2024 in paleontology

Phycological research

 * Evidence from genomic data, interpreted as indicating that the brown algae originated during the Ordovician but their major diversification happened during the Mesozoic, is presented by Choi et al. (2024).
 * Kiel et al. (2024) report the discovery of kelp holdfasts from the Oligocene strata in Washington State (United States), providing evidence of the presence of kelp in the northeastern Pacific Ocean since the earliest Oligocene.

Mycological research

 * Garcia Cabrera & Krings (2024) describe fungi colonizing bulbils of Palaeonitella cranii from the Devonian Rhynie chert, interpreted as distinct from fungi colonizing the axes and branchlets of P. cranii, which might indicate organ-specific colonization.

Cnidarian research

 * A study on the phylogenetic relationships of extant and extinct scleractinians, focusing on the Triassic and Jurassic members of the group, is published by Lathuilière et al. (2024).

Brachiopod research

 * Liang et al. (2024) describe fossil material of Anomaloglossa porca from the Ordovician (Sandbian) Pingliang Formation (China), extending known geographical range of the species from Gondwana and Tarim to North China Platform, and interpret the studied fossils as indicative of an infaunal lifestyle of A. porca.
 * A study on muscle scars and the hinge structure of Rafinesquina is published by Dattilo et al. (2024), who find that the studied brachiopod was able to gape widely, which eliminated constraints on its feeding orientation and enabled effective valve clearing.
 * Shapiro (2024) describes fossil material of Dzieduszyckia from the Devonian Slaven Chert (Nevada, United States), possibly indicative of the presence of a species distinct from D. sonora in Nevada, and interprets Dzieduszyckia as capable of survival in both seep and non-seep settings, which enabled it be primed for the Famennian biotic crises and give rise to later dimerelloids adapted to living in seep or vent settings.
 * Harper & Peck (2024) present evidence of disappearance of large brachiopods from shallow tropical waters after the Jurassic period, interpreted as mainly caused by increase of durophagous predation in these environments.

Research

 * A review of the early evolution of echinoderms is published by Rahman and Zamora (2024).
 * Evidence of increase of diversity of adaptations to different life habits throughout the evolutionary history of Cambrian and Ordovician echinoderms is presented by Novack-Gottshall et al. (2024).
 * Bohatý et al. (2024) describe new fossil material of Monstrocrinus from the Devonian strata in Germany, and reinterpret Monstrocrinus as an attached, stalked echinoderm.
 * A study on the phylogenetic relationships and morphological diversity of members of Paracrinoidea is published by Limbeck et al. (2024).
 * García-Penas et al. (2024) provide evidence of the presence of stalked crinoids belonging to the group Isocrinida in the shallow lagoon environment in northeast Spain during the Aptian, and interpret the absence of extant stalked crinoids from shallow-marine habitats as likely caused by predation pressure.

Hemichordate research

 * Review of the fossil record and evolutionary history of acorn worms and pterobranchs is published by Maletz (2024).
 * A study on the locomotion of members of the graptolite genus Demirastrites, providing evidence of rotating locomotory pattern and evolution of morphology in the Demirastrites lineage resulting in increased stability and higher rotation velocity, is published by Shijia, Tan & Wang (2024).

Research

 * Evidence of increased control over biomineralization throughout the early evolution of the conodont feeding apparatus is presented by Shirley et al. (2024).
 * Redescription of Stiptognathus borealis is published by Zhen (2024).
 * Voldman et al. (2024) report the discovery of Moscovian conodonts from the Río del Peñón Formation (La Rioja Province, Argentina) representing the southernmost occurrence of members of the group in the high latitudes of Gondwana from the Late Paleozoic.
 * Evidence indicating that the morphological and taxonomic diversity of conodonts was more affected by the Capitanian mass extinction event than by Permian–Triassic extinction event, and that both extinction events were followed by morphological innovation in conodonts, is presented by Xue et al. (2024).
 * Evidence from the study of conodont-bearing bromalites from the Lower Triassic Qinglong Formation (China), interpreted as indicating that conodonts were an important food source for Early Triassic crustaceans, ammonites, ray-finned fishes and coelacanths, is presented by Yao et al. (2024).
 * A study on the multielement apparatus of Gladigondolella tethydis is published by Golding & Kılıç (2024), who interpret their findings as supporting the interpretation of Cratognathodus elements as belonging to the apparatus of G. tethydis.

Research

 * A study on the fossils and paleosols of the Devonian Hervey Group (New South Wales, Australia) is published by Retallack (2024), who interprets his findings as indicating that Metaxygnathus lived within streams among subhumid woodlands, and argues that tetrapod limbs and necks most likely evolved in woodland streams.
 * Porro, Martin-Silverstone & Rayfield (2024) redescribe the anatomy of the skull of Eoherpeton watsoni and present a new, three-dimensional reconstruction of the skull.
 * A study on changes of the diversity of the temnospondyls from India and South-East Asia throughout the Triassic period is published by Chakravorti, Roy & Sengupta (2024).
 * Redescription of the skeletal anatomy and a study on the affinities of Plagiosaurus depressus is published by Witzmann & Schoch (2024).
 * So & Mann (2024) revise temnospondyl fossils from the Moenkopi Formation (Arizona, United States), and report evidence of the presence of a member of Brachyopoidea with large, robust teeth, distinct from Hadrokkosaurus bradyi and Vigilius wellesi.
 * Redescription and a study on the affinities of Hyperokynodon keuperinus is published by Schoch (2024).
 * A study on the affinities of Chinlestegophis jenkinsi is published by Marjanović et al. (2024), whose phylogenetic analysis doesn't support the interpretation of C. jenkinsi and stereospondyls in general as stem caecilians.
 * A study on the morphology and histology of the humerus and femora of Kulgeriherpeton ultimum is published by Skutschas et al. (2024).
 * Syromyatnikova et al. (2024) describe fossil material of a member of the genus Andrias from the Pliocene Belorechensk Formation (Krasnodar Krai, Russia), representing one of the geologically youngest and easternmost records of giant salamanders in Europe reported to date.
 * A specimen of Gansubatrachus qilianensis preserved with eggs within its body, interpreted as a skeletally immature gravid female, is described from the Lower Cretaceous Zhonggou Formation (China) by Du et al. (2024).
 * Santos, Carvalho & Zaher (2024) describe fossil material of an indeterminate neobatrachian frog from the Eocene–Oligocene Aiuruoca Basin (Brazil), expanding known diversity of frogs from the studied unit.
 * A study on the taphonomy of Eocene frog fossils from the Geiseltal Lagerstätte (Germany) is published by Falk et al. (2024), who find no evidence of silicification of soft tissues, as well as no evidence of preservation of most of the soft tissues reported as preserved in earlier studies, interpret the fossil microbodies preserved with the frogs as more likely to be melanosomes than bacteria, and interpret the mode of soft tissue preservation in frogs from Geiseltal as similar to those of other fossil vertebrates from lacustrine ecosystems.
 * New assemblage of frog fossils, including possible brachycephaloids, odontophrynids and hemiphractids, is described from the Eocene Geste Formation (Argentina) by Gómez et al. (2024).
 * A diverse assemblage of amphibian fossils is described from the Miocene and Pliocene strata from the Hambach surface mine (Germany) by Villa, Macaluso & Mörs (2024), who interpret the studied fossils as indicative of a humid climate persisting in the area throughout the Neogene.
 * Reisz, Maho & Modesto (2024) reevaluate the affinities of recumbirostrans and lysