Feature Channels: Paleontology

• share
• favorite_border

A marine geobiologist falls for the ‘brains’ and beauty of an ancient single-celled creature that can change its shell into a variety of geometric shapes.

• share
• favorite_border

By creating protocells in hot, alkaline seawater, a UCL-led research team has added to evidence that the origin of life could have been in deep-sea hydrothermal vents rather than shallow pools.

• share
• favorite_border

Frozen flora holds clues to the ancient Alps ecosystem and to the Iceman’s final journey

• share
• favorite_border

Most researchers believe that the mass extinction 201 million years ago was caused by release of CO2 by volcanism with global warming as a consequence. Now, new data from fern spores suggest there might have been more to it than that.

• share
• favorite_border

Discovery provides valuable insight into evolution of theropod dinosaurs around the world

• share
• favorite_border

Fossils discovered in Thailand represent a new genus and species of predatory dinosaur, according to a study released October 9, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Duangsuda Chokchaloemwong of Nakhon Ratchasima Rajabhat University, Thailand and colleagues.

• share
• favorite_border

The last woolly mammoths lived on Wrangel Island in the Arctic Ocean; they died out 4,000 years ago within a very short time.

• share
• favorite_border

An international research team led by Giuseppe Marramà from the Institute of Paleontology of the University of Vienna discovered a new and well-preserved fossil stingray with an exceptional anatomy, which greatly differs from living species. The find provides new insights into the evolution of these animals and sheds light on the recovery of marine ecosystems after the mass extinction occurred 66 million years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

The iconic extinct megatooth shark, Otodus megalodon, is an impressive gigantic shark, but new research by DePaul University’s Kenshu Shimada shows scientifically justifiable maximum size for the fossil species to be no more than about 15 meters (nearly 50 feet).

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists have found exceptionally preserved microbial remains in some of Earth's oldest rocks in Western Australia

• share
• favorite_border

Dr Michael Pittman of the Vertebrate Palaeontology Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences

• share
• favorite_border

Adaptations could have allowed these kangaroos to eat tougher foods than any living Australian herbivores

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers from the University of Chicago have used tools developed to explore 3D movements and mechanics of modern-day fish jaws to analyze a fossil fish for the first time.

• share
• favorite_border

A USC scientist and colleagues have identified a new species of giant flying reptile that once soared over what is now North America.

• share
• favorite_border

A rocky start in college hasn’t stopped alumnus Zachary Heck (BS Geology, ’16) from pursuing his prehistoric passions. Having a year off due to academic suspension helped him get back on track, giving him time to a begin career in paleontology before he even graduated.

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers analyzed the genomes of 524 never before-studied ancient people, including the first genome of an individual from the ancient Indus Valley Civilization Insights answer longstanding questions about the origins of farming and the source of Indo-European languages in South and Central Asia Study increases the worldwide total of published ancient genomes by some 25 percent

• share
• favorite_border

• share
• favorite_border

Tyrannosaurus rex, one of the largest meat-eating dinosaurs on the planet, had an air conditioner in its head, suggest scientists from the University of Missouri

• share
• favorite_border

By analysing the fossilised teeth of some of our most ancient ancestors, a team of scientists led by the universities of Bristol (UK) and Lyon (France) have discovered that the first humans significantly breastfed their infants for longer periods than their contemporary relatives.

• share
• favorite_border

Modern flamingoes employ filter feeding and their feces are, as a result, rich in remains of microscopically-small aquatic prey. Very similar contents are described from more than 150 million year old pterosaur droppings in a recent paper in PeerJ.

• share
• favorite_border

When Earth's species were rapidly diversifying nearly 500 million years ago, that evolution was driven by complex factors including global cooling, more oxygen in the atmosphere, and more nutrients in the oceans.

• share
• favorite_border

The Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawai'i recently recorded the highest concentration of carbon dioxide, or CO2, levels in human history.

• share
• favorite_border

A team of Peruvian and American scientists have uncovered the 18-million-year-old remains of the smallest fossil monkey ever found.

• share
• favorite_border

Northern Arizona University researcher Bradley Butterfield looked at history's packrats to gauge what plant species move during warm, dry periods. The team found a plant’s evolutionary build are strong predictors of how quickly it can move to a more favorable climate when its current one becomes hotter or drier.

• share
• favorite_border

The 165-million-year-old fossil of Microdocodon gracilis, a tiny, shrew-like animal, shows the earliest example of modern hyoid bones in mammal evolution.

• share
• favorite_border

Mount Sinai researchers working as part of an international team have discovered previously unknown breastfeeding patterns of an extinct early human species by studying their 2-million-year-old teeth, providing insights into the evolution of human breastfeeding practices, according to a study published in Nature in July.

• share
• favorite_border

The males of one species of butterfly are more attracted to females that are active, not necessarily what they look like, according to a recent research conducted at Augustana University.The paper, “Behaviour before beauty: Signal weighting during mate selection in the butterfly Papilio polytes,” found that males of the species noticed the activity levels of potential female mates, not their markings.

• share
• favorite_border

A new paper to be published in the Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History integrates 20 years of research that describes the ancient Trans-Saharan Seaway of Africa and contains the first reconstructions of extinct aquatic species in their habitats along the seaway.

• share
• favorite_border

Mackerel sharks (Lamniformes) are a group consisting of some of the most iconic sharks we know, including the mako shark (the fastest shark in the world), the infamous great white shark and Megalodon, the biggest predatory shark that has ever roamed  the world’s oceans.

• share
• favorite_border

When an asteroid smacked into the Earth 66 million years ago, it triggered mass extinctions all over the planet.

• share
• favorite_border

A surprise discovery in a Crimean cave suggests that early Europeans lived alongside some of the largest ever known birds, according to new research published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

• share
• favorite_border

Throughout life's history on earth, biological diversity has gone through ebbs and flows -- periods of rapid evolution and of dramatic extinctions.

• share
• favorite_border

Bad news, Jurassic Park fans--the odds of scientists cloning a dinosaur from ancient DNA are pretty much zero.

• share
• favorite_border

The Smithsonian’s Sidedoor has returned with new episodes and a new host. Now in its fourth season, the podcast invites listeners to step behind the curtain into a fascinating world of Smithsonian stories.

• share
• favorite_border

Fossils of a giant new species from the long-extinct group of sea creatures called trilobites have been found on Kangaroo Island, South Australia. The finding is adding important insights to our knowledge of the Cambrian ‘explosion’, the greatest diversification event in the history of life on Earth.

• share
• favorite_border

One researcher at the University of Tokyo is in hot pursuit of dinosaurs, tracking extinct species around ancient Earth.

• share
• favorite_border

One researcher at the University of Tokyo is in hot pursuit of dinosaurs, tracking extinct species around ancient Earth.

• share
• favorite_border

Parts of Alaska's mountainous Brooks Range were likely transported from Greenland and a stretch of the Canadian Arctic much farther to the east

• share
• favorite_border

Homo sapiens may have had a variety of routes to choose from while dispersing across Asia during the Late Pleistocene Epoch, according to a study released May 29, 2019

• share
• favorite_border

The evolutionary use of colour for mammal's survival in the wild is evident from, red foxes, to zebras. Today an international team,

• share
• favorite_border

Researchers have for the first time detected chemical traces of red pigment in an ancient fossil – an exceptionally well-preserved mouse, not unlike today’s field mice, that roamed the fields of what is now the German village of Willershausen around 3 million years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

UNLV geoscientist, student among international research team behind discovery of ancient monkey species that lived in Africa 22 million years ago.

• share
• favorite_border

Micro-CT scanning of a tiny snake-like fossil discovered in Scotland has shed new light on the elusive creature,

• share
• favorite_border

Research by UChicago paleontologists finds that it is unlikely that a two-million-year-old, apelike fossil from South Africa is a direct ancestor of Homo, the genus to which modern-day humans belong.

• share
• favorite_border

Tyrannosauroid dinosaurs have a long evolutionary history and include iconic giants like Tyrannosaurus rex. Now an international research team including Alan H. Turner, PhD, from Stony Brook University, have uncovered the skeleton of a small tyrannosaur from Late Cretaceous rocks in New Mexico.

• share
• favorite_border

Scientists at The Ohio State University have discovered a new species that lived more than 500 million years ago—a form of ancient echinoderm that was ancestral to modern-day groups such as sea cucumbers, sea urchins, sea stars, brittle stars and crinoids. The fossil shows a crucial evolutionary step by echinoderms that parallels the most important ecological change to have taken place in marine sediments. The discovery, nearly 30 years in the making, was published recently in the Bulletin of Geosciences.

• share
• favorite_border

Before they evolved the ability to fly, two-legged dinosaurs may have begun to flap their wings as a passive effect of running along the ground

• share
• favorite_border

The duck-billed hadrosaurs walked the Earth over 90-million years ago and were one of the most successful groups of dinosaurs.

• share
• favorite_border

Reconstruction of the most complete fossil lizard found in Australia, a 15 million year old relative of our modern bluetongues and social skinks named Egernia gillespieae, reveals the creature was equipped with a robust crushing jaw and was remarkably similar to modern lizards.

• share
• favorite_border

A new study published April 30 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences identified three factors critical in the rise of mammal communities: the rise of flowering plants; the evolution of tribosphenic molars in mammals; and the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs.