Research news for 16 October 2026

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

1. 

   Footprints from Italy: crocodile and dinosaur relatives were already around before the mass extinction

   Researchers have described a new type of fossil track from the Val Gardena Sandstone in northern Italy: Pachychirotherium gardenaensis. The prints date from the late Permian, before the mass extinction at the end of that period. They are the earliest known tracks of the chirotheriid family. The team thinks the trackmakers were early relatives of crocodiles and dinosaurs, perhaps from the group known as the erythrosuchids.

   The features of the tracks fit a wide-legged gait, with the legs splayed out to the sides. Tracks from the Early Triassic show transitional forms, and the group probably only achieved an upright stance in the Middle Triassic. Walking on the toes also developed step by step.

   The first track of this family, the "hand beast" Chirotherium, was noticed in 1833 by a headmaster in Hildburghausen in Thuringia.

   Palaeontology · Study published 9 October 2026 · Original study ↗

2. 

   Hole in the shoulder blade: a new Neanderthal from Shanidar Cave

   Researchers have found the bones of another Neanderthal in Shanidar Cave in northern Iraq. There is a hole in the shoulder blade, and its shape matches a wooden spear. The wound occurred around the time of death, reports the journal Scientific Reports.

   Shanidar A, an older adult, was placed in the cave around 75,000 years ago. A flash flood later jumbled the bones. This means at least five dead now lie together at this spot. The researchers see this as a sign of a deliberate, perhaps meaningful treatment of the dead. The Neanderthal had survived a severe injury to the face. This suggests that their group cared for them.

   Back in 2018, a team from Cambridge had already excavated the skull of the older female Neanderthal Shanidar Z in the same cave.

   Scientific Reports · Study published 15 October 2026 · Original study ↗

3. 

   Ancient coral from North Carolina turns out to be a precious coral

   Researchers in North Carolina have described three new coral species from the Middle Eocene, a time long after the dinosaurs. The most common is called Moltkia alveolata. The surprise lies in its genus: Moltkia was long thought to be a bamboo coral. The study in the Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History now shows that it belongs to the precious corals.

   Precious corals like these no longer exist in the western tropical Atlantic today. The closest living relatives of Moltkia now grow only in the western tropical Pacific. Precious corals are known as a material for jewellery: Mediterranean red coral has been harvested and traded since antiquity.

   The team also found two species of the genus Ellisella and individual skeletal spicules from other, unidentified corals.

   Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History · Study published 15 October 2026 · Original study ↗

4. 

   Researchers assign Greenland fossils to a Siberian spiny fish

   Researchers have fully described fossils of ancient spiny fishes from East Greenland for the first time. Their analysis points to a species previously known only from Siberia: Acanthodes lopatini. The study appears in the Canadian Journal of Zoology.

   The fish lived in a lake in the earliest Carboniferous. Their remains lie in the rock of the mountain Celsius Bjerg, including animals at different stages of growth. They therefore link the wildlife of Euramerica, the supercontinent of the time, with the wildlife of Siberia.

   The same rock layers also record the Hangenberg event. This mass extinction around 360 million years ago wiped out the armoured fishes, after which ray-finned fishes took over the waters.

   Canadian Journal of Zoology · Study published 14 October 2026 · Original study ↗