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The small shark named Clavusodens mcginnisi, or “McGinnis’ nail tooth,” only measured 3-4 inches in length. A 4 inch long male and female Clavusodens hunting for early crustaceans on the sea floor that once covered much of central Kentucky during the Middle Mississippian period, 340 million years ago. NPS Illustration / Benji Paysnoe ================================================================ MAMMOTH CAVE, KY. – A new-to-science species of ancient shark has been discovered through an ongoing Paleontological Resource Inventory (PRI) at Mammoth Cave National Park. The new species of obruchevodid petalodont, called Clavusodens mcginnisi, was identified by researchers through fossil teeth collected from deep inside the...

Researchers at Lund University in Sweden have analyzed the soft tissue of a fossilized plesiosaur for the first time, revealing that the long-necked marine reptile had both smooth and scaly skin. This combination likely helped it swim efficiently while also allowing movement along rough seabeds.Plesiosaurs inhabited the world's oceans throughout much of the Mesozoic Era (203–66 million years ago). These reptiles, which could grow up to 12 meters long, fed primarily on fish and propelled themselves using four paddle-like flippers, similar to sea turtles. Until now, little has been known about their external anatomy...However, in a new study published in...

Scientists discovered a 480-million-year-old phosphatic sponge in South China, making it the oldest known stromatoporoid and extending its fossil record by 20 million years.International scientists have discovered the oldest known phosphatic stromatoporoid sponge in South China, dating back approximately 480 million years to the Early Ordovician period.Stromatoporoid sponges were major reef builders during the Paleozoic era, playing a foundational role in forming reef structures—much like modern corals do today. Their significance peaked from the late Middle Ordovician to the Devonian period, a time when reef ecosystems transitioned from being dominated by microbial communities to those built primarily by skeletal organisms.Until...

Fossils from China's Turpan-Hami Basin reveal it was a rare land refuge during the end-Permian extinction, with fast ecosystem recovery driven by stable climate conditions.A new study has found that a region in China's Turpan-Hami Basin acted as a refugium, or "life oasis", for terrestrial plants during the end-Permian mass extinction, the most severe biodiversity crisis since the Cambrian period.Published in Science Advances, the research challenges the common belief that land-based ecosystems were as heavily impacted as marine environments during this extinction event.The team's findings suggest that some land areas were shielded from the worst effects of the extinction, creating...

Peripatopsis barnardi represents the first ever species from the little Karoo, which indicates that the area was historically more forested than at present. It is one of seven new species from the Cape Fold Mountains described by researchers from Stellenbosch University. Credit: Savel Daniels A newly discovered velvet worm species is the first ever found in South Africa’s arid Karoo region. In March 2022, Stellenbosch University student Rohan Barnard was exploring a farm in the Swartberg Mountains between Calitzdorp and Oudtshoorn, turning over rocks in search of ants, reptiles, and other small creatures. During his search, he made the discovery...

Homo erectus, modern humans' archaic hominin relative, was the first human species to migrate out of Africa. One of the places they eventually settled was in Southeast Asia, as H. erectus fossils found on the island of Java date back 1.6 million years. Archaeologists working there recently gained new insight into the way these early humans lived, according to a statement released by Leiden University.Dredging operations in the Madura Strait recovered two fragments of 140,000-year-old H. erectus skull among the fossilized remains of 36 vertebrate species. This now-submerged region was once part of a landmass called Sundaland, which connected the...

Buried for hundreds of years, ancient brains are finally speaking. What they’re saying could change everything we thought we knew. A pioneering scientific breakthrough has made it possible to extract proteins from preserved soft tissues, including human brains, revealing a vast archive of biological information that has long remained inaccessible. This new method promises to reshape our understanding of evolution, diet, microbiomes, and even the development of brain cells over millennia. Tapping Into Hidden Biological Archives Every organism is built from proteins—molecules that drive vital processes such as heartbeats and neural communication. When an organism dies, these proteins usually degrade...

Mammaliaforms encompass both living and extinct species that share a close relationship with mammals. Research on mammaliaforms aids scientists in deciphering the evolutionary developments responsible for various mammalian features.In two consecutive studies in Nature, Dr. Mao Fangyuan and Dr. Zhang Chi from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, together with colleagues from Australia and the United States, recently reported two Jurassic mammaliaforms from China, revealing the earliest dental diversification, mandibular middle ears, and articular-quadrate joint transformation of mammaliaforms.The studies provide key information about the evolutionary shift from reptilian jaw bones to early...

A quiet afternoon on a farm turned into a moment of prehistoric discovery. What this teen uncovered could rewrite part of ancient history. What began as a simple search for arrowheads on an Iowa farm turned into an extraordinary encounter with the past. A teenager’s unexpected discovery of a 34,000-year-old mastodon jaw is now capturing the attention of scientists and shedding new light on Ice Age life in North America. Chance Find Reveals Ancient Ice Age Resident The student was simply enjoying a day outdoors when he came across a large bone fragment partially embedded in the ground. Curious, he...

Paleontologists have described a new species of the extant bee genus Leioproctus from a fossil specimen found in southern New Zealand.Named Leioproctus barrydonovani, the new species lived during the Middle Miocene epoch, some 14.6 million years ago.The ancient insect belongs to Leioproctus, a large genus within the plasterer bee family Colletidae.Extant Leioproctus species are small, black, hairy bees between 4 and 16 mm in length.They are found in Australasia and South America, and include the most common native bees in New Zealand...The specimen (total length of the body is 6.4 mm) was recovered from the Middle Miocene deposits of the...

