The long-necked plesiosaurs that swam in oceans during the Jurassic Period frequently made detours into shallower river deltas to regurgitate indigestible portions of their meals. The evidence detailed in a study published today in the journal Geological Magazine isn’t for the squeamish. Paleontologists base their new theory on fossilized vomit similar to owl pellets. While owls famously regurgitate the indigestible bones and fur of their prey, other animals also routinely spit out unwanted leftovers. Many fur seals and marine crocodiles behave similarly; although their regular post-meal efforts require a bit more work. While an owl simply deposits pellets wherever they feel like it, these aquatic species first travel onto land before regurgitating. It now appears some of the planet’s most successful ocean predators engaged in the same digestive workarounds. Plesiosaurs belong to a family of marine reptiles that existed for over 140 million years between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous periods. Generally ranging between 6.5 and 43 feet in length, the species featured lengthy necks and sleek, flippered bodies. This anatomy allowed them to …

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. For the first time, paleontologists digging in the Australian Outback have discovered a fossilized food chain. The remains found inside of an ancient marine reptile chowing down on a flying dinosaur vividly illustrates this prehistoric predator-prey relationship in action. . But what goes around, comes around. As paleontologists explain in a study published in the journal Gondwana Research, the massive ichthyosaur who made a meal of the pterosaur soon became a snack for a gigantic apex predator that swam the inland Eromanga Sea over 100 million years ago. “It’s one of the clearest examples ever discovered of a three-tier predator interaction and offers an unprecedented snapshot of behaviour in Australia’s Cretaceous seas,” Dean Lomax, a paleontologist and reviewer of the new study, said …

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. The Changma Basin in northwest China’s Gansu province is famous for its many ancient bird fossils. Or, at least, pieces of fossils. Paleontologists have documented over 100 prehistoric avian dinosaur remains buried across the region, many resembling the digestive pellets regurgitated by owls living today. For years, researchers suspected that a similar predator was responsible for the fossil fragments, but lacked a convincing candidate. Experts now have a plausible suspect. According to a study published today in the Annals of Carnegie Museum, a cousin of the fearsome Velociraptor stalked the Changma Basin around 120 million years ago. But with its long feathers and four “wings,” Jian changmaensis didn’t ambush its prey from high in the air like a falcon. Instead, it more likely …

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Jellyfish are delicate, almost ghostly creatures. But under just the right circumstances, these spectral invertebrates can still tell stories long after their death. Not far from Quebec City, Canada marine paleontologists have discovered a new species of invertebrate that swayed in Paleozoic ocean currents over 450 million years ago. Paleocanna tentaculum may not look much like its living descendants, but according to a team of researchers writing in the Journal of Paleontology, the tubular polyp is more closely related to today’s jellyfish than its other ancient cousins. The geological record contains far more examples of vertebrate fossils than invertebrates, or animals without a backbone. Given how few invertebrate samples there are in the fossil record, the study’s authors were particularly excited to finally examine a collection of unique specimens housed at Montreal’s Musée de paléontologie et de l’évolution (MPE). The specimens were first uncovered during a 2010 dig at the Upper Neuville Formation in the Saint Lawrence Lowlands—about 31 …

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. There are quite a few animals considered “living fossils” in today’s world. Once thought extinct, the prehistoric coelacanth has continuously swam through Earth’s oceans since the time of the dinosaurs. Horseshoe crabs exist in fossil records dating back hundreds of millions of years. Even many sharks look virtually unchanged from their Cretaceous Era ancestors. But although Tanyka amnicola was last seen about 275 million years ago, it was already a living fossil in its own time. It was also an extremely strange creature. So strange, in fact, that paleontologists initially thought they were looking at an ancient aberration when they discovered the first jawbone of this salamander-esque creature in a dry riverbed near the Amazon rainforest in Brazil. “The jaw has this weird twist that drove us crazy trying to figure it out. We were scratching our heads over this for years, wondering if it was some kind of deformation,” recalled Jason Pardo, a paleontologist at Chicago’s Field Museum. …