fossils

A fossil assemblage preserved as carbonaceous films in Yunnan Province reveals more than 700 specimens of complex animals, including the oldest known deuterostomes, dating to 554-539 million years ago and closing a major gap between the Ediacaran period and the Cambrian explosion.

Spinosaurus mirabilis, the first new spinosaurid species in over a century, has been identified from fossils in Niger's Sahara, challenging the view that these predators were coastal.