Researchers* have recently published in the online edition of the journalCretaceous Research the discovery and description of a turtle from the end of the age of dinosaurs.They have named this new species as Polysternon isonae, in recognition of the municipality of Isona I Conca Dellà (Catalonia, Spain), where the fossil remains of the specimen type have been […]

Geological Society of America Special Paper 474, June 2011, “Geobiological opportunities to learn at U.S.  Fossil Parks” by Renee Clary, of Mississippi State University, and James Wandersee, of Louisiana State University, evaluated   seven fossil parks and the Penn Dixie Paleontological and Outdoor Education Center in Hamburg, NY was ranked No. 1.  This fossil site contains various marine invertebrate fossils […]

Researchers at Drexel University are bringing the latest technological advancements in 3-D printing to the study of ancient life. Using scale models of real fossils, for the first time, they will be able to test hypotheses about how dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals moved and lived in their environments. “Technology in paleontology hasn’t changed in […]

  Spyroceras is a Devonian genus of orthocerid cephalopod recorded from Europe and North America.Characters (from Sweet 1964): Annulated orthocones with straight transverse sutures, transverse or slightly oblique surface annulations, and faintly cyrtoconic apices. Surface variously ornamented, longitudinal lirae conspicuous from earliest stage. Siphuncle central or slightly ventral; siphuncle orthochoanitic with forward-growing endosiphuncular annuli; in mature segments, […]

Late last month, researchers in South Africa uncovered the earliest known dinosaur-nesting site. The site dates back 190 million years, according to research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS). According to the Jan. 22 issue of PNAS, the discovery was made within the fossil-rich Gate Highlands National Park, located in Free […]

Two Canadian scientists have completed a comprehensive portrait of the lush, rainforest-like ecosystem — populated by prehistoric creatures akin to alligators, hippos and flying lemurs — that prevailed some 40 million years ago in what is now Canada’s northernmost landmass: Ellesmere Island. The study of hundreds of fossilized species, published in the latest issue of […]

New research reveals how the arrival of the first plants 470 million years ago triggered a series of ice ages. Led by the Universities of Exeter and Oxford, the study is published in Nature Geoscience. The team set out to identify the effects that the first land plants had on the climate during the Ordovician Period, […]