Tag Archives: fossil

An international team of paleontologists from Austria and Switzerland has uncovered an exceptionally well-preserved skeleton of Asteracanthus ornatissimus, a species of hybodontiform shark that lived about 150 million years ago (Jurassic period), in the famous limestones of Solnhofen in Germany. Tentative life reconstruction of the hybodontiform shark Asteracanthus ornatissimus. Image …

A team of paleontologists from Oregon State University and the Agricultural Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture has found a new genus and species of fossil angiosperm in the mid-Cretaceous amber deposits of Myanmar. Valviloculus pleristaminis, flower in lateral view. Image credit: Poinar, Jr. et al., doi: 10.17348/jbrit.v14.i2.1014. …

A trace fossil preserved in the Grotto Beach Formation on San Salvador Island, the Bahamas, is the first known fossil example of an iguana nesting burrow. Illustration shows a cross section of the prehistoric iguana burrow, and how the surrounding landscape may have looked during the Late Pleistocene epoch. Image …

A new genus and species of mammaliaform that lived during the Triassic period has been identified from a partial jaw with teeth found on the eastern coast of Greenland. It represents the earliest known example of a dentary bone with double molariform roots and a crown with two rows of …

Paleontologists in Mongolia have found the fossilized remains of Minjinia turgenensis, a new genus and species of placoderm fish that lived 410 million years ago (Early Devonian epoch). They’ve examined a partial braincase and skull roof of Minjinia turgenensis and found extensive endochondral bone, the hard bone that makes up …

A team of paleontologists from the University of Alberta has found the fossilized tracks of a marine wood-boring organism that lived approximately 110 million years ago (Cretaceous period). Apectoichnus lignummasticans. Image credit: Melnyk et al, doi: 10.1017/jpa.2020.63. Trace fossils are biologically produced sedimentary structures that include tracks, trails, burrows, borings, …

55-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Large-Sized Owl Found in Wyoming A new genus and species of owl that lived 55 million years ago (Eocene epoch) has been identified from a partial skeleton found in Wyoming, the United States. The discovery is reported in a paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. The …

Paleontologists Find World’s Oldest Fossil Bug A 425-million-year-old fossil millipede from Scotland is the oldest-known ‘bug’ (an insect, arachnid or other related creature), according to new research published in the journal Historical Biology. Kampecaris obanensis. Image credit: British Geological Survey. Named Kampecaris obanensis, the prehistoric millipede lived during the Silurian …

Exceptionally well-preserved specimens unearthed in Early Cretaceous sediments of Mongolia belong to an ancient, dinosaur-era relative of the living plant Ginkgo biloba (today is native only to China). Reconstruction of Umaltolepis mongoliensis showing four seed-bearing structures and attached Pseudotorellia resinosa leaves. Note that three seed-bearing organs have split at the …

A fossil crustacean, discovered by a University of Leicester-led team of paleontologists, has been named Cascolus ravitis in honor of the naturalist and broadcaster Sir David Attenborough, in celebration of his 90th birthday. Cascolus ravitis. Image credit: David J. Siveter et al. Cascolus ravitis, a member of the stem-group of …