Paleontogly

Orangutans (genus Pongo) are the closest living relatives of Gigantopithecus blacki, the biggest primate that ever walked the Earth, according to new research published in the journal Nature. Welker et al demonstrated that Gigantopithecus blacki is a sister clade to orangutans with a common ancestor about 12-10 million years ago, …

Paleontologists in Canada have found the fossil fragments from a new species of leptoceratopsid dinosaur that walked the Earth during the Cretaceous period. An artist’s impression of Ferrisaurus sustutensis. Image credit: Raven Amos / Royal BC Museum. The newly-discovered dinosaur lived approximately 67 million years ago (Cretaceous period). Named Ferrisaurus sustutensis, …

‘Ghost’ fossilized footprints of human, mammoths, giant sloths and other Pleistocene creatures discovered at the White Sands National Monument in New Mexico reveal a wealth of information about how humans and the ancient animals moved and interacted with each other 12,000 years ago. Photographs of the study site at the …

Paleontologists have discovered the fossilized feathers of dinosaurs and birds that lived 118 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch) in polar environment (around 70°S) in what is now southeastern Australia. A fossil feather from the Koonwarra Fossil Bed, Australia. Image credit: Kundrát et al, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2019.10.004. Exceptionally preserved feathered dinosaur …

Since Charles Darwin, insect pollination was thought to be a key contributor to the Cretaceous rise of flowering plants (angiosperms). Both insects and flowering plants were common during the mid-Cretaceous epoch, but physical evidence for Cretaceous insect pollination of flowering plants was until now absent. An international team of paleontologists …

Paleontologists in Switzerland have unearthed an exceptionally rare fossil jaw of an ancient creature known as a pliosaur. Life reconstruction of the Arisdorf pliosaur with a diver for scale. Image credit: Joschua Knüppe. Pliosaurs were a type of short-necked plesiosaur: marine reptiles built for speed compared to their long-necked cousins. …

A previously unrecognized mode of fossilization of ancient microbes may explain how some of Earth’s oldest microfossils formed, according to new research. Rasmussen Muhling show that the infiltration of liquid hydrocarbons was responsible for the formation of these filamentous microfossils from the Red Dog Zn-Pb-Ag massive sulfide deposit in the …

The end-Triassic mass extinction occurred 201.51 million years ago and resulted in the demise of some 76% of all marine and land species. Up until now, most scientists believed that the catastrophe was caused by the release of volcanic carbon dioxide with global warming as a consequence. According to new …

In a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports, University of Lyon’s Dr. Jean Vannier and colleagues described several fossilized clusters of Ampyx priscus, a species of trilobite that lived 480 million years ago (Ordovician period); the paleontologists interpreted the fossils as a collective behavior related to seasonal reproduction or …

Paleontologists have discovered the fossils of a new type of early tetrapod (four-limbed vertebrate) in the Komi Republic. Dubbed Parmastega aelidae, the ancient creature lived about 372 million years ago (Devonian period) and was an aquatic, surface-cruising animal. An artist’s reconstruction of the Devonian-period Sosnogorsk lagoon just before a storm. Image …