Paleontology Content

Slimming Down a Colossal Fossil Whale

Andy Fell — February 29, 2024 - 2:23pm

A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists at 51�ԹϺ�� Davis and the Smithsonian Institution. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same weight range as modern whales and smaller than the largest blue whales ever recorded. The work is published Feb. 29 in PeerJ.

Molecular Fossils Shed Light on Ancient Life

Andy Fell — December 07, 2023 - 9:00am

Paleontologists are getting a glimpse at life over a billion years in the past based on chemical traces in ancient rocks and the genetics of living animals. Research published Dec. 1 in Nature Communications combines geology and genetics, showing how changes in the early Earth prompted a shift in how animals eat.

Geerat Vermeij Discusses New Book: The Evolution of Power: A New Understanding of the History of Life

Andy Fell — November 02, 2023 - 4:08pm

Geerat Vermeij wasn’t sure he had another book in him. The 77-year-old paleobiologist and Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Earth and Planetary Sciences already had six books and hundreds of academic publications to his name. But Vermeij, if anything, is a constant student and writing, for him, is still one of the best ways to learn.

Reanalysis Shows Dinosaurs Not So Warm-Blooded

Andy Fell — September 07, 2023 - 12:09pm

Modern birds and mammals are “warm-blooded” or endothermic, maintaining a constant body temperature and generating heat internally, while reptiles rely on heat from their surroundings. It has been known for some time that at least some dinosaurs, including the direct ancestors of modern birds, were also endotherms.

Investigating the Prehistoric Origins of Plant-Eating

Andy Fell — June 23, 2023 - 2:41pm

Few modern birds and reptiles feed exclusively on plants, except for energy-dense nuts and seeds. How did dinosaurs evolve to digest plants?

Ichthyosaur’s Last Meal Is Evidence of Triassic Megapredation

Andy Fell — August 20, 2020 - 7:53am

Some 240 million years ago, a dolphinlike ichthyosaur ripped to pieces and swallowed another marine reptile only a little smaller than itself. Then it almost immediately died and was fossilized, preserving the first evidence of megapredation, or a large animal preying on another large animal. The fossil, discovered in 2010 in southwestern China, is described in a paper published Aug. 20 in the journal iScience.

Researchers Describe New Reptile Platypus From the Early Triassic

Andy Fell — January 24, 2019 - 4:11pm

No animal alive today looks quite like a duck-billed platypus, a semi-aquatic, egg-laying mammal hailing from eastern Australia. But about 250 million years ago, something very similar swam the shallow seas in what is now China, finding prey by touch with a cartilaginous bill. The newly discovered marine reptile Eretmorhipis carrolldongi from the lower Triassic period is described in the journal Scientific Reports Jan. 24.

Marine Life Quickly Recovered After Global Mass Extinction

Andy Fell — June 13, 2016 - 11:35pm

Reptiles rapidly invaded the seas soon after a global extinction wiped out most life on Earth, according to a new study led by University of California, Davis, researchers.

New Fossil Changes Ideas About Marine Reptile Evolution

Andy Fell — May 23, 2016 - 11:00pm

A newly discovered fossil is changing ideas about the evolution of the dolphin-like ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs on land, and shows how quickly life rebounded from a catastrophic mass extinction 250 million years ago.