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4Paleontology is a focused search engine and resource hub for anyone working with or interested in paleontology. We combine multiple indexes, institutional catalogs, curated vendor lists, and AI tools to surface literature, specimen records, field guides, and news that general search engines often miss. Use the site to search research papers, museum collections, field methods, fossil sellers with provenance data, and educational resources. Our team includes search architects, experienced users, and paleontology specialists who help tune relevance for scientific and field needs. Part of the 4SEARCH network of topic specific search engines.
Latest Articles
Only known woolly dog pelt returns to B.C. after more than 160 years
21+ min ago (294+ words) VANCOUVER — The only known pelt of an extinct woolly dog, a species raised for its thick coat by Coast Salish and Makah peoples, has returned to British Columbia for the first time. The pelt that belonged to Mutton, a canine…...
Biologists Were Wrong About the “American Cheetah” According to New Genetic Findings
2+ hour, 35+ min ago (530+ words) The extinct American cheetah wasn’t a true cheetah at all, say biologists in new research overturning our previous understanding of the legendary predator, revealing a cautionary tale about superficial scientific interpretations. In a recent paper published in Current Biology, a…...
Giant new dinosaur discovered beneath construction site in Brazil
2+ hour, 49+ min ago (507+ words) Scientists have identified a giant new dinosaur from Brazil that reached about 20 meters long and lived 120 million years ago. Its surprising evolutionary ties to a Spanish dinosaur suggest its ancestors crossed ancient land connections between Europe, Africa, and South America....
The American “cheetah” wasn’t a cheetah at all
3+ hour, 33+ min ago (109+ words) The extinct “American cheetah” was not really a cheetah at all, but a puma relative with an unexpectedly flexible lifestyle. Fossils from the Yukon suggest northern populations survived partly by eating fish, possibly including salmon, while southern cats hunted on…...
ETSU study rewrites history of ancient marine mammal
3+ hour, 27+ min ago (470+ words) A fossil unearthed more than three decades ago is helping rewrite the history of one of the North Pacific’s most unusual marine mammals. East Tennessee State University’s Dr. Kumiko Matsui led a research team that reexamined an arm bone fossil…...
Prehistoric rivals discover the power of compassion in "The Good Pliosaur"
4+ hour, 11+ min ago (253+ words) Sep 08, 2026, 07:21 ET Spencer Patterson's children's book uses an underwater rescue to challenge prejudice and encourage kindness SILOAM SPRINGS, Ark., Sept. 8, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Author and educator Spencer Patterson uses an underwater conflict between two groups of prehistoric marine reptiles to introduce young…...
Michigan Farmer Unearths a 15,000-Year-Old Mammoth While Digging a Drainage Trench in His Soybean Field
5+ hour, 25+ min ago (779+ words) Nothing about the job suggested that the day would end with a prehistoric discovery. In a soybean field in Michigan, a farmer was digging a trench to install a new drainage pipe when his backhoe suddenly struck something that did…...
Rare hide from extinct wooly dog bred by B.C. First Nations is on display
5+ hour, 2+ min ago (943+ words) Museum of Anthropology curator Jordan Wilson stands next to the only known woolly dog pelt in existence, which is temporarily on display for a year at the in Vancouver, British Columbia. Woolly dogs, whose fur was used for weaving but…...
The World's Oldest 'Octopus' Fossil Wasn't An Octopus At All
5+ hour, 30+ min ago (267+ words) Research led by Dr Thomas Clements (University of Reading) A reconstruction drawing of Pohlsepia mazonensis (Credit: Dr Thomas Clements, University of Reading) This reclassification, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, strips the fossil of its identity and removes…...
A fossil pincer more than 159 millimetres long has been identified as a scorpion's, after a century in which the animal was most often filed among the crustaceans, and the scorpion reading was still being rejected in 2024
5+ hour, 32+ min ago (690+ words) Announcements from Manchester and the Natural History Museum call Praearcturus gigas the largest scorpion ever to exist, about a metre long. The revision they are announcing states no total body length for it, and no specimen preserves a sting. By…...