Newly discovered / described fossil species 2021

Neoepiblema is a hystricognath most closely related to the pacarana, so "giant rat" is a misfit...

A human-sized rat would have been spectacular, but a human-sized neoepiblemid isn't. The largest species (of the genus Phoberomys) were buffalo- and bear-sized.

 

That it's true...

 

Fossil of 115-Million-Year-Old Bird Found in Brazil

Paleontologists working in Brazil have uncovered the fossil of an ornithuromorph bird that lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch.

Kaririavis mater lived in what is now Brazil some 115 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch).

“Kaririavis mater lived during the Cretaceous period, when the supercontinent Gondwana — which included the South America, Africa, Australia, Antarctica and India — was splitting,” said Dr. Ismar de Souza Carvalho, a paleontologist at the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro and the Universidade de Coimbra, and colleagues.

Fossil of 115-Million-Year-Old Bird Found in Brazil | Sci-News.com

 

Scientists discover monster marine reptile fossil with 'arsenal of teeth'

Kyhytysuka is a new species of ichthyosaur, and it had a hankering for large prey.

There's a new entry in the annals of marine animals with freaky teeth. An international team of researchers discovered a new species of ichthyosaur, a marine reptile that lived in the age of dinosaurs. The 130 million-year-old fossil skull is particularly notable for its spectacular chompers.

"Whereas other ichthyosaurs had small, equally sized teeth for feeding on small prey, this new species modified its tooth sizes and spacing to build an arsenal of teeth for dispatching large prey, like big fishes and other marine reptiles," Hans Larsson, director of the Redpath Museum, said in a McGill University statement on Monday.

The new species, which was found in central Colombia, is named Kyhytysuka sachicarum. Kyhytysuka comes from the indigenous Muisca language and translates to "the one that cuts with something sharp." The team published a study on the fossil this month in the Journal of Systemic Palaeontology.

McGill released an animation showing what the ichthyosaur might have looked like swimming about with its teeth out. It's not the sort of thing you would want to run into if you were a prey animal.

Monster marine reptile fossil shows off an 'arsenal of teeth' made for munching big prey

 

Scientists Identify New Feathered Velociraptor Relative

Scientists have identified a new feathered theropod dinosaur from Mongolia related to Velociraptor, a discovery that highlights the variety of dinosaur species in the Late Cretaceous.

The new species is named Kuru kulla and belongs to a group of theropods called dromaeosaurids, an important evolutionary link between dinosaurs and modern birds. The species, described in the journal American Museum Novitates, was named after the Tibetan Buddhist deity Kurukullā, which is associated with major life transitions.

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