ICP News
A paleohistological study provides evidence that this species attained maturity at the age of 15 years and had a minimum lifespan of 68 years. This dwarf elephant P. falconeri is an iconic example of how faunas evolve in islands. The research led by the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont…
The vertebral air cavities of large pterosaurs disclose key adaptations for flight
27 Sep 2021
242 times
A new study published in Scientific Reports by an international research team led by paleontologists from the Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo (Brazil), the Museu Nacional of the Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart (Germany), the Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de…
An international research team describes a new specimen of the mid-Cretaceous reptile genus Oculudentavis in an article published in Current Biology. Despite its bird-like appearance, comparative morphology and phylogenetic analyses prove that this genus was a lizard instead of a small avian dinosaur as it was thought when it was…
The evolutionary clues hidden in the inner ear, subject of Alessandro Urciuoli doctoral thesis
16 Apr 2021
332 times
Alessandro Urciuoli, researcher at the Paleoprimatology and Paleoanthropology Research Group of the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), defended his doctoral thesis on the usefulness of the semicircular canals morphology in the inner ear as a tool to establish phylogenetic relationships between catarrhine primates. His work has been supervised…
A new article published in Journal of Human Evolution led by researchers from the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP), the Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES-CERCA), and the Universitat Rovira i Virgili describes six 2,5 million-years-old fossil macaque teeth from the site of Guefaït (northeast…
An international team including researchers from the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) describes a new type of footprints for science in the Alta Val Maira (western Alps, Italy). The tracks were made by a large reptile that lived in this area about 250 million years ago, when the…
A PNAS study led by the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP) analyzed the kinship between two Miocene great apes (Hispanopithecus and Rudapithecus) based on the morphology of their inner ear semicircular canals. This anatomical structure has revealed to be very informative in reconstructing phylogenetic relationships between fossil primate…
Changes in the diet of the ruminant Micromeryx, an extinct musk deer that inhabited the same areas as hominoids and pliopithecoids during the Miocene, reveal that these extinct primates lived in different habitats in Catalonia as a result of their different food preferences and locomotion behaviors. Changes in vegetation due…
A new Nature study reveals that lagerpetids —an ancient group of small reptiles that lived about 237-210 million years ago— are more closely related to pterosaurs (flying reptiles) than any other known group in the animal kingdom. The recent discovery of lagerpetid skull, mandible and forelimb remains from America and…
Earliest example of a rapid-fire tongue found in rare extinct amphibians preserved in amber
05 Nov 2020
944 times
A new Science study shows that albanerpetontids, a group of rare extinct amphibians that lived more than 100 million years ago, were sit-and-wait hunters that snatched preys with a projectile firing of their tongue. A set of fossils from modern-day Myanmar preserved in amber represent the new species Yaksha perettii…
