Zimbabwe's dinosaurs were different from South Africa's: New species offers clues
Africa boasts up to 25% of Earth's animal and plant species. This diversity is driven by varied habitats: harsh deserts, vast grasslands, dense forests, towering mountains, lush coastlines and teeming...
This 345-Million-Year-Old Fossil Fooled Scientists for Decades
A famous Scottish fossil is forcing scientists to rethink what claw-like feet really reveal about the move onto land. Pressed flat inside two slabs of Scottish rock, a 345-million-year-old skeleton se...
Fruit-eating adaptations in a Late Cretaceous oviraptorosaur (Theropoda)
Total‐evidence phylogenetics and taxonomy of the Paederinae (Coleoptera, Staphylinidae) rove beetle fossils in Baltic amber sensu lato for palaeoclimate research
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 5, September/October 2026.
Fossil bite marks suggest first evidence of a small raptor feeding on an apex predator
A prehistoric cold case near Drumheller reveals either a small-time raptor scavenged on an apex predator, or a baby Albertosaurus engaged in a shocking act of cannibalism. These two possible explanati...
This 160-Million-Year-Old “Squid” Fossil Is Unlike Anything Scientists Have Seen
Two rare Wyoming fossils have revealed the chunkiest squid relative ever discovered, a Jurassic animal whose family was thought to have vanished millions of years earlier. Researchers have identified ...
A Giant Diplodocus Just Turned Up Where Scientists Never Expected
A dinosaur long thought to belong exclusively to North America has turned up in Spain, offering a 150-million-year-old clue to how giants moved between continents. Paleontologists at the Fundación Con...
Puerto Rico specimen reveals new giant isopod species that went unrecognized for decades
A giant isopod from Puerto Rico, rediscovered in the depository of the University of Tübingen's Paleontological Collection, has turned out to be a previously unknown species.
One ancient swimming mammal fossil and two evolutionary surprises, including a third set of teeth
What may have looked like a cross between a platypus and a beaverlike rodent and lived around 120 million years ago? Dongoconodon platycauda, a newly discovered fossil mammal from northeastern China. ...
Rise of collagen-eating microbes may help explain gaps in the fossil record
Researchers may have uncovered the reason why some of Earth's earliest animals were commonly preserved as fossils—even though they were essentially fragile "bags of goo"—while later soft-bodied creatu...
Scientists found Homo erectus 200,000 years earlier than expected
New fossils from South Africa are reshaping the story of early human evolution. Researchers have described 18 hominin fossils from Drimolen Cave, including an adult Homo erectus skull fragment dated t...
Flexible tails could boost ancient sea predators' ambush speeds, fossil-based models suggest
Some of the giant marine reptiles that ruled the seas during the age of dinosaurs were better built for surprise attacks, while their relatives were better suited to chasing prey through open water, a...
'Classic example' of sexual dimorphism in fossil record actually shows nuance between males and females
For decades, paleontologists have held up uintatheres as a prime illustration of sexual dimorphism, or the tendency for males and females of a species to be physically different. Notable for their lar...
'It looks like a chimera' — 168 million years ago, a strange platypus-like mammal relative lived in China alongside dinosaurs
A predatory mammal-like animal from the Jurassic seems to have characteristics of both a platypus and an otter.
A Jurassic mammaliaform swimmer and transformation of the mammalian pharynx
'Top predator' from the Jurassic measures just half a meter
The "top predator" from the Jurassic is relatively small: Megacauda sungei measures just half a meter (1.6 feet) from its nose to the tip of its tail. The furry ancestor of today's mammals hunted its ...
A Late Cretaceous salamander (Caudata, Hynobiidae) from Jilin Province, China, and the taxonomically informative atlas in modern amphibians
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 5, September/October 2026.
Insights into the canopy of the iconic Lepidodendron aculeatum, based on new articulated fossils from the Bashkirian (Pennsylvanian) of Hagen‐Vorhalle, Germany
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 5, September/October 2026.
New crocodile species discovered in rocks used to build the Great Sphinx
A new species of extinct crocodile from Egypt has been discovered, sharing more than just its home with the Great Sphinx. Herugavialis cairensis was found in the very same rocks used to build the icon...
New Research Reveals Dinosaurs May Have Eaten Seaweed
Dinosaurs and their prey likely ate seaweed, which may help explain the unusually high carbon isotope signatures preserved in their teeth. After storms, beaches can become strewn with marine material ...