A very cool study using #clumped #isotope measurements in #oyster shells from the Early #Cretaceous showing high and variable #seasonality in response to climate changes caused by atmospheric #CO2 shifts. #mollusk shells again demonstrated as useful climate archives!
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adr9417

#isotope enabled #climate #modelling brings reconstructions and models together more closely for the Late #Cretaceous, a warm period with high #greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere (and dinosaurs!)
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2024PA005002

Fossil of a new #mammal species from the age of #dinosaurs discovered in #Mongolia's Gobi desert
https://phys.org/news/2025-04-fossil-mammal-species-age-dinosaurs.html

New Late #Cretaceous zhelestid mammal from the Bayanshiree Formation, Mongolia https://www.app.pan.pl/article/item/app012132024.html

"The suggested age corresponds to the early spread of flowering plants in terrestrial ecosystems. The robust nature of the molars resembles those of seed- and fruit-eating #mammals"

Introducing Duonychus tsogtbaatari https://paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2025/03/31/introducing-duonychus-tsogtbaatari/ #Cretaceous, #DinosaurEvolution, #EarthScience, #Mongolia, #Palaeobiology, #Therizinosauria

Footprints of tail-clubbed armored #dinosaurs found for the first time https://phys.org/news/2025-04-footprints-tail-clubbed-armored-dinosaurs.html paper by Victoria Arbour et al.: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02724634.2025.2451319

"The tracks date back to the middle of the #Cretaceous period, about 100 to 94 million years ago. No bones from #ankylosaurids have been found in North America from about 100 to 84 million years ago... These footprints show that tail-clubbed ankylosaurs were alive and well in North America during this gap in the skeletal fossil record."

Pretty cool exploring the use of #spinosaurus ( #dinosaur) #tooth dentine to reconstruct paleo #hydrology in the Late #Cretaceous

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018225001932

My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...

The 2022 Korean translation of Locked in Time (by Dr Dean Lomax - Palaeontologist & published by Columbia University Press) commissioned me to colourise my 50 greyscale illustrations. "Our Refuge and Tomb" shows multiple species of fish living in and around enormous clams (Platyceramus platinus).

Microraptor eats A.I and supports artists.

Microraptor, a small theropod in the Dromaeosauridae family of feathered, generally carnivorous theropods, lived in the Cretaceous, more precisely in the Lower Cretaceous. #paleoart #drawing #dinosaur #microraptor #theropods #cretaceous #art #artist #antiai

#Mammals were adapting from life in the trees to living on the ground before dinosaur-killing asteroid https://phys.org/news/2025-04-mammals-life-trees-ground-dinosaur.html

Down to earth: therian mammals became more terrestrial towards the end of the Cretaceous https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pala.70004

"plant life changed toward the end of the #Cretaceous, with flowering #plants creating more diverse habitats on the ground... The vegetational habitat was more important for the course of Cretaceous mammalian #evolution than any influence from #dinosaurs"

"Something much worse than asteroids" is hype: the late-#Devonian and end-#Ordovician were less severe that the end-#Cretaceous, which was definitely† caused by an #asteroid. But this is good work that may help nail down the cause of the earlier #extinctions ... which were still pretty bad!

†Yes.

https://www.earth.com/news/at-least-two-of-earths-mass-extinctions-caused-by-massive-supernova-explosions/

Deep-sea fish study reveals evolutionary marvels in Earth's hadal zone https://phys.org/news/2025-03-deep-sea-fish-reveals-evolutionary.html

#Evolution and genetic adaptation of fishes to the deep sea https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0092867425000315

"they confirmed a century-old hypothesis about deep-sea #fish evolution involving two distinct pathways. 'Ancient survivors' colonized the deep sea before the #Cretaceous mass #extinction, while 'new immigrants' account for the majority of modern #DeepSea species that emerged after the #MassExtinction."

#idw Earth's Orbital Rhythms Link Timing of Giant #Eruptions and #ClimateChange

An international team of scientists has synchronized key #climate records from the #Atlantic and #Pacific Oceans to unravel the sequence of events during the last million years before the extinction of the #dinosaurs at the #Cretaceous/#Paleogene boundary. https://idw-online.de/en/news848593

German: https://idw-online.de/de/news848592

#WeekendReading: Rivas et al., on an Early #Cretaceous volcaniclastic–carbonate ramp in southern Chile. An interesting aperture into the Cretaceous temperate #carbonates (lots of #oysters) and their interactions in #volcanoes
I constantly find myself comparing and contrasting with these Late Cretaceous volcanic #atolls I worked on.
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10347-023-00669-4

Photoblog: In the accompanying photoblog, Yuhui Zhuang talks about his new study and shares some pictures. #amber #male #castes #Cretaceous

https://blog.myrmecologicalnews.org/2025/02/25/ancient-ant-colony-and-male-fossil-unveil-evolutionary-secrets-in-99-million-year-old-amber/

This new study turns over a new leaf in the #fossil record of the #Cretaceous of Northern Asia! Explore the morphological diversity and distribution of the #Menispermites, a genus of fossil leaves comprised of many short-lived species with limited ranges.

Image: Figure 5 from the paper. Several species of the genus Menispermites from Northern Asia

Authors: Anastasia A Zolina, Lina B Golovneva, and Alexander A Grabovskiy

Full #OpenAccess Paper:
https://doi.org/10.26879/1441

Last week, I took my son to explore some old quarries in the area. In one of them, we came across these Cretaceous oysters Rhynchostreon suborbiculatum.

Not being a paleontologist, I had to identify them later through online research (hopefully correctly!). And to my surprise, I found a 2024 paper describing this very site. But the biggest surprise? The author is my friend and former classmate!

Rantuch (2024): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2023.105747

19-Feb-2025
New Australian #dinosaurs and the oldest megaraptorid #fossils in the world
Australia’s first #carcharodontosaur fossils unearthed along Victoria’s #Cretaceous coast

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1074172 #science #evolution #paleontology

Paleontologists Find World’s Oldest Known Megaraptorid, Australia’s First Carcharodontosaur Fossils https://www.byteseu.com/760096/ #Australia #Carcharodontosauria #Cretaceous #Dinosaur #EumerallaFormation #Fossil #Gondwana #Megaraptoridae #StrzeleckiGroup #Theropod #Victoria

Cretaceous #fossil from #Antarctica reveals earliest modern bird
https://phys.org/news/2025-02-cretaceous-fossil-antarctica-reveals-earliest.html

#Cretaceous Antarctic bird skull elucidates early avian ecological diversity https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-08390-0

"Few #birds are as likely to start as many arguments among #paleontologists as #Vegavis. This new fossil is going to help resolve a lot of those arguments. Chief among them: where is Vegavis perched in the bird tree of life?"

#NewSpecies of Ornithomimidae #dinosaurs identified in Mexico https://phys.org/news/2025-02-genus-species-ornithomimidae-dinosaur-family.html

A long-handed new ornithomimid dinosaur from the #Campanian (Upper #Cretaceous) Cerro del Pueblo Formation, Coahuila, #Mexico: Claudia Inés Serrano-Brañas et al. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0195667125000102

"it had long hands with a palm longer than its entire upper arm... their purpose was to allow the #dinosaur to reach into shrubs, trees or bushes to pull branches, twigs into its mouth"