Vertebrate Paleontology News

  • 52-Million-Year-Old Fossils From High Arctic Show Near Primates Were Cool with Colder Climate

    LAWRENCE — Two sister species of near-primate, called “primatomorphans,” dating back about 52 million years have been identified by researchers at the University of Kansas as the oldest to have dwelled north of the Arctic Circle. The findings appear today in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE. According to lead author…

  • Researchers Detail the Most Ancient Bat Fossil Ever Discovered in Asia

    A new paper appearing in Biology Letters describes the oldest-known fragmentary bat fossils from Asia, pushing back the evolutionary record for bats on that continent to the dawn of the Eocene and boosting the possibility that the bat family’s “mysterious” origins someday might be traced to Asia. A team based at the…

  • Stunning discovery offers glimpse of minutes following 'dinosaur-killer' Chicxulub impact

    [Video] No Audio. Slow zoom out at Tanis site. A study to be published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences offers a scientific first: a detailed snapshot of the terrible moments right after the Chicxulub impact — the most cataclysmic event known to have befallen life on Earth. At a site called…