Jian changmaensis is the first non-avian dinosaur found at a paleontological site that has yielded more than 100 specimens of Early Cretaceous birds. Jian changmaensis (left) attacks the early bird Gansus yumenensis (right) in what is now the Changma Basin of northwestern China approximately 120 million years ago. Image credit: Lewis LaRosa / Jão Canola….
Named Plumadraco bankoorum, the newly-described species of enantiornithine bird lived in what is now northeastern China during the Cretaceous period, roughly 121 million years ago. Plumadraco bankoorum is a new bohaiornithid enantiornithine bird with a pair of exceptionally long rectrices. Image credit: Ville Sinkkonen. Plumadraco bankoorum belonged to the enantiornithines, the most diverse clade of…
A new genus and species of massopodan sauropodomorph that lived during the Early Jurassic epoch has been identified from a partial skeleton unearthed in southwestern China. Named Xiangyunloong fengming, this dinosaur bridges a critical gap between early plant-eaters and the colossal four-legged sauropods that would later dominate the Mesozoic world. An artist’s impression of Xiangyunloong…
This story was originally posted on MyNorthwest.com Nearly two decades after skeletal remains washed ashore on a Washington beach, the remains have been identified as Clarence Edwin Asher, a former Oregon mayor. Asher was briefly the mayor of Fossil, Oregon for an unspecified period of time, in addition to working as a lineman technician for…
Wudingloong wui lived in what is now Yunnan, China, around 200 million years ago (Early Jurassic epoch). Reconstructed skeleton and representative bones of Wudingloong wui. Individual scale bars – 5 cm. Scale bar of the reconstructed skeleton – 50 cm. Image credit: Wang et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-12185-2. Wudingloong wui was a small- to medium-sized non-sauropodan…
Paleontologists in China have discovered the skeletal remains of a remarkable new genus and species of huge-sized mamenchisaurid dinosaur from the Late Jurassic epoch. Fossil remains of Tongnanlong zhimingi. Image credit: Wei et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-09796-0. The newly-described species lived in what is now southwestern China some 147 million years ago (Late Jurassic epoch). Scientifically…