Research news for 14 October 2026

New studies, briefly explained. Each item includes the original study’s publication date.

1. 

   Crocodile eggs: shell blueprint barely changed since the Jurassic

   The eggshell of crocodiles and their ancestors has barely changed its basic blueprint since the Jurassic. That is shown by a new review in the journal Historical Biology. The researchers examined fossil eggs, shells and nests from the Early Jurassic to the Pliocene. Wedge-shaped shell units with small knobs at their base persisted throughout.

   Subtle differences in thickness, pores and ornamentation point to adaptations to the environment, and perhaps also to traits of individual lineages. Crocodiles survived earlier mass extinctions. Because they need very specific nesting sites, they are nevertheless vulnerable to human interference.

   In 2017, a nest of 13 eggs from the Late Jurassic in Portugal was regarded as the oldest known egg find from crocodile relatives.

   Historical Biology · Study published 12 October 2026 · Original study ↗

2. 

   Crimean cave yields jaw of a large prehistoric marten

   Researchers have described the remains of a large marten from the early Ice Age in Taurida Cave in Crimea: Pannonictis pliocaenica. The find extends the species' known range considerably further east.

   What survives is a complete half of a lower jaw and four isolated teeth. A detailed comparison with other finds points to this species, the study reports in the journal Scientific Reports. In Eastern Europe and Western Asia, the marten had previously been known from only a few sites.

   Finds of the genus often come from riverside landscapes. This supports the idea that Crimea had waterside habitats at the time. According to National Geographic, the same cave also yielded the thigh bone of a giant bird, Pachystruthio dmanisensis, estimated to have stood just under 3.7 metres tall.

   Scientific Reports · Study published 13 October 2026 · Original study ↗

3. 

   After the mass extinction: marine reptiles conquered South China's seas in three stages

   After the great mass extinction at the end of the Permian, marine reptiles conquered the seas of South China in three stages. The study, published in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, analyses some 20 million years of the Triassic.

   At first, many species lived in similar ways. In the Middle Triassic, their ways of life became more varied. After that, the reptiles moved out into the open sea, and by the end there were giant hunters. In South China they only took on roles like those of today's whales late in the Middle Triassic; elsewhere this probably happened earlier. Fluctuating sea levels may have favoured this move.

   An earlier find from South China shows such hunters: the stomach of a 4.8-metre-long ichthyosaur contained the remains of a marine reptile around four metres long.

   Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · Study published 14 October 2026 · Original study ↗

4. 

   Prehistoric frond Charniodiscus: calculation points to firm animal tissue

   Researchers have calculated how stiff the prehistoric frond Charniodiscus from the Ediacaran was, the age of the first large living things. Their figures point to a load-bearing stalk made of densely packed, uniformly aligned collagen fibres, the tough connective tissue of animals. For the most part, that does not fit non-animals, sponges or tiny placozoans.

   Many of the fossils are twisted. The team puts this down to turbidity currents, underwater mudslides on the seabed, and uses it to work out the stiffness. This supports the idea that Charniodiscus belonged to the extended family of the tissue animals, the group that includes almost all animals alive today, the researchers report in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

   Charniodiscus is one of the first known Ediacaran fossils: it was described in 1958 from Charnwood Forest in England.

   Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences · Study published 14 October 2026 · Original study ↗