Focus: fossils

01 The first non-avian dinosaur described from Brazil’s Crato Formation is also the first from the ancient supercontinent of Gondwana with preserved skin. Ubirajara jubatus had a prominent mane of long fur down its back and stiff ribbons projecting from its shoulders – features never before seen in the fossil record.

02 The first new skull of the rare duckbill dinosaur Parasaurolophus in nearly a century reveals the crests functioned primarily as sound resonators and visual displays.

03 Tomography scans and 3D reconstructions reveal similarities in pterosaur and lagerpetid anatomy. Flightless lagerpetids had evolved some of the features that allowed pterosaurs to fly, including characteristics of their braincase and inner ear, and elongated palm bones.

04 Mammals appear to have been social creatures much earlier than previously thought, with the recent discovery of

Filikomys primaevus – a rodent-like mammal that lived during the Late Cretaceous.

05 A Madagascan fossil suggests bird beaks and faces evolved differently than previously understood. Falcatakely forsterae facial anatomy bears a resemblance to modern birds but its cranium and upper jaw are similar to that of flightless theropods.

06 A team of palaeontologists found that a tyrannosaur embryo fossil with a tiny jawbone and claw would have been around 90 centimetres long when hatched (right) – about the size of a border collie. The adult is estimated to have grown to 12 metres.