The untold story of our remarkable hands and how they made us human
The evolution of human hands is one of the most important – and overlooked – stories of our origin. Now, new fossil evidence is revealing their pivotal role
Carboniferous recumbirostran elucidates the origins of terrestrial herbivory
The evolution of herbivory is one of the most important ecological events in the evolution of terrestrial vertebrates and impacted the ecosystems they inhabited. Herbivory independently developed in a...
The oldest in situ <em>Homo erectus</em> crania in eastern Asia: The Yunxian site dates to ~1.77 Ma
With the discovery of three almost complete Homo erectus crania, Yunxian is one of the most important early Pleistocene hominin sites in eastern Asia. Yet, the age of the Yunxian fossils has remained ...
Feeding in Forest Chimpanzees: Do Food Type and Canopy Location Predict Positional Behavior?
OBJECTIVES: Distinctive aspects of great ape anatomy and positional behavior, including upright torso stability and suspension, are hypothesized to have evolved to facilitate ripe fruit-eating in the ...
Comparative cranial biomechanics reveal macroevolutionary trends in theropod dinosaurs, with emphasis on Tyrannosauroidea
Tyrannosaurus is viewed as a model organism in vertebrate paleontology, with numerous studies analyzing its feeding biomechanics. Nonetheless, the evolution of this feeding performance has been under-...
The smallest tetrapod from the Middle Triassic of South America: a new procolophonoid parareptile from the Ladinian of Southern Brazil
The Middle Triassic fossil record of South American parareptiles is scarce, with only a few procolophonoid specimens known. Here, we describe Sauropia macrorhinus gen. et sp. nov., a procolophonoid fr...
United by chewing: Hunter-Schreger band-like pattern and wavy enamel in a fossil crocodile suggest functional convergence with mammals and dinosaurs
Tooth enamel of most mammals shows alternating light and dark bands, called Hunter-Schreger bands (HSB), in longitudinal sections caused by decussating bundles of prisms, the unit building blocks of m...
Nasal soft-tissue anatomy of Triceratops and other horned dinosaurs
Although ceratopsid dinosaurs possess a characteristically hypertrophied narial region, soft-tissue anatomy associated with such a skeletal structure and their biological significance remain poorly un...
Avian features of <em>Archaeopteryx</em> feeding apparatus reflect elevated demands of flight
Powered flight, as the most physically demanding form of vertebrate locomotion, involves elevated energetic demands. The appearance of dinosaurian flight should therefore be associated with novel feat...
The osteology, taxonomy, and phylogenetic affinities of the Early Jurassic plesiosaur <em>Lusonectes sauvagei</em>
The transition from the Early to the Middle Jurassic was marked by significant restructuring of plesiosaur communities. While knowledge of the earliest Middle Jurassic plesiosaurs is generally limited...
Diet of bird-like troodontid dinosaurs: synthesis of a contentious clade
Troodontidae is a clade of small-to medium-sized maniraptoran theropods that mainly lived in Laurasia (modern Asia, North America and Europe) during the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods and are believe...
Scimitar-crested <em>Spinosaurus</em> species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation
We describe a close relative of Spinosaurus aegyptiacus, the sail-backed, fish-eating giant from nearshore deposits of northern Africa. Spinosaurus mirabilis sp. nov., discovered in the central Sahara...
Fossil ground sloth footprints: ichnotaxonomy and producers
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
Freshwater amphibians and squamates from Villeveyrac (lower Campanian; Hérault, France): palaeodiversity, palaeoenvironment and implications for the Late Cretaceous palaeobiogeography of the European herpetofauna
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
Caenogastropods and heterobranch gastropods from the Hettangian deposits of Luxembourg: palaeobiogeography and Early Jurassic faunal recovery in the western Tethys
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
Foskeia pelendonum, a new rhabdodontomorph from the Lower Cretaceous of Salas de los Infantes (Burgos Province, Spain), and a new phylogeny of ornithischian dinosaurs
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
Palynological response to the Late Jurassic palaeoclimate and sealevel variations in the western Tethys (Binalud Mountains, NE Iran)
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
The oldest acanthomorph fossil (Actinopterygii, Teleostei) from the Early Cretaceous of Gondwana (Morro do Chaves Formation, Sergipe–Alagoas Basin, NE Brazil)
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
Palaeoscolecids from the early Cambrian Guanshan biota, Yunnan Province, China
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.
First record of Sahnioxylon Bose & Sah from South America (Upper Jurassic – Lower Cretaceous of Argentine Patagonia)
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 1, January/February 2026.