Paleontogly

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 …

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 …

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 …

After decades of conflicting evidence and numerous publications, a team of researchers at the Zoological Society of London’s Institute of Zoology has finally put the ‘world’s largest bird’ debate to rest. An artist’s illustration of a giant elephant bird. Image credit: Jaime Chirinos. Elephant birds are members of the extinct …

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 …

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 …

According to new research led by Dr. Nathan Jud of William Jewell College, angiosperm (also called broad-leaf, hardwood or deciduous) trees approaching 6.5 feet (2 m) in diameter were part of the forest canopies across southern North America by the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous epoch, approximately 92 million …

Paleontologists have discovered what they say is a completely unexpected new sauropodomorph dinosaur that lived 200 million years ago (Jurassic period) in South Africa. An artist’s reconstruction of Ledumahadi mafube foraging in the Early Jurassic of South Africa; in the foreground, Heterodontosaurus. Image credit: Viktor Radermacher, University of the Witwatersrand. …

An international team of paleontologists has identified two new species of ancient mammals that lived about 13 million years ago (middle Miocene epoch) in what is now Bolivia. Theosodon arozquetai (left) and Llullataruca shockeyi. Image credit: Velizar Simeonovski. The two newly-discovered Miocene species, named Theosodon arozquetai and Llullataruca shockeyi, belong …

A team of paleontologists from the University of California, Riverside and the South Australian Museum has discovered the fossils of two soft-bodied animals that lived in the shallow oceans about 550 million years ago (Ediacaran period). Obamus coronatus. Image credit: University of California, Riverside. Named Obamus coronatus and Attenborites janeae, …