There is no single answer to this puzzle. Dinosaurs dominated the planet for around 179 million years and during that time, evolved into an enormous array of different shapes and sizes. Some were tiny, like the diminutive Albinykus, which weighed under a kilogram (2.2lbs) and was probably less than 2ft (60cm) long. Others were among the biggest animals to have ever lived on land, such as the titanosaur Patagotitan mayorum, which may have weighed up to 72 tonnes. They ran on two legs, or plodded on four. And along with these diverse body shapes, they would have produced an equally...

Meet Mosura fentoni, a bizarre 506-million-year-old “sea-moth” with three eyes, claws, and an abdomen full of gills. This ancient predator sheds light on arthropod evolution and reveals stunning internal anatomy from a fossil site like no other. Credit: Danielle Dufault, © ROM, edited A newly uncovered 506-million-year-old creature called Mosura fentoni is rewriting the story of early ocean life. With three eyes, tooth-lined jaws, and gill-lined abdominal segments, it’s a strange but telling fossil from the Burgess Shale. A New Predator Emerges From Deep Time Paleontologists from the Manitoba Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered an extraordinary...

Bilaterian animals such as arthropods and annelids have paired appendages and are among the most diverse animals today and in the geological past. They are often assumed to have appeared and radiated suddenly during the "Cambrian Explosion" about 541-510 million years ago, although it has long been suspected that their evolutionary ancestry was rooted in the Ediacaran Period. Until the current discovery, however, no fossil record of animal appendages had been found in the Ediacaran Period.Researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Palaeontology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Virginia Tech in the United States studied trackways and...

Tully Monster (Tullimonstrum) - is probably the weirdest animal that ever lived- the true story of the Illinois state fossil, how it was found and what it is.The Tully Monster was found not too far from Chicago, Illinois, in 1955, by fossil hunter Francis Tully. Its soft body was remarkably well preserved in the shale of Mazon Creek, near the coal pits of Braidwood, Illinois. But what is this weird creature? It lived 300 million years ago in the Carboniferous period, the age of ferns and coal, but did it leave any clues of what animals living today it resembles...

Art imitates life ... maybe.There’s something intriguing, even frightening, about the image of an ancient horned serpent roaming across the land. Thanks to some suggestive fossils and legends of old, talk of such a creature isn’t a new concept. But the recent discovery of 200-year-old rock paintings found in South Africa now has scientists hypothesizing that this ancient creature may have been far more than just a legend. The first formal scientific descriptions of this horned serpent—a supposed member of the dicynodont group—appeared in 1845. Considering the abundance of dicynodont fossils found in the Karoo Basin in South Africa, some...

Scientists have been wondering for years which dinosaur could run the fastest. Now, new simulation models are offering a fresh look at dinosaur speed. This renewed interest has roots in a major discovery from 1964, when paleontologist John Ostrom and his team uncovered Deinonychus—a dinosaur with a lightweight body, long claws, and strong legs. Its features challenged the long-held image of dinosaurs as sluggish reptiles and instead pointed to an active, fast-moving predator. This discovery helped launch what scientists call the “dinosaur renaissance,” a major shift in how experts understood dinosaur behavior. Instead of slow-moving reptiles, some dinosaurs began to...

A team of scientists will 'combine creative innovation, genomic engineering and advanced tissue engineering to start producing sustainable luxury materials from prehistoric species'. It builds on previous research which involved extracting a fragment of collagen from a T.Rex fossil, found in 1988 in Montana. It was one of the most complete specimens at the time of its discovery, and even contained preserved blood proteins. Now, experts will use this fragment to artificially recreate what a full-length T.Rex collagen sequence would have looked like. Once they have made sure it looks genetically similar to that of the T.Rex ancestors, they will...

A newly discovered fossil of a four-legged whale in Peru sheds new light on the evolution of whales and their journey across the oceans. ***************************************************************** A fascinating new discovery has been made off the coast of Peru, where paleontologists have unearthed the remains of a previously unknown four-legged whale species. This remarkable find, which was made about 42.6 million years ago during the middle Eocene, is shedding new light on the evolutionary transition of whales from land-dwelling mammals to the aquatic giants we recognize today. As reported in Current Biology, the whale species, named Peregocetus pacificus, was found in the...

After more than a decade of searching for evidence of the infamous British Bigfoot, an investigator claims to have found a print that was a terrifying 41cm from toe to heelAn investigator claims to have proof of the British Bigfoot. Lee Brickley found tracks and claw marks after a decade searching for the ape-like beast. The 33-year-old says the print was a terrifying 41cm from toe to heel – nearly twice the size of a man’s size eight. Lee knows people will think he is “mad” but he hopes to prove them wrong. He said: “When I show them the...

The earliest human footprint on record in the Americas wasn't found in Canada, the United States or even Mexico; it was found much farther south, in Chile, and it dates to an astonishing 15,600 years ago, a new study finds. The finding sheds light on when humans first reached the Americas, likely by traveling across the Bering Strait land bridge in the midst of the last ice age. This 10.2-inch-long (26 centimeters) print might even be evidence of pre-Clovis people in South America, the group that came before the Clovis, which are known for their distinctive spearheads, the researchers said.