Tag Archives: fossils

Two new species — the small skink Sciroseps pawhuskai and the pycnodontiform fish Anomoeodus caddoi — that lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch have been identified from fossils found in the Holly Creek Formation in southwest Arkansas. An illustration of Sciroseps pawhuskai. Image credit: Brian Engh. While Arkansas is not …

A new genus and species of mixopterid eurypterid (sea scorpion) has been identified from several fossil specimens found in the Xiushan Formation, China. Life reconstruction of Terropterus xiushanensis. Image credit: Dinghua Yang. Terropterus xiushanensis lived approximately 435 million years ago during the Llandovery epoch of the Silurian period. The ancient …

The primitive-looking coelacanth has long been regarded as a ‘living fossil,’ with extant specimens looking very similar to fossils dating back to the Cretaceous period. But while the coelacanth’s body may have changed little, its genome tells another story. Latimeria chalumnae off Pumula on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast, South Africa, …

The 635-million-year-old pyritized fungus-like microfossils found in the Ediacaran-period Doushantuo Formation in China provide direct fossil evidence for the colonization of land by fungi. The 635-million-year-old fungus-like filamentous microfossils from the Doushantuo Formation in China. Image credit: Andrew Czaja, University of Cincinnati. The Ediacaran-period fungus-like fossils were found in small …

A new species of small vulture that lived during the Quaternary period in the Greater Antilles has been identified from fossils found in western Cuba. Hypothetical reconstruction of the Emslie’s vulture (Cathartes emsliei). Image credit: William Suárez. “Two species of New World vultures (family Cathartidae) form part of the modern …

A new genus and species of prehistoric crocodile, Paludirex vincenti, has been identified from fossils unearthed in Queensland, Australia. Paludirex vincenti belongs to Mekosuchinae, an extinct subfamily of crocodylids from Australia and the South Pacific. Image credit: University of Queensland. Paludirex vincenti roamed Earth during the Pliocene epoch, between 5 …

A new genus and species of probainognathian cynodont that roamed our planet during the Triassic period has been identified from two fossilized specimens found in southern Brazil. Life reconstruction of Agudotherium gassenae. Image credit: Márcio L. Castro. The new cynodont species lived approximately 218 million years ago (Late Triassic epoch). …

Paleontologists have described new fossils of pelagornithid birds from the middle Eocene Submeseta Formation on Seymour Island, Antarctica. An artist’s depiction of ancient albatrosses harassing a pelagornithid as penguins frolic in the oceans around Antarctica 50 million years ago. Image credit: Brian Choo. Pelagornithids are an extinct group of large …

Paleontologists have found the remains of Mesopithecus pentelicus — an extinct species of Old World monkey that lived in Europe and Asia between 7 and 5 million years ago — in the Shuitangba lignite mine in northeastern Yunnan Province, China. The discovery indicates that this monkey species existed in Asia …

Paleontologists in Tasmania have unearthed the fossilized remains of a previously unknown species of the trilobite genus Gravicalymene and named it after Thomas Stewart Baker, the fourth actor to play the title character in the television series ‘Doctor Who.’ Gravicalymene bakeri. Scale bar – 1 cm. Image credit: Smith Ebach. …