2026 in paleontology

Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils . ^[1] This includes the study of body fossils, tracks ( ichnites ), burrows , cast-off parts, fossilised feces ( coprolites ), palynomorphs and chemical residues . Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science . This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 2026.

Flora

Plants

Main article: 2026 in paleobotany

Fungi

Newly named fungi

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Papulosporonites canadensis [2]	Comb. nov		(Srivastava)	Late Cretaceous (Campanian-Maastrichtian)		Canada United States	Fungal spores; moved from Palambages canadiana Srivastava (1968).
Papulosporonites polycellularis [2]	Comb. nov		(Takahashi & Shimono)	Probably Pleistocene		Japan	Fungal spores; moved from Palambages polycellularis Takahashi & Shimono (1980).
Parolactarius [3]	Gen. et sp. nov		Lin et al.	Cretaceous	Kachin amber	Myanmar	A fungus with probable affinities with the family Russulaceae. Genus includes new species P. pilosus.
Polyadosporites colonicus [2]	Comb. nov		(Trivedi & Verma)	Eocene		Malaysia	Fungal spores; moved from Palambages colonicus Trivedi & Verma (1969).

Cnidarians

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Macgeea myallensis [4]	Sp. nov		Wright & McLean	Devonian	Cara Formation	Australia	A rugose coral belonging to the family Phillipsastreidae.

Arthropods

Main articles: 2026 in arthropod paleontology and 2026 in paleoentomology

Bryozoans

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Gramipora [5]	Gen. et sp. nov	Valid	Håkansson et al.	Miocene	Gram Formation	Denmark	A cheilostome bryozoan of uncertain affinities. The type species is G. laxevincta.
Reussirella germinatio [5]	Sp. nov	Valid	Håkansson et al.	Miocene	Gram Formation	Denmark	A cheilostome bryozoan belonging to the family Cupuladriidae.

Molluscs

Main article: 2026 in paleomalacology

Echinoderms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Metopaster boudinus [6]	Sp. nov	Valid	Villier et al.	Late Cretaceous		France	A starfish.
Metopaster boutillieri [6]	Sp. nov	Valid	Villier et al.	Late Cretaceous		France	A starfish.
Metopaster brebis [6]	Sp. nov	Valid	Villier et al.	Late Cretaceous		France	A starfish.
Metopaster fa [6]	Sp. nov	Valid	Villier et al.	Late Cretaceous		France	A starfish.
Metopaster glarea [6]	Sp. nov	Valid	Villier et al.	Late Cretaceous		France	A starfish.
Metopaster sandalina [6]	Sp. nov	Valid	Villier et al.	Late Cretaceous		France	A starfish.

Conodonts

Conodont research

• Goudemez et al. (2026) report evidence of covariation between the increase of sharpness of the blade and the reduction of the platform in the P₁ element of the feeding apparatus of members of the genus Palmatolepis throughout the Famennian, likely related to increase in food processing abilities, and report possible evidence of trophic partitioning between juvenile and adult individuals of P. gracilis. ^[7]

Fish

Main article: 2026 in paleoichthyology

Amphibians

Amphibian research

• Description of the morphology of the postcranial skeleton of Gerrothorax pulcherrimus and its changes during the ontogeny of the animal is published by Witzmann & Schoch (2026). ^[8]
• Syromyatnikova (2026) describes the anatomy of the skull of Mioproteus wezei on the basis of new fossil material from the Pliocene strata from North Caucasus (Russia). ^[9]
• Hiotis, Reed & Sherratt (2026) identify Late Pleistocene frog fossils from the Naracoorte Caves World Heritage Area (Australia) on the basis of the study of their ilial morphology. ^[10]

Reptiles

Main articles: 2026 in reptile paleontology and 2026 in archosaur paleontology

Synapsids

Non-mammalian synapsids

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Njalila [11]	Gen. et comb. nov	Valid	Gebauer & Maisch	Permian	Usili Formation	Tanzania	A gorgonopsian; a new genus for "Dixeya" nasuta Huene (1950) .

Mammals

Main article: 2026 in paleomammalogy

Other animals

Other animal research

• Rossi et al. (2026) reconstruct the evolutionary history of sponges on the basis of a phylogeny recovered from phylogenomic analyses and molecular clock analyses constraining the age of 12 major sponge clades on the basis of the fossil record, and interpret their findings as indicative of an Ediacaran origin of sponges, as well as indicating that the ancestral sponges were not biomineralized and lacked spicules, and that biosilicification and biocalcification evolved independently in multiple sponge lineages. ^[12]
• Vinn et al. (2026) report the discovery of possible remains of a lophophore in specimens of Cornulites from the Silurian Kaochiapien Formation (Hubei, China), supporting the classification of cornulitids as lophophorates. ^[13]

Foraminifera

Foraminiferal research

• Cózar, Somerville & Hounslow (2026) revise the phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of earliest members of Fusulinida, and consider fusulinids to be more likely a polyphyletic group than a monophyletic one. ^[14]

Other organisms

Name	Novelty	Status	Authors	Age	Type locality	Country	Notes	Images
Kamounia [15]	Gen. et sp. nov		Strullu-Derrien in Strullu-Derrien et al.	Carboniferous		France	A possible member of Peronosporomycetes. The type species is K. striata.

Research on other organisms

• Zhao et al. (2026) link the displacement of green eukaryotic algae by phytoplankton groups whose plastids are derived from rhodophytes as the dominant marine phytoplankton in the early Mesozoic to structural characteristics of red lineage phytoplankton that enhanced their resistance to environmental reactive oxygen species. ^[16]

History of life in general

• Zhang (2026) presents a new hypothesis on causes of the rise of organismal complexity that made the Cambrian radiation possible in favorable environmental conditions, linking it to predator–prey interactions among unicellular holozoans that drove genomic novelty, and to motility acting as an evolutionary filter, with high-motility forms retaining unicellularity and low-motility ones ultimately evolving multicellularity. ^[17]
• Wang et al. (2026) report the discovery of a new assemblage of late Ediacaran organisms (the Dongpo biota) from the Dongpo Formation (China), expanding known geographic distribution of the Ediacaran macrofossils. ^[18]
• Malanoski et al. (2026) report evidence from the study of the fossil record of shallow-marine taxa, indicating that throughout the Phanerozoic taxa with geographical distribution allowing easier access to north-south dispersal pathways were more resilient compared to taxa living along east-west–oriented coastlines, islands or inland seaways. ^[19]
• Calábková, Březina & Nádaskay (2026) study the composition of a diverse assemblage of tetrapod trace fossils from the Carboniferous (Gzhelian) Semily Formation (Czech Republic). ^[20]
• Liu et al. (2026) compare the recovery of ostracods, brachiopods and ammonites in the aftermath of the Permian–Triassic extinction event, and find that brachiopods and ammonites refilled the vacated morphospace with limited innovation, while ostracods underwent a adaptive radiation, expanding morphospace and ecological niches. ^[21]
• Rosin et al. (2026) study the composition of the palynomorph assemblages from the Westbury, Lilstock and Redcar Mudstone formations in the Cheshire Basin (United Kingdom), recording changes of composition of vegetation and aquatic microorganism assemblages in response to environmental changes during the latest Triassic and Early Jurassic. ^[22]
• Fiorelli et al. (2026) report discovery of well-preserved fossil material of diverse Late Cretaceous microorganisms encrusted in microbialites from paleogeysers and hot springs from the Sanagasta GeoPark (La Rioja, Argentina). ^[23]
• Pillay et al. (2026) conduct a survey of ancient DNA from subfossil remains from Nuku Hiva (French Polynesia), identify a wide range of vertebrate taxa on the basis of bulk bone metabarcoding, and report the identification of remains of three seabird taxa new to the archaeological record of the Marquesas Islands. ^[24]

Other research

• Evidence from the study of zinc isotope data from the Chattanooga Shale (Tennessee, United States), linking marine euxinia during the Late Devonian mass extinctions to increased marine productivity, is presented by Li et al. (2026). ^[25]
• Barrenechea et al. (2026) report evidence of higher content of aluminium phosphate–sulphate minerals in the Lower Triassic strata from the equatorial areas compared to strata from higher latitudes, indicative of prolonged or recurrent acidic episodes continental basins near the equator during the Early Triassic, and interpret the acidity conditions in continental environments as contributing to the Smithian–Spathian boundary event and moderated the recovery after the Permian–Triassic extinction event. ^[26]
• Ruciński et al. (2026) provide new information on the sedimentology, stratigraphy and taphonomy of the Upper Triassic Silves Marl-Carbonate Evaporitic Complex in the upper portion of the Silves Group (Portugal), and report the identification of new fossil-bearing layers yielding vertebrate fossil material. ^[27]
• Chen et al. (2026) report evidence from chemostratigraphic and astrochronological analysis of a drill core from the Kunming Basin (Yunnan, China) indicative of negative carbon isotope excursions mirroring disturbances in the global carbon cycle during the Triassic-Jurassic transition, and indicative impact of both Central Atlantic magmatic province and regional factors on environmental disruption on the studied area at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary; the authors also determine the oldest sauropodomorph dinosaur fossils from the Kunming Basin to be 200.17-million-years-old, and interpret this result as evidence of colonization of low palaeolatitude area of southwest China by medium- to large-bodied dinosaurs in the aftermath of the Triassic–Jurassic extinction. ^[28]
• Evidence from the study of sediments and trace fossils from the Lower Cretaceous Três Barras Formation (Sanfranciscana Basin, Brazil), indicative of marine incursions during the Early Cretaceous that were long enough to support benthic colonization of the substrate in probable estuarine setting, is presented by Sedorko (2026). ^[29]
• Buryak et al. (2026) study two exploration drill cores from the Wombat pipe locality in the Lac de Gras kimberlite field (Northwest Territories, Canada), providing information on the climate and environment in the subarctic Canada during the Late Cretaceous, and interpret the sedimentary organic matter from the studied drill cores as derived from C₃ land plants and, to a lesser degree, algae. ^[30]
• Evidence from the study of the fossil record of Cenozoic foraminifera, Cretaceous echinoids, Carboniferous crinoids and Cambrian trilobites using a birth–death-sampling model, indicating that long-lived ancestral species that gave rise to many descendant species over the course of their existence should be common in the fossil record of groups with high levels of preservation, is presented by Parins-Fukuchi (2026). ^[31]
• Chiappone et al. (2026) determine factors influencing transport of bones in unsteady flows, including their travel distance and transport groups, on the basis of experiments with bones of modern sheep and models of bones of Eolambia caroljonesa and Edmontosaurus regalis . ^[32]
• Siviero et al. (2026) report evidence from the study of bones of Edmontosaurus annectens from the Cretaceous Lance Formation (Wyoming, United States) indicating that fossil bone abnormalities resulting from postmortem taphonomic processes can be superficially similar to pathologies resulting from disease, and recommend testing diagnoses based on purported fossil bone pathologies with histological analysis. ^[33]

Paleoclimate

• Myrow, Hu & Lamb (2026) report evidence from the study of storm deposits from the Fountain and Minturn formations (Colorado, United States) indicative of large waves and large cyclonic storms irreconcilable with climate reconstructions suggestive of cold equatorial climate during the middle Pennsylvanian. ^[34]

References

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11. Gebauer, E. V. I.; Maisch, M. W. (2026). "Njalila gen. nov. (Therapsida. Gorgonopsia): a new genus for Dixeya nasuta v. Huene, 1950 from the Late Permian Usili Formation of the Ruhuhu Basin, SW Tanzania". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Abhandlungen. doi:10.1127/njgpa/1296.
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16. Zhao, Y.; Tong, M.; Tian, L.; Luo, G.; Li, P.; Song, H.; Chen, Z.; Xie, S.; Kappler, A.; Yuan, S. (2026). "Reactive oxygen species drove red lineage phytoplankton to displace green lineage phytoplankton during the Mesozoic". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 123 (2) e2521306123. doi:10.1073/pnas.2521306123. PMC  12799162. PMID   41512038.
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18. Wang, X.; Zhang, X.; Dai, T.; Liu, W.; Zhang, Y.; Li, L. (2026). "New occurrence of a postglacial Ediacaran macrofossil assemblage from North China and its evolutionary implication". Precambrian Research. 434 107992. doi:10.1016/j.precamres.2025.107992.
19. Malanoski, C. M.; Finnegan, S.; Huang, E. C.; Blake, L.; Mac Niocaill, C.; Saupe, E. E. (2026). "Paleogeography modulates marine extinction risk throughout the Phanerozoic". Science. 391 (6782): 285–289. doi:10.1126/science.adv2627. PMID   41538453.
20. Calábková, G.; Březina, J.; Nádaskay, R. (2026). "A highly diverse Pennsylvanian tetrapod ichnoassemblage from the Semily Formation (Krkonoše Piedmont Basin, Czechia)". PeerJ. 14 e20437. doi: 10.7717/peerj.20437 . PMC   12794637 . PMID   41531824.
21. Liu, X.; Song, H.; Chu, D.; Dai, X.; Tian, L.; Wu, Y.; Wang, F.; Silvestro, D. (2026). "Multiple paths to recovery after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction". Current Biology. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2025.11.065. PMID   41512851.
22. Rosin, J. C. F.; van de Schootbrugge, B.; Hesselbo, S. P.; Vandenbroucke, T. R. A. (2026). "Organic-walled microphytoplankton from the West Midlands, England, following the end-Triassic mass extinction: palynological evidence from the Prees 2 borehole, Cheshire Basin". Geological Magazine. 163 e1. doi: 10.1017/S0016756825100459 .
23. Fiorelli, L. E.; Wunderlin, C. A.; Torréns, J.; Amelotti, I.; Rothen, C.; Vazquez Sano, M.; Perez Loinaze, V. S.; Vera, E. I.; Cafieri, J.; Hechenleitner, E. M.; Grellet-Tinner, G. (2026). "The discovery and description of an extremophile microcosmos in a Cretaceous paleogeothermal field". Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 13 1678418. doi: 10.3389/fevo.2025.1678418 .
24. Pillay, P.; dos Remedios, N.; Pearman, W. S.; Santure, A. W.; Allen, M. S. (2026). "Bones, barcodes, and biodiversity: Optimising bulk bone metabarcoding analysis for tropical subfossil collections from Polynesia". Quaternary International. 758 110099. doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2025.110099.
25. Li, Z.; Qiu, R.; Algeo, T. J.; Zhao, M.; Chen, T.; Song, Y.; Gilleaudeau, G. J.; Xing, Y.; Huang, F.; Luo, G.; Xie, S. (2026). "Rising productivity drove marine euxinia during the Late Devonian mass extinctions". Geology. doi:10.1130/G54182.1.
26. Barrenechea, J. F.; Borruel-Abadía, V.; Galán-Abellán, A. B.; López-Gómez, J.; Esterle, J.; McCann, T.; de la Horra, R.; Ronchi, A.; Gianolla, P.; Luque, F. J.; Rossi, V. M.; Paterson, N.; Smith, R. M. H.; Wolvaardt, D.; Brookfield, M. E.; Bourquin, S.; Ubide, T. (2026). "Latitude affects continental acidity in the Smithian–Spathian boundary biotic crisis". Geological Magazine. 163 e2. doi: 10.1017/S0016756825100472 .
27. Ruciński, M.; Ezquerro Ruiz, L.; Campos, H.; Mateus, O.; Fernandes, P.; Vilas-Boas, M.; El Atfy, H.; Werneburg, I. (2026). "Palaeoenvironments, stratigraphy and taphonomy of an Upper Triassic vertebrate-bearing unit, Silves Group, central Algarve, southern Portugal". Lethaia. 59 (3): 1–31. doi: 10.18261/let.59.3.3 .
28. Chen, J.; Niu, Y.-N.; Ma, R.; Zhou, Y.-L.; Liu, W.-J.; Wang, Y.-M.; You, H.-L.; Xu, X.; Shen, S.-Z.; Feng, Z. (2026). "Triassic–Jurassic environmental instability on the subtropical eastern Tethyan margin linked to low-latitude dinosaur dispersal". Communications Earth & Environment. doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-03083-6 .
29. Sedorko, D. (2026). "Marine incursion in the Lower Cretaceous Sanfranciscana Basin evidenced by ichnological data". Cretaceous Research 106312. doi: 10.1016/j.cretres.2026.106312 .
30. Buryak, S. D.; Reyes, A.; Siver, P. A.; Li, L.; Jensen, B. J. L.; Furlong, C. M.; Mckeown, N. K. (2026). "Paleoenvironmental analysis of the Late Cretaceous Wombat kimberlite maar sediments, subarctic Canada: implications from geochemical and microfossil data". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. doi:10.1139/cjes-2025-0075.
31. Parins-Fukuchi, T. (2026). ""Super-progenitor" species and the distribution of sampled descendants". Paleobiology: 1–12. doi: 10.1017/pab.2025.10083 .
32. Chiappone, M.; Guala, M.; Rogers, R.; Makovicky, P. (2026). "When the levee breaks: experimentally testing dinosaur and mammal bone transport in unsteady flows". Paleobiology: 1–16. doi: 10.1017/pab.2025.10087 .
33. Siviero, B. C. T.; Rega, E.; Nick, K. E.; Chadwick, A. V. (2026). "Analysis of pseudopathologies in Edmontosaurus annectens bones: taphonomic implications from biogenetic and diagenetic bone alterations from a Cretaceous bonebed in the Lance Formation, Wyoming". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology e2600392. doi: 10.1080/02724634.2025.2600392 .
34. Myrow, P. M.; Hu, M.; Lamb, M. P. (2026). "Paleohydraulics of cyclonic storm deposits suggest that the equatorial climate of Earth in the Pennsylvanian was not cold". Geology. doi: 10.1130/G53927.1 .