Paleontologists in China have discovered a 228-million-year-old extinct species of turtle, known for its weird disc-like body without a shell and its toothless beak. An artist’s depiction of Eorhynchochelys sinensis as it would have appeared in life 228 million years ago in China. Image credit: Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and …

Paleontologists in China have found fossil fragments from two new dinosaur species — named Xiyunykus pengi and Bannykus wulatensis — that walked the Earth approximately 120 million years ago (Cretaceous period). Xu et al report two new Early Cretaceous alvarezsaurian theropods representing transitional stages in alvarezsaurian evolution. The analyses indicate …

A research team led by Karlsruhe Institute of Technology scientist Thomas van de Kamp has found ancient parasitoid wasps lurking inside 55 mineralized fly pupae from the Paleogene period (66-23 million years ago). Illustration of a female Xenomorphia resurrecta ovipositing into a puparium. Image credit: van de Kamp et al, …

Paleontologists at the University of Texas at Austin have identified three new species of omomyine primates that lived between 42 and 46 million years ago (Eocene epoch). Artist’s rendering of what Ekwiiyemakius walshi, Gunnelltarsius randalli and Brontomomys cerutti might have looked like. Image credit: Randy Kirk, University of Texas at …

On the east coast of North America, dinosaur fossils are rare finds. Owing to several factors, such as the mass-urbanization of the eastern seaboard, fossils from these incredible creatures are few and far between. Even the most complete skeletons are incomplete, making nearly any stray chunk of bone from the …

A team of paleontologists from the University of Texas at Austin has uncovered fossils of an adult female Kayentatherium wellesi — an extinct tritylodontid cynodont that lived alongside dinosaurs about 185 million years ago (Jurassic period) — and her babies (at least 38 individuals). The find is among the best …

Jurassic deep-water reptiles thrived as sea levels rose, while species that dwelled in the shallows waters disappeared, according to new research from the University of Edinburgh. An artist’s impression of Jurassic marine reptiles. Image credit: Nikolay Zverkov. For more than 18 million years, diverse reptile species lived together in a …

According to new research published in the journal Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, mesosaurs — the oldest known reptiles that developed aquatic adaptations — spent part of their life on land. Mesosaurus. Image credit: Roman Yevseyev / Graciela Piñeiro. “Despite being considered the oldest-known fully aquatic reptile, mesosaurs share several …

The first complex organisms emerged during the Ediacaran period (635-541 million years ago). Ediacaran fossils are as ‘strange as life on another planet’ and have evaded taxonomic classification, with interpretations ranging from marine animals or giant single-celled protists to lichens. Fossils of one of these creatures — a flat, oval-shaped …

Paleontologists have found the remains — the well-preserved complete skeleton and feathers — of a short-tailed bird that lived 127 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in northeastern China. Jinguofortis perplexus. Image credit: Chung-Tat Cheung. The ancient bird, dubbed Jinguofortis perplexus, had a body mass of 250 g, a wing …