All articles tagged with #paleontology
Paleontologists report the earliest fossil imprint of reptile skin with belly scales and a cloacal vent dating to about 290 million years ago, pushing back the origin of the cloaca in amniotes and beating the previous 120-million-year record.
A 190-million-year-old ichthyosaur skeleton nicknamed the Sword Dragon of Dorset, Xiphodracon goldencapensis, is described as a nearly complete Early Jurassic specimen that sheds new light on marine reptile evolution; its discovery helps pinpoint a major faunal turnover in the Jurassic, reveals a sword-like snout and signs of injury, and will join the Royal Ontario Museum for public display.
A new Argentine alvarezsauroid, Alnashetri cerropoliciensis, and two northern taxa prompt a major rewrite of alvarezsauroid evolution: phylogenetic analyses place Alnashetri outside the core alvarezsaurids, making South American taxa polyphyletic; biogeographic analyses imply a Pangaean origin with vicariance driving early diversification; and the early-branching position of Alnashetri argues against a universal miniaturization trend, showing body size evolving within a narrow range across the clade.
A Royal Society Open Science study analyzing T. rex footprints and leg anatomy finds the giant predator walked on its toes with birdlike, quick strides rather than heel-first stomping. Juveniles could reach over 37 ft/s and adults about 20 ft/s, suggesting different hunting behaviors as they aged and reinforcing the link between tyrannosaurs and living birds.
A 290-million-year-old German fossil named Cabarzichnus pulchrus preserves the earliest-known reptile cloaca and skin with keratin scales, offering new clues about early reptile anatomy and evolution.
Paleontologists describe Spinosaurus mirabilis, a roughly 40-foot carnivorous dinosaur from Niger’s Sahara dating to about 95 million years ago, with a distinctive 20-inch skull crest and a jaw setup optimized for catching fish. Found at the Jenguebi site, about 300–600 miles from the nearest ancient shoreline, the fossils suggest a shallow-water, ambush-hunting lifestyle rather than a fully aquatic marine predator, challenging long-held views of Spinosaurus and implying the genus included both inland waders and possible aquatic specialists. This discovery marks the second species in the Spinosaurus genus and underscores a more versatile, environment-spanning lifestyle for these dinosaurs.
A Science Advances study shows Prototaxites—towering structures up to 26 feet long and about 8 meters tall around 400 million years ago—were not fungi, plants, or animals but belonged to a previously unknown extinct eukaryotic lineage. Fossils from Rhynie, Scotland reveal a unique internal architecture, suggesting these giants dominated early drylands and prompting a major rethink of Devonian ecosystems and the origins of terrestrial life.
Scientists describe a 298–299 million-year-old fossil imprint from a bolosaurian reptile in Germany, preserving belly scales and a cloaca—the oldest known soft-tissue imprint of its kind and the earliest reptile skin details—offering new insights into early reptile evolution. Named Cabarzichnus pulchrus, the 3.5-inch trace extends the fossil record of back-end anatomy by more than 150 million years and suggests anatomical similarities to modern turtles, lizards, and snakes.
Newly studied 250-million-year-old fossils from Western Australia reveal two temnospondyl species—Erythrobatrachus noonkanbahensis and Aphaneramma—coexisted in a brackish-marine habitat. Trematosauria fossils show these “sea-salamanders” dispersed globally in the Early Triassic, with Aphaneramma later found in Russia, Svalbard, Pakistan and Madagascar, illustrating their remarkable adaptability and wide distribution after the Permian extinction.
A Missouri fossil hunter pulled an 80-pound femur from a riverbed near Ravenwood, likely from a mammoth or mastodon, with the moment captured on video and fueling public interest in Ice Age megafauna and paleontology.
A Nature paper reports that Haikouichthys, an early Cambrian fish from China, had four eyes—two large and two small—giving it a wider field of vision and possibly a pineal-gland precursor. The discovery implies more complex early fish sensory systems than previously thought and feeds a broader discussion about fish sentience and the existential dread of life in a predator-filled ancient ocean.
Scientists dated dinosaur eggshells using uranium–lead radiometric dating to determine when the eggs formed and thus when the surrounding rocks were deposited, finding about 95 million years old for Utah eggshells and about 99 million years for Mongolian eggshells, with bedrock ages matching the shell ages; the shells’ microstructure records diagenetic changes, making them a promising geochronometer for Mesozoic sedimentary basins.
A newly described mosasaur from Morocco, Khinjaria acuta, had dagger-like teeth and a powerful jaw, signaling a highly specialized top predator in a Late Cretaceous sea rich with diverse mosasaurs around 66 million years ago.
Scientists describe Haolong dongi, a juvenile iguanodontian from northeastern China, with hollow, porcupine-like spikes along its neck, back, and sides. The 2.45 m skeleton is exceptionally well-preserved, but the spikes’ purpose remains unclear—defense, display, or sensing—while pigment was not detected and they are not protofeathers. The discovery broadens our view of dinosaur skin and was published in Nature Ecology & Evolution (2026).
A 290-million-year-old fossilized vomit from Germany’s Bromacker site, the oldest known terrestrial regurgitalite, contains 41 bones from three reptile species. CT scans digitally separated the bones, confirming they came from three distinct species and revealing that early predators like Dimetrodon teutonis and Tambacarnifex unguifalcatus had varied, opportunistic diets in a late Paleozoic ecosystem.