Paleo in the News

Nature's great survivors: Flowering plants survived the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Tue, 09/12/2023 - 18:24
A new study by researchers from the University of Bath (UK) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico) shows that flowering plants escaped relatively unscathed from the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Whilst they suffered some species loss, the devastating event helped flowering plants become the dominant type of plant today.
Categories: Fossils

Europe's very own dinosaurs -- the enigmatic Late Cretaceous rhabdodontids

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 08/30/2023 - 12:17
A new study brings together intriguing details about the little-known Rhabdodontidae dinosaurs of Late Cretaceous Europe. These gregarious herbivores, characterized by robust builds and beaks specialized for tough vegetation, inhabited the European archipelago. Despite being widespread and abundant, they vanished in Western Europe due to environmental changes around 69 million years ago, while surviving longer in Eastern Europe. Their fossil record offers valuable insights into their evolution and lifestyle, although its limited nature still challenges comprehensive understanding.
Categories: Fossils

Newly discovered 'primitive cousins of T rex' shed light on the end of the age of dinosaurs in Africa

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 08/23/2023 - 11:25
Researchers have discovered the fossils of two new abelisaurs in Morocco, showing the diversity of dinosaurs in this region at the end of the Cretaceous period.
Categories: Fossils

Scientists explore dinosaur 'Coliseum' in Denali National Park

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Mon, 08/14/2023 - 16:45
Scientists have discovered and documented the largest known single dinosaur track site in Alaska. The site, located in Denali National Park and Preserve, has been dubbed 'The Coliseum' by researchers.
Categories: Fossils

New archosaur species shows that precursor of dinosaurs and pterosaurs was armored

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 07/26/2023 - 10:30
Researchers have described a new species of armored reptile that lived near the time of the first appearance of dinosaurs. With bony plates on its backbone, this archosaur fossil reveals that armor was a boomerang trait in the story of dinosaur and pterosaur evolution: the group's ancestors were armored, but this characteristic was lost and then independently re-evolved multiple times later among specialized dinosaurs like ankylosaurs, stegosaurs, and others.
Categories: Fossils

Unusual fossil shows rare evidence of a mammal attacking a dinosaur

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Tue, 07/18/2023 - 15:42
Scientists have described an unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago in China that shows a dramatic moment in time when a carnivorous mammal attacked a larger plant-eating dinosaur. The two animals are locked in mortal combat, and it's among the first evidence to show actual predatory behavior by a mammal on a dinosaur. The fossil's presence challenges the view that dinosaurs had few threats from their mammal contemporaries during the Cretaceous, when dinosaurs were the dominant animals.
Categories: Fossils

Fossils reveal how ancient birds molted their feathers -- which could help explain why ancestors of modern birds survived when all the other dinosaurs died

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 07/05/2023 - 14:40
Birds are the only group of dinosaurs that survived the asteroid-induced mass extinction 66 million years ago. But not all the birds alive at the time made it. Why the ancestors of modern birds lived while so many of their relatives died has been a mystery that paleontologists have been trying to solve for decades. Two new studies point to one possible factor: the differences between how modern birds and their ancient cousins molt their feathers.
Categories: Fossils

Newly discovered Jurassic fossils in Texas

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Tue, 06/27/2023 - 18:15
Scientists have filled a major gap in the state's fossil record -- describing the first known Jurassic vertebrate fossils in Texas. The weathered bone fragments are from the limbs and backbone of a plesiosaur, an extinct marine reptile.
Categories: Fossils

Humans' ancestors survived the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Tue, 06/27/2023 - 11:30
A Cretaceous origin for placental mammals, the group that includes humans, dogs and bats, has been revealed by in-depth analysis of the fossil record, showing they co-existed with dinosaurs for a short time before the dinosaurs went extinct.
Categories: Fossils

New dinosaur discovered: Ankylosaurs may have been far more diverse than originally thought

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Fri, 06/16/2023 - 15:19
First armoured dinosaur to be described from the Isle of Wight in 142 years, shows Ankylosaurs may have been far more diverse than originally thought
Categories: Fossils

First side-necked turtle ever discovered in UK

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Tue, 06/13/2023 - 18:08
The first side-necked turtle ever to be found in the UK has been discovered by an amateur fossil collector and palaeontologists.
Categories: Fossils

Ancient herbivore's diet weakened teeth leading to eventual starvation, study suggests

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Fri, 06/09/2023 - 11:57
Researchers have shed light on the life of the ancient reptile Rhynchosaur, which walked the earth between 250-225 million years ago, before being replaced by the dinosaurs.
Categories: Fossils

New dino, 'Iani,' was face of a changing planet

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 06/07/2023 - 20:58
A newly discovered plant-eating dinosaur may have been a species' 'last gasp' during a period when Earth's warming climate forced massive changes to global dinosaur populations.
Categories: Fossils

Multiple species of semi-aquatic dinosaur may have roamed pre-historic Britain

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Thu, 06/01/2023 - 15:01
Palaeontologists studying a British dinosaur tooth have concluded that several distinct groups of spinosaurs -- dinosaurs with fearsome crocodile-like skulls -- inhabited southern England over 100 million years ago.
Categories: Fossils

107-million-year-old pterosaur bones: Oldest in Australia

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Tue, 05/30/2023 - 11:48
A team of researchers have confirmed that 107-million-year-old pterosaur bones discovered more than 30 years ago are the oldest of their kind ever found in Australia, providing a rare glimpse into the life of these powerful, flying reptiles that lived among the dinosaurs.
Categories: Fossils

Dinosaurs were the first to take the perspectives of others

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Mon, 05/22/2023 - 12:13
Understanding that others hold different viewpoints from your own is essential for human sociality. Adopting another person's visual perspective is a complex skill that emerges around the age of two. A new study suggests that this ability first arose in dinosaurs, at least 60 million years before it appeared in mammals. These findings challenge the idea that mammals were the originators of novel and superior forms of intelligence in the wake of the dinosaur extinction.
Categories: Fossils

Fossil of mosasaur with bizarre 'screwdriver teeth' found in Morocco

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Thu, 05/18/2023 - 11:09
Scientists have discovered a new species of mosasaur, a sea-dwelling lizard from the age of the dinosaurs, with strange, ridged teeth unlike those of any known reptile. Along with other recent finds from Africa, it suggests that mosasaurs and other marine reptiles were evolving rapidly up until 66 million years ago, when they were wiped out by an asteroid along with the dinosaurs and around 90% of all species on Earth.
Categories: Fossils

Giants of the Jurassic seas were twice the size of a killer whale

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Wed, 05/10/2023 - 11:05
There have been heated debates over the size of Jurassic animals. The speculation was set to continue, but now a chance discovery in an Oxfordshire museum has led to palaeontologists publishing a paper on a Jurassic species potentially reaching a whopping 14.4 meters -- twice the size of a killer whale.
Categories: Fossils

Analysis of dinosaur eggshells: Bird-like Troodon laid 4 to 6 eggs in a communal nest

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Mon, 04/03/2023 - 15:26
An international research team has determined that Troodon, a dinosaur very close to modern birds, was a warm-blooded animal (an endotherm), but had a reproductive system similar to that of modern reptiles. The scientists applied a new method which allowed for accurate determination of the temperature when the egg's carbonate shell was formed. Furthermore, the researchers showed that Troodon laid 4 to 6 eggs per clutch. As nests with up to 24 Troodon eggs had been found, the scientists conclude that several Troodon females laid their eggs in communal nests.
Categories: Fossils

Predatory dinosaurs such as T. rex sported lizard-like lips

Science Daily - Dinosaurs - Thu, 03/30/2023 - 16:21
A new study suggests that predatory dinosaurs, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, did not have permanently exposed teeth as depicted in films such as Jurassic Park, but instead had scaly, lizard-like lips covering and sealing their mouths.
Categories: Fossils

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