Case Vincent Miller Dr. Carolina Acosta Hospitaleche is over 3,000 kilometers (2,000 miles) away from home, on an island off the coast of Antarctica. She and her team have flown across the ocean to a research base, received supplies from a dedicated research logistics team, flown once more in a helicopter to their camp site, and assembled the tents and radio system that will be their lifeline in the event a storm hits. Now they are making the most of their time in the field, taking advantage of the relatively hospitable summer weather with the knowledge that any fossils left at the surface wi ..read more

Conrad Wilson  Megalodon (aka Otodus megalodon) has enjoyed a recent rise to fame. Even before its star turn, Megalodon was a standout. Almost all sharks are harmless – not Megalodon. With an estimated total length of 15-20 meters (already longer than a school bus) and vast jaws set with immense teeth, the prehistoric shark has the chops to take the lead in any creature feature. It first flirted with fame following the release of the notorious pseudo-documentary “Megalodon: The Monster Shark Lives” in 2013. But Megalodon truly swam into the mainstream in 2018 when it starred in the eponym ..read more

Mark Nikolic   Inspiration can come from anywhere, and for Steve May, a research associate at the University of Texas’ Jackson School of Geosciences, inspiration came in the form of a Buc-ee’s billboard. For those uninitiated (or those not from Texas), Buc-ee’s is a famous chain of gas stations and travel centers with a number of world records and an iconic, red-capped beaver mascot ..read more

BByBy Hannah BirdHannah Bird Symbiotic relationships, where two organisms closely co-exist, are usually considered beneficial for both parties. But when one takes advantage of the other, parasitism dominates. Remarkably, both of these relationships can be seen in the fossil record from millions of years ago ..read more

Hannah Bird Picture a face-off between a giant shark and small whale in the Miocene oceans 15 million years ago and you may think you know the ending. But fossil remains found in the Calvert Cliffs, Maryland, USA, reveal a different story – one of tenacity and survival ..read more

Hannah Bird Whilst indulging in a summer picnic or barbeque we may consider flies bothersome, but have you ever contemplated their evolution? Incredibly, many of their genera have astonishing longevity, establishing themselves in the Middle Triassic (247 to 237 million years ago) and with some living species existing for millions of years. There are 161 families of flies today, living in almost all environments on Earth. Perhaps it’s time to regard them a little more kindly and that is exactly what researchers from the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., and their collaborators, have d ..read more

Kerste Milik A giant, crocodile-like predator lurked in North American wetlands during the Late Triassic, dominating the food chain. But even this mighty creature, Smilosuchus gregorii, could not escape the threat of disease. “The natural world has always been harsh and unforgiving,” said Dr. Andrew Heckert, a paleontologist at Appalachian State University ..read more

Ben Hillesheim     It was a rough-skinned leviathan of biblical proportions. An epic fish tale to end all fish tales. A star of the silver screen. A true monster of the deep. Or was it? Despite megalodon (Otodus megalodon) being cemented in the popular imagination as the most massive shark of all time, a gargantuan set of jaws strapped onto a nuclear submarine, concrete details about the animal’s actual size are shrouded by the depths of time and poor preservation. Sharks, unlike bony fish and land-dwelling vertebrates, do not possess an ossified skeleton. Instead, shark bodies are s ..read more

Kerste Milik Fossil collecting is a rewarding and educational hobby enjoyed by people of all ages, but paleontologist opinions on amateur collecting are mixed. A new study in Palaeontologia Electronica highlights the invaluable contributions of amateur fossil collectors to vertebrate paleontology, providing recommendations to improve this essential collaborative relationship ..read more

Ben Hillesheim              Small creatures can often provide big insights into past worlds. A recent paper published in Palaeontologia Electronica describes ten fossil Odonata (dragonflies and their relatives) wings from the Oligocene palaeolake Enspel. These wings, along with several well-preserved naiads (larval dragonflies), help paint a picture of a vibrant,Figure 1. Nel et al. 2021 used the venation in wings such as these to identify different subgroups within Odonata. and buzzing, lost world in what is today southwestern Germany.   &nbs ..read more