Science

The oldest known syrinx (vocal organ) of a bird has been found, preserved in three dimensions in a 66-million-year-old specimen from Antarctica, according to new research led by a University of Texas at Austin paleontologist. In a Nothofagus forest on the shoreline of Vega Island, Antarctica, a mid-sized raptor dinosaur …

A new genus and species of sauropod dinosaur from the mid-Cretaceous has been discovered in western Queensland, Australia. Savannasaurus elliottorum. Image credit: Travis R. Tischler. The plant-eating sauropod dinosaur is called Savannasaurus elliottorum, and is thought to have lived about 95 million years ago. A member of the sauropod subgroup …

The discovery of a 423-million-year-old fossil in China has shed light on the evolution of the tripartite (three-part) jaw, revealing a previously unknown stage of jaw evolution in placoderms, an extinct group of early fishes. Life reconstruction of Qilinyu along with Guiyu and Entelognathus in Silurian waters. Image credit: Dinghua …

Dozens of fossils from a bird-like theropod dinosaur known as Avimimus have been unearthed in a single bonebed in Mongolia, providing strong evidence that they were gregarious, social beings. Avimimus lived in the Upper Cretaceous in what is now Mongolia, approximately 70 million years ago. This artist’s rendering shows a …

The sabertooth salmon (Oncorhynchus rastrosus), a giant species of salmon that swam in Pacific Northwest waters from the mid-Miocene to early Pliocene, fought with tusk-shaped teeth during the spawning season, according to a research team led by California State University paleontologist Dr. Julia Sankey. Oncorhynchus rastrosus in Proto-Tuolumne River. Image …

A strange brown pebble found near Bexhill in Sussex, UK, has been identified as the first known example of fossilized brain tissue from a dinosaur. Brain endocast of an iguanodontian dinosaur found in 133 million year old fluvial sediments of the Wealden at Bexhill, Sussex, UK. Image credit: Jamie Hiscocks. …

A group of paleontologists led by University of Akron researcher Jennifer Peteya has discovered a new bohaiornithid bird specimen from the Cretaceous period of China with remarkably preserved feathers. Ventral view of the new bohaiornithid specimen. Left: photograph of the primary slab. Right: interpretive drawing. Abbreviations: co – coracoid; cv …

A new species of oviraptorid dinosaur has been discovered in southern China dating back approximately 69 million years to the latest Cretaceous period, says an international team of paleontologists. An artistic reconstruction, showing the last-ditch struggle of Tongtianlong limosus as it was mired in mud. Image credit: Zhao Chuang. The …

Fossilized forewings (elytra) from two individuals, discovered at the Oliver Bluffs on the Beardmore Glacier, revealed the first ground beetle species known from Antarctica. Research describing the new species is published online in the journal ZooKeys. Fossils of the left and right elytra of the Ball’s Antarctic tundra beetle (Antarctotrechus …

An international team of paleontologists has found evidence of beta-keratin and melanosome preservation in a 130-million-year-old specimen of the Early Cretaceous bird Eoconfuciusornis. Eoconfuciusornis zhengi. Image credit: Nobu Tamura / CC BY 3.0. Eoconfuciusornis, a genus of crow-sized primitive birds from the Early Cretaceous Dabeigou and Huajiying Formations of China, …