A set of neoazhdarchian pterosaur footprints discovered in South Korea is offering a rare glimpse into how some of the largest flying reptiles may have hunted on land. Life reconstruction drawing of Jinjuichnus procerus and tetrapod trackmakers. The neoazhdarchian trackmaker is following the small vertebrate. Image credit: Jun Seung Yi. Pterosaurs, the first vertebrates to…
Paleontologists have descibed a new species of the multituberculate mammal genus Cimolodon based on a fossil found in Baja California, Mexico. An illustration of Cimolodon desosai on the tree with a fruit in its mouth. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin. The newly-described mammal species lived in what is now Mexico about 75 million years ago (Cretaceous…
A new genus and species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur related to South American forms has been described by a team of paleontologist led by University of Bath’s Dr. Nick Longrich. An artist’s reconstruction of Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge. Phosphatotitan khouribgaensis lived in what is now Morocco during the ‘late, but not latest,’ Maastrichtian…
If you’ve ever wondered how geologists know so much about ancient beaches and shallow oceans — from the paleoenvironment to the animals roaming around, the seasonality of the weather, and even the time of day when the ancient scene was preserved — they owe it all to the sand particles bound together by microbes, forming…
Paleontologists in Brazil have identified a new genus and species of hyperodapedontine rhynchosaur — an extinct lineage of beaked, herbivorous reptiles — based on a partial skull and lower jaws recovered from Triassic rocks. Named Isodapedon varzealis, the species appears to represent a distinct branch within a group that was once thought to be less…
Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of soft-bodied, tubicolous polyp medusozoan from well-preserved specimens found about 50 km northeast of Quebec City in Canada. Depiction of Paleocanna tentaculum individuals living in single tubes, as well as clusters of two or three tubes attached together. Image credit: Ramirez-Guerrero et al., doi: 10.1017/jpa.2025.10211. “Jellyfish and…
CT scans of a decades-old specimen from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History show a new species of short-snouted crocodylomorph with unusually strong jaws, offering a rare snapshot of ecological specialization in the Late Triassic epoch. Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa (left) is disturbed by Hesperosuchus agilis (right) near a Coelophysis carcass at what will become modern-day…
A new genus and species of carnivorous herrerasaurian dinosaur has been described from an incomplete but well-preserved skull found in northern New Mexico, the United States. An artistic rendition of Ptychotherates bucculentus. Image credit: Megan Sodano / Virginia Tech. The new dinosaur species roamed our planet around 201 million years ago during the Rhaetian stage…
New research shows that the large-bodied ornithopod dinosaur Muttaburrasaurus langdoni from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia was no ordinary herbivore. With a toothed beak and a brain wired for smell, this species likely combined selective feeding with agile behavior. The findings also hint at life near a vast inland sea, where it may have consumed salty…
New trace fossil discoveries from the half-billion-year-old Cambrian tidal flats of Wisconsin at a site called Blackberry Hill continue to paint the picture of some of the earliest animals to set foot on land and what they might have been eating. The mollusk trail Climactichnites blackberriensis (Cb) presumably stopping to eat a scyphozoan (jellyfish) that…
