Category: Paleontology

During the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), a period of geological rapid warming and aridification approximately 56 million years ago, a flesh-eating mesonychid mammal called Dissacus praenuntius responded in a surprising way — it…

While tyrannosaurid dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex  had skulls that were optimized for high bite forces, other gigantic carnivorous dinosaurs such as megalosauroids and allosauroids had much weaker bites and instead specialized in slashing…

Wudingloong wui lived in what is now Yunnan, China, around 200 million years ago (Early Jurassic epoch).

Paleontologists have identified an unusual new genus and species of early-diverging plesiosauroid plesiosaur from a nearly complete skeleton found in the Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, Germany.

In 1978, paleontologists discovered the remarkable, nearly complete skeleton…

Rhynchocephalians — members of a sister group of squamates (lizards, snakes, and worm lizards) that includes the living tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) — from the Late Jurassic Solnhofen Archipelago have been known for almost two centuries….

Cranial openings

The external naris is teardrop-shaped and anterodorsally directed. It is surrounded by premaxillae, and the nasal enters the posterior narial rim as a pair of thin processes. The incisive foramen is heart-shaped, relatively small,…

Paleontologists in Patagonia, Argentina, have unearthed a portion of a postcranial skeleton that belonged to a previously unknown rebbachisaurid sauropod dinosaur.