Oldest Pterodactyl found in limestone quarry. Researchers in Germany have studied an “exquisitely preserved” fossil of Pterodactylus antiquus – an extinct flying reptile, dated as 152 million years old. This makes it the oldest specimen of this species of flying reptile. The fossil is almost complete, with only a few fragments missing. The scientists wrote […]
An international team of scientists have studied the fossil of a lobopodian, a small extinct arthropod with a segmented trunk and multiple short stubby legs. The fossil has been named Cardiodictyon catenulum and is dated as 525 million years old. Using sophisticated scanning techniques the researchers were able to identify the creature’s brain. Nicholas Strausfeld […]
Scientists at Curtin University and Flinders University claim to have found “the heart of our evolution” in the fossil of a fish found in a rock formation in Kimberley region of Western Australia claimed to be 380 million years old. This age puts it in the Devonian period of the evolutionary timetable, and the Editor’s […]
A team of researchers in Australia have been studying a mass of exquisitely preserved fossils found in the Central Tablelands in the Australian state of New South Wales. The deposit contains a great variety of plants and animals, including insects, spiders, fish and a bird feather. The fossils are so well preserved that microscopic structures […]
An international group of scientists researching a fossil site at Villaggio del Pescatore in north-eastern Italy have found the remains of the “biggest and most complete dinosaur ever found in the country”. This specimen, nicknamed Bruno, along with a smaller specimen named Antonio have been identified as belonging to the species Tethyshadros insularis – a […]
“Jurassic Pompeii” found by amateur rock sleuth Neville Hollingworth, who scoured old maps and records looking for ‘lost’ UK fossil sites. The huge number of sea creatures and land plants in the rocks reminded him of Pompei according to BBC News 22 July 2021. Enter palaeontologists at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London who are […]
Mass baby burial of 1400 juvenile animals, according to reports in ScienceDaily and Penn State News 28 June 2021 and Nature Ecology and Evolution 28 June 2021, doi: 10.1038/s41559-021-01490-4. Palaeontologists have found an exceptionally preserved trove of soft bodied invertebrate fossils from a rock formation named the Haiyan Lagerstätte located in Haiyan, China. The term […]
Dinosaur on wrong continent according to reports in Bath University 5 November 2020, Science Alert 6 November 2020, SciTech Daily 7 November 2020, and Cretaceous Research, 2 November 2020; doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104678. An international team of scientists have found fossil jaws and the teeth of a hadrosaur (a “duckbill dinosaur”) in a phosphate mine in Morocco. Using […]
Trilobite processions found, according to CNRS Press Release, National Geographic Science (AAAS) News, National Geographic 17 October 2019, and Scientific Reports 17 October 2019 doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-51012-3. Scientists from the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) along with other French and Swiss colleagues have studied fossils containing multiple specimens of trilobites named Ampyx priscus dated […]
Tree amber contains sea shells, according to reports in Science (AAAS) News and Science Alert 13 May 2019, and PNAS 13 May doi: 10.1073/pnas.1821292116. An international team of scientists has used CT scanning to identify a large number of fossilised creatures trapped in a piece of Burmese amber. Amber is fossilised tree resin and often […]