Paleontogly

Adult and juvenile fossil specimens of Isostylomys laurdillardi, a giant rodent that lived in South America between 9 and 6.8 million years ago (Miocene epoch), have been found by paleontologists, raising questions about classification within the rodent family Dinomyidae. Isostylomys laurdillardi. Image credit: Andres Rinderknecht et al. Dr. Andres Rinderknecht …

Hatzegopteryx, a flying reptile with a 10-m wingspan and a mass of 220 kg, was the dominant predator in what is now Romania between 72-66 million years ago, according to a study by paleontologists in the UK. Hatzegopteryx, depicted here as a short-necked, powerful predator, consumes the dwarf dinosaur Zalmoxes …

When you’re a small pre-mammalian creature, sometimes the only way to protect yourself against fearsome predators like saber-toothed carnivores is to turn your saliva into a venomous cocktail. That is exactly what a therocephalian therapsid called Euchambersia mirabilis did about 257 million years ago (Permian period) in what is now …

The first ever evidence of live birth in a group of animals previously thought only to lay eggs has been discovered by an international team of paleontologists from China, the United States, Australia and UK. Artist’s reconstruction of Dinocephalosaurus showing the rough position of the embryo within the mother. Image …

The fossilized leg bones of a giant penguin that lived 61 million years ago have been discovered in New Zealand. Artist’s impression of a group of Waimanu penguins on a beach in Paleocene Canterbury. Image credit: Chris Gaskin, Geology Museum, University of Otago. The fossil was found by amateur fossil …

An international team of paleobiologists has uncovered the fossil of a 105-million-year-old gymnosperm pollinating beetle, named Darwinylus marcosi. The fossil, encased in a piece of amber from Spain, is shedding new light on the various ways insects pollinated plants during the mid-Mesozoic era. Reconstruction of Darwinylus marcosi on a gymnosperm …

An international team of paleontologists has discovered in Quebec, Canada, the oldest physical evidence of life on Earth — fossils that date back 3.77 billion years. The discovery was reported online today in the journal Nature. Hematite tubes from the NSB hydrothermal vent deposits that represent the oldest microfossils and …

Paleontologists have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown slug-like creature that lived during the Early Ordovician epoch, 478 million years ago. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature, sheds new light on the earliest stages in the evolution of mollusks, a group of invertebrates that includes clams, snails and …

A microscopic, bag-like marine creature that lived approximately 540 million years ago (Fortunian stage of the Cambrian period) has been identified from microfossils found in Shaanxi Province, China. Reconstruction of Saccorhytus coronaries: lateral, hind and ventral views. Image credit: Jian Han et al, doi: 10.1038/nature21072. The ancient animal, named Saccorhytus …

A research team led by Western Illinois University scientist Thomas Hegna has announced the discovery of two pyritized, egg-bearing specimens of the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni. Left: ventrally preserved specimen of the Ordovician trilobite Triarthrus eatoni showing nine eggs in the specimen’s left genal angle; scale bar – 5 mm. …