Paleo in the News

New fossil discoveries show predatory marine reptiles from 200 million years ago may have been bigger than today’s blue whales – and that they evolved astonishingly rapidly

Microraptor was an opportunistic predator, feeding on fish, birds, lizards -- and now small mammals. The discovery of a rare fossil reveals the creature was a generalist carnivore in the ancient ecosystem of dinosaurs.

Europasaurus is a long-necked, herbivorous dinosaur that lived in the Late Jurassic, about 154 million years ago, on a small island in modern-day Germany. Recently, scientists examined fossil braincase material of Europasaurus with the aid of micro-computed tomography (micro-CT). The digital reconstruction of the inner ear of Europasaurus gave the researchers new insights not only into its hearing ability, but also into its reproductive and social behavior.

The earliest dinosaurs included carnivorous, omnivorous and herbivorous species, according to a team of palaeobiologists.

Climate change, rather than competition, played a key role in the ascendancy of dinosaurs through the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic periods.

Scratches on dinosaur teeth could reveal what they really ate. Dental microwear texture analysis (DMTA) has now been used to infer the feeding habits of large theropods, including Allosaurus and T. rex. By taking 3D images of individual teeth and analyzing the pattern of marks scratched into them, researchers could reason which dinosaurs may have frequently crunched on hard bone and which may have regularly eaten softer foods and prey. This technique opens up a new avenue of research for paleontology, helping us to better understand not only dinosaurs themselves but also the environment and communities in which they lived.

Dinosaurs dominated the world right up until a deadly asteroid hit the earth, leading to their mass extinction, some 66 million years ago, a landmark study reveals. Fresh insights into dinosaurs' ecosystems -- the habitats and food types that supported their lives -- suggests that their environments were robust and thriving, right up until that fateful day, at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Scientists have found new evidence for how armored dinosaurs used their iconic tail clubs. The exceptional fossil of the ankylosaur Zuul crurivastator has spikes along its flanks that were broken and re-healed while the dinosaur was alive -- injuries that the scientists think were caused from a strike by another Zuul's massive tail club. This suggests ankylosaurs had complex behavior, possibly battling for social and territorial dominance or even engaging in a 'rutting' season for mates.

Fossilized fragments of a skeleton, hidden within a rock the size of a grapefruit, have helped upend one of the longest-standing assumptions about the origins of modern birds.

The oldest Pterodactylus specimen was found near Painten, Germany. The fossil is about one million years older than other Pterodactylus specimens. The specimen is a complete, well-preserved skeleton of a small-sized individual. With a 5-cm-long skull, it represents a rare 'sub-adult' individual.

Gabriel-Philip Santos, the Alf Museum’s director of visitor engagement and education, has been honored for his exceptional service to the field of paleontology with the 2022 John and Mary Lou Pojeta Award.

Santos accepted the award, conferred by The Paleontological Society, at the Geological Society of America Connects 2022 gathering held October 9-12 in Denver.

This national-level award was created in 2014 to recognize “exceptional professional or public service, by individuals or groups … above and beyond that of existing formal roles or responsibilities.”

Santos, along with frequent collaborator Brittney Stoneburg, collections manager of the Western Science Center, was recognized for bringing paleontology into new venues through efforts such as Fossil Friday Chats and Cosplay for Science.

“These innovative programs have reached thousands throughout Southern California, nationally and globally and continue to put the Alf Museum on the map,” Alf Museum Director Dr. Andy Farke said. “The recognition from The Paleontological Society, one of the major organizations for our profession, shows the respect that Gabe has earned within our scientific and educational communities.”

Santos, who has been with the Alf Museum since 2015, was promoted to his current post earlier this year. He previously served as both outreach coordinator and collections manager. Santos holds a Master of Science in geological sciences from Cal State Fullerton.

“This was an incredible honor,” Santos said. “When I first started in paleontology I didn’t know if I belonged in this field because I couldn’t see anyone like me in it. It was hard work forging my path, but now to be recognized by the community, I know that I made my place here and I hope I can show others like me they belong here, too.”

In 2021, Santos was named a 2021 Grosvenor Teacher Fellow by National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions for his work as an informal science educator, including using cosplay and pop-up museums to engage diverse communities.

Artificial intelligence has revealed that prehistoric footprints thought to be made by a vicious dinosaur predator were in fact from a timid herbivore.

A fossil discovery from Scotland has provided new information on the early evolution of lizards, during the time of the dinosaurs.

Piecing together the crushed skull of a fossil bird that lived alongside the dinosaurs helped researchers extrapolate what its brain would have looked like: big olfactory bulbs would have meant that this bird, the earliest known animal to eat fruit, had a better sense of smell than most modern birds. And the bones around its eye sockets revealed that it would have been better at seeing by day than at night.

Ostrich-like dinosaurs called ornithomimosaurs grew to enormous sizes in ancient eastern North America, according to a new study.

A process of desiccation and deflation explains why dinosaur 'mummies' aren't as exceptional as we might expect, according to a study.

Researchers have conducted a new analysis of the origins of 'bird-hipped' dinosaurs -- the group which includes iconic species such as Triceratops -- and found that they likely evolved from a group of animals known as silesaurs, which were first identified two decades ago.

Natural history museums are places for everyone to discover more about this amazing world we all share, but cost of admission can be a barrier for many in our community. That’s why the Alf Museum is proud to announce our participation in the Museums for All initiative!

The Museums for All initiative is available to all receiving SNAP EBT benefits. Simply present your SNAP EBT at the museum to receive free admission for up to four family members per card. Museums for All admission is available during all normal museum hours.

Museums for All helps expand access to museums and also raise public awareness about how museums in the U.S. are reaching their entire communities. More than 850 institutions participate in the initiative, including art museums, children’s museums, science centers, botanical gardens, zoos, history museums, and more. Participating museums are located nationwide, representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and U.S. Virgin Islands. It was created by

“A key part of our mission at the Alf Museum is to bring the wonders of paleontology – which is really the story of life on Earth – to as many members of our community as possible,” said Dr. Andy Farke, director of the Alf Museum. “Museums for All is the perfect companion program to our school and community science outreach programs.”

With the Museums for All initiative, we want to welcome everyone to enjoy a trip through time and share in discovering the amazing story of life on Earth.

For more information, please visit museums4all.org.

A new study from the Raymond M. Alf Museum of Paleontology and collaborator institutions shows that cougars in the deserts of southern California and Arizona are hunting feral donkeys, filling a niche once held by dire wolves and sabertoothed cats.

The paper – “A novel trophic cascade between cougars and feral donkeys shapes desert wetlands” – was published July 24 by the Journal of Animal Ecology and featured in the blog Animal Ecology in Focus.

Dr. Mairin Balisi, an expert in mammalian carnivores who joined the Alf Museum as the Augustyn Family Curator on July 1, is among an international team of 11 authors on the study, which is led by Dr. Erick Lundgren, a postdoctoral researcher at Aarhus University in Denmark.

The paper tracks a modern-day shift in predator-prey ecology that echoes relationships that existed during the late Pleistocene, or the last ice age, which ended about 12,000 years ago. In the Pleistocene, saber-toothed cats and dire wolves hunted horse species that then inhabited North and South America, including California. Cougars were present, but not thought to have hunted megafauna such as horses. Habitat disruptions – including human impacts – led to the extinction of both the prey and predators. The cougar, or mountain lion Puma concolor, is the only big cat still inhabiting California – famously represented by P-22, the mountain lion living in Griffith Park in Los Angeles – but it is dwarfed by the extinct big cats of the Pleistocene.

Today, introduced horses and donkeys once again roam the wilds – leading to concerns that without natural predators they would harm fragile desert ecosystems. Instead, the study showed that cougars are stepping into the role of the extinct predators and creating a new ecological balance.

The paper tracked areas in Death Valley National Park where feral donkeys are hunted by cougars and areas where they are free from predation. The study showed cougars not only limit donkey population growth, but also impact donkey populations indirectly. Donkeys hunted by cougars are not active at night and far less active during the day. As a result, donkeys regulated by cougar predation cause far fewer disruptions to ecosystems.

Sites without predation have numerous trails, very little vegetative cover and huge areas of trampled bare ground.

“However, if you go just a few kilometers away to wetlands where mountain lions are hunting donkeys, wetlands are lush with untouched vegetation, have only one or two donkey trails, and limited trampling,” Lundgren said. “The differences between wetlands with and without mountain lion predation are remarkable and are even visible from satellite imagery.”

“This collaboration between paleontologists and wildlife biologists enables us to take a deeper-time perspective than most ecological studies,” Balisi said. “Our study has documented what appears to be a novel phenomenon – mountain lions hunting feral donkeys – but the fossil record shows us that, while the characters are relatively new, the roles that they play are as old as time.

“Extinct ecosystems can provide context for modern day, in this case enhancing our understanding of predator-prey relationships. This study illustrates paleontology’s relevance to practical questions of broad stakeholder interest, like conservation and land management.”

Learn more the Dr. Erick Lundgren’s work online.