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An artist’s rendering of the hypothetical placental ancestor (by Carl Buell)

Common Ancestor of Placental Mammals Reconstructed

Feb 8, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

A small, insect-eating animal was the common ancestor of placental mammals, an international team of researchers has reported in the journal Science (full...

This map shows places around the world where the fossils of large and small azhdarchids, including Eurazhdarcho langendorfensis, have been found in close proximity. It seems that many Late Cretaceous habitats were inhabited by two or even three different azhdarchid species, all differing in size and presumably in lifestyle and behavior. Bottom image shows a silhouette of the known bones of Eurazhdarcho in position (Mark Witton / Ron Blakey / Colorado Plateau Geosystems, Inc)

Paleontologists Identify New Species of Pterosaur

Feb 5, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of scientists from Romania, the United Kingdom and Brazil has described a new species of extinct flying reptile from the time of the dinosaurs. This...

Left: a shark coprolite with tapeworm eggs. Right: a close-up of tapeworm eggs in a shark coprolite (Dentzien-Dias PC et al)

Paleontologists Find 270M-Year-Old Tapeworm Eggs

Feb 1, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Tapeworm eggs found in 270-million-year-old fossilized shark feces provide the earliest known evidence of intestinal parasites in vertebrates. Left: a...

Sexual dimorphism in the pterosaur Darwinopterus (University of Southampton)

Revealing ‘Fossil Sexual Selection’

Jan 29, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

Sexual selection can be inferred from the fossil record, according to a new paleontological study appearing in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution. Sexual...

A Troodon, one of the small carnivores characteristic of Alberta dinosaurs, tries to catch a toothed bird (Jan Sovak)

Teeth Study Reveals Diversity of Small Dinosaurs in Cretaceous North America

Jan 25, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologist Derek Larson of the Royal Ontario Museum, who spent six years analyzing fossilized dinosaur teeth, has identified more than 20 species of...

An artist’s reconstruction of Eosinopteryx (Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences)

Jurassic Dino-Bird Discovered, Named Eosinopteryx

Jan 25, 2013 by Enrico de Lazaro

According to a team of paleontologists from Europe and China, the discovery of a new bird-like dinosaur from the Jurassic period challenges widely accepted...

Left: mandibles of the newly found Vulpes skinneri, and extant species: the Cape fox Vulpes chama, the Fennec fox Vulpes zerda, the Red Fox Vulpes vulpes, the Bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis. Scale is 10 mm x 2 mm (Adam Hartstone-Rose et al). Right: foxes in life, from top to bottom - the Cape fox Vulpes chama, the Fennec fox Vulpes zerda, the Red Fox Vulpes vulpes, the Bat-eared fox Otocyon megalotis (Susann Eurich / Umberto Salvagnin / Keven Law / Hectonichus / CC BY-SA 3.0)

New Fossil Fox Discovered in South Africa, Co-Existed with Australopithecus

Jan 24, 2013 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has discovered a 2-million-year-old species of fox at the site of Malapa in the Cradle of Humankind World Heritage...

Manatees are sometimes called sea cow (Ahodges7 / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Earliest-Known Ancestor of Sea Cows Found in Tunisia

Jan 18, 2013 by Sergio Prostak

According to Dr Julien Benoit and his colleagues from the University of Science and Technology in Montpellier, France, an Eocene skull fossil discovered...