chicken-dinosaur-fruit.html Evolution Wed, 14 Oct 2026 13:10:02 EDT news711200552 For early birds, evolution wasn't always about becoming better flyers. This conclusion is supported by the recent discovery of a remarkably well-preserved, 150-million-year-old bird fossil from Fujian province, China, which is challenging long-held assumptions about early bird evolution. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-early-birds-evolved-flight-jurassic.html Evolution Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:00:57 EDT news711124861 A new model using sturgeon as a material analog has made it possible to estimate how the backbones of some of the first animals on land could and could not move. These results disprove a long-standing hypothesis that changes in early tetrapod anatomy as they moved onto land gave them improved neck mobility. The study, led by a researcher at Uppsala University, formerly of Carleton University in Canada, has been published in the journal Nature. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-early-tetrapods-ability-necks.html Evolution Wed, 14 Oct 2026 11:00:52 EDT news711124258 The two warmest time periods on Earth in the past 140 million years drove both mass extinctions and explosions in plant diversity, according to researchers in Australia and Austria who say this could explain how flowering plants became dominant among land plants. The study, published in Nature Plants, examined fossilized pollen and spores to show that the mid-Cretaceous and early Cenozoic periods of extreme global warmth were central to plant evolution. This applies not only to flowering plants, but also to the other main land plant groups. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-climate-shifts-today-diverse.html Plants & Animals Wed, 14 Oct 2026 05:00:06 EDT news711127981 A new species of dinosaur—a long-clawed predator the size of a large tiger—has been discovered by a UCL-led team from a fossil found on the Isle of Wight. The dinosaur, described in a new paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science, belongs to a group of agile, two-legged carnivores called megaraptorans and is the first of this group to be found in Europe. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-isle-wight-fossil-europe-clawed.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 13 Oct 2026 19:10:14 EDT news711127501 A new study combining genomic analyses and fossil evidence sheds light on the century-old "Palaeoptera Problem," a longstanding debate over the evolutionary relationships among major groups of winged insects. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-winged-insect-evolution-evidence-century.html Evolution Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:20:13 EDT news711112621 A research team from the Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen and Leiden University in the Netherlands has examined a tooth from the Schöningen archaeological site in Lower Saxony. The study was published in Quaternary Environments and Humans. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-baby-tooth-macaques-northern-germany.html Evolution Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:20:23 EDT news711036661 A rare assemblage of micro- and macro-fossils found in a roadside outcrop in South China, featuring thin ribbons, branching shapes and a tiny balloon on a stalk, offers a glimpse of marine life after one of Earth's most extreme ice ages. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-tiny-fossils-reveal-chapter-ocean.html Ecology Mon, 12 Oct 2026 15:40:10 EDT news711034845 A new species of ancient crocodile relative that lived around 170 million years ago has been discovered by scientists at the University of Portsmouth and Hassan II University of Casablanca, Morocco. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-jurassic-crocodile-species-unusually-slender.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 12 Oct 2026 14:00:06 EDT news711029785 An international team of researchers has uncovered new evidence illuminating the evolutionary origins of one of the defining features of mammals: the ability to suckle and consume milk during infancy. Their findings, published in Nature, suggest that key anatomical structures required for mammalian suckling, swallowing and breastfeeding behaviors evolved nearly 165 million years ago, long before the appearance of modern mammals. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-jurassic-fossil-reveals-ancient-mammals.html Evolution Sun, 11 Oct 2026 12:00:04 EDT news710683675 Africa boasts up to 25% of Earth's animal and plant species. This diversity is driven by varied habitats: harsh deserts, vast grasslands, dense forests, towering mountains, lush coastlines and teeming seas. It is also due to deep evolutionary roots, as many animal and plant groups originated here in the distant past. Paleontologists have been excavating this material for nearly two centuries. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-zimbabwe-dinosaurs-south-africa-species.html Paleontology & Fossils Sat, 10 Oct 2026 20:30:01 EDT news710684230 A prehistoric cold case near Drumheller reveals either a small-time raptor scavenged on an apex predator, or a baby Albertosaurus engaged in a shocking act of cannibalism. These two possible explanations for what happened to an Albertosaurus after its death near Drumheller are wildly divergent. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-fossil-evidence-small-raptor-apex.html Paleontology & Fossils Thu, 08 Oct 2026 18:20:11 EDT news710682841 What may have looked like a cross between a platypus and a beaverlike rodent and lived around 120 million years ago? Dongoconodon platycauda, a newly discovered fossil mammal from northeastern China. Beyond its unusual features, such as evidence of webbed paddling feet and a rudderlike tail, this semiaquatic mammal had a surprise waiting for scientists in its jaw: a third generation of teeth. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-mammal-fossil-evolutionary-teeth.html Evolution Thu, 08 Oct 2026 13:00:26 EDT news710677552 A giant isopod from Puerto Rico, rediscovered in the depository of the University of Tübingen's Paleontological Collection, has turned out to be a previously unknown species. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-puerto-rico-specimen-reveals-giant.html Evolution Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:40:01 EDT news710677142 A remarkably preserved elephant tooth previously recovered from Gesher Benot Ya'aqov (GBY-NBA)—a prehistoric site in northern Israel where early humans made stone tools some 700,000 years ago—has now enabled researchers to reconstruct a lush landscape of woodlands, wetlands and waterways from the Pleistocene. The findings provide a rare glimpse into the environment shared by giant elephants and some of the region's earliest human populations. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-year-elephant-tooth-reveals-lost.html Ecology Thu, 08 Oct 2026 12:00:06 EDT news710676422 Researchers may have uncovered the reason why some of Earth's earliest animals were commonly preserved as fossils—even though they were essentially fragile "bags of goo"—while later soft-bodied creatures have largely disappeared from the fossil record. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-collagen-microbes-gaps-fossil.html Cell & Microbiology Thu, 08 Oct 2026 11:00:02 EDT news710585221 Some of the giant marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the age of dinosaurs were better built for surprise attacks, while their relatives were better suited to chasing prey through open water, according to a Rutgers-led study. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-flexible-tails-boost-ancient-sea.html Paleontology & Fossils Wed, 07 Oct 2026 16:00:03 EDT news710605632 Understanding changes in North American bat populations is critical to measuring the risk of extinction from emerging threats such as habitat loss, climate change, white-nose syndrome and other disturbances. A study published Oct. 7, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Faith M. Walker of Northern Arizona University in the U.S. and colleagues describes a research design involving the genetic analysis of ancient, modern and contemporary biological samples from North American spotted bats. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-ancient-samples-day-population-dynamics.html Ecology Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:35 EDT news710558371 For decades, paleontologists have held up uintatheres as a prime illustration of sexual dimorphism, or the tendency for males and females of a species to be physically different. Notable for their large size, prominent horns and canine teeth, uintatheres emerged about 58 million years ago, fewer than 10 million years after a space rock killed the dinosaurs, and show up in the fossil record for the next 20 million years or so. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-classic-sexual-dimorphism-fossil-nuance.html Plants & Animals Wed, 07 Oct 2026 14:00:12 EDT news710519881 The "top predator" from the Jurassic is relatively small: Megacauda sungei measures just half a meter (1.6 feet) from its nose to the tip of its tail. The furry ancestor of today's mammals hunted its prey in water 165 million years ago. The cusps of its teeth were also curved backward to enable it to catch its slippery prey. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-predator-jurassic-meter.html Evolution Wed, 07 Oct 2026 11:00:21 EDT news710522281 A new species of extinct crocodile from Egypt has been discovered, sharing more than just its home with the Great Sphinx. Herugavialis cairensis was found in the very same rocks used to build the iconic monument. And, just as the Sphinx is famously missing the tip of its nose, the fossil crocodile is also missing the tip of its snout. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-crocodile-species-great-sphinx.html Paleontology & Fossils Tue, 06 Oct 2026 19:00:07 EDT news710408941 Some 99 million years ago, during the age of the dinosaurs, a tiny insect belonging to a species previously unknown to science became trapped in tree resin. The resin hardened and turned into amber, and the fossil preserved within it has now enabled a team of researchers from the School of Zoology and The Steinhardt Museum of Natural History to identify and describe a new species: Cretodorus noonoo, or "Noo-Noo." https://phys.org/news/2026-10-rare-insect-discovery-reveals-species.html Plants & Animals Mon, 05 Oct 2026 17:40:14 EDT news710432941 In 2014, members of a local museum found fragments of an ancient fossil dating to the end of the Pliocene or early Pleistocene epoch in a seaside cliff on the Argentine pampas. They belonged to a large predator, but the only group they fit, saber-toothed marsupial relatives, had supposedly gone extinct earlier, leaving the identity of the fossil a mystery. That was until Eric del Campo, a paleontologist at the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences in Buenos Aires and lead author of the study, and his colleagues took a closer look. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-saber-toothed-predator-argentina-lineage.html Paleontology & Fossils Mon, 05 Oct 2026 14:40:10 EDT news710419507 Scientists used machine learning and super-resolution microscopy to overcome a challenge that has stymied research into the natural history of grasses for decades. Their method allowed them to detect subtle differences among grass pollen grains and trace changes in grass diversity and the proportions of the two main photosynthetic types of grasses at one site over a period of 25,000 years. https://phys.org/news/2026-10-pollen-reveals-hidden-history-grasses.html Ecology Mon, 05 Oct 2026 13:40:16 EDT news710421361