Paleontogly

Australia’s oldest angiosperms (flowering plants) are approximately 126 million years old, and they resembled modern magnolias, buttercups and laurels, according to new research published in the Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology. Rocks containing microscopic pollen were collected to determine the age of fossil leaves from Castle Cove, Otway Ranges, Victoria, …

A Carboniferous-period fossil found in Nova Scotia, Canada, shows an ancient creature called a varanopid synapsid (family Varanopidae) caring for its young. An artist’s impression of an adult and a juvenile Dendromaia unamakiensis. Image credit: Henry Sharpe. “Parental care is a behavioral strategy where parents make an investment or divert …

Paleontologists have unearthed the 100-million-year-old (Cretaceous period) fossilized bones of perinatal non-iguanodontian ornithopods in the Griman Creek Formation in central-northern New South Wales, Australia. The fossils provide the first evidence of perinatal dinosaurs from Australia and, more broadly, the first insights into the high-latitude breeding preferences of non-iguanodontian ornithopods in …

A new genus and species of lungfish that lived approximately 365 million years ago (Famennian stage of the Late Devonian period) has been identified from fossils found in South Africa. Illustration of Isityumzi mlomomde (lower right) and other Late Devonian freshwater ecosystem creatures including the early tetrapod Unzantsia. Image credit: …

Paleontologists have unearthed the extensive root system of 386-million-year-old (Devonian period) primitive trees in a sandstone quarry near Cairo, New York, the United States. A Devonian root system at the Cairo fossil forest site. Image credit: Stein et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.11.067. The Cairo fossil forest covered an area of at …

Paleontologists have found tiny nymphs of a previously unknown ancient insect species trapped in two pieces of 99-million-year-old (mid-Cretaceous period) Burmese amber, along with partially damaged dinosaur feathers, the damage of which was probably made by these insects’ feeding behaviors. Mesophthirus engeli nymphs crawled and fed on dinosaur feathers. Image …

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of extinct protocetid whale, based on the fossilized remains found in the Western Desert of Egypt. Named Aegicetus gehennae, the ancient animal represents an important step in the evolution of whale locomotion. An artist’s impression of Basilosaurus isis. Image …

Paleontologists in New Zealand have actually discovered the fossilized bones from a vanished penguin that swam the seas in between 62.5 as well as 60 million years earlier. Referred to as Kupoupou stilwelli, the old bird is the earliest penguin understood with percentages near to its contemporary loved ones. < …

Paleontologists have actually uncovered the remains of a formerly unidentified symmetrodont animal that lived together with dinosaurs in what is currently China. The fossils offer a document of the last action in the advancement of creatures’ multi-boned center ears. Life restoration of Origolestes lii. Picture credit score: Chuang Zhao.”While contemporary …

A brand-new types of comma shrimp that lived throughout the mid-Cretaceous duration, in between 95 as well as 90 million years back, has actually been determined from unspoiled fossils located in Colombia. Called Eobodotria muisca, the old shellfish bridges an about 165-million-year space in the fossil document of comma shrimps …