Tag Archives: cretaceous

A team of researchers from the US, the UK and Australia has analyzed burn markers from the boundary of the impact site of the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatán Peninsula in the southern Gulf of Mexico and the surrounding ocean to determine what caused the impact winter, a prolonged period …

A new genus and species of sebecosuchian crocodyliform that roamed Earth during the Cretaceous period has been identified from a partial skeleton found in a titanosaur nesting area in Catalonia, Spain. Life restoration of Ogresuchus furatus. Image credit: Aina and Agnès Amblás / Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont. Named …

Chicxulub Asteroid Caused End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction, New Study Confirms The end-Cretaceous mass extinction 66 million years ago eradicated roughly 75% of the animal and plant species on Earth, including whole groups like non-avian dinosaurs and ammonites. Debate lingers over what caused this extinction, with intense volcanic activity in India’s Deccan …

Paleontologists Find Giant Soft-Shelled Egg of Cretaceous-Period Marine Reptile in Antarctica A giant fossilized egg of an extinct marine reptile has been found in the 68-million-year-old nearshore marine deposits in Antarctica. An artist’s rendering of a pair of mosasaurs and their egg. Image credit: Francisco Hueichaleo. Named Antarcticoolithus bradyi, the …

Multiple, well-preserved trackways made by large crocodylomorphs, extinct ancestors of modern-day crocodiles, between 110 and 120 million years ago (Cretaceous period) have been found near Sacheon City in South Korea. Surprisingly, the trackways never include handprints and indicate exclusively bipedal walking, a gait not known from fossil crocodylomorph trackways. Bipedal …

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 …

In a paper published in the journal Cretaceous Research, Oregon State University researchers described a never-before-seen insect species found in a piece of 100-million-year-old amber excavated from a mine in Myanmar (previously known as Burma). Aethiocarenus burmanicus in mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. The specimen originated from the Noije Bum 2001 Summit …

An international team of paleontologists from China, Canada and the United Kingdom has discovered the tail of a non-avian theropod dinosaur (likely a coelurosaur) trapped in a piece of 99-million-year-old Burmese amber. The feathered tail of a coelurosaur preserved in mid-Cretaceous amber from Kachin State, Myanmar. Image credit: Lida Xing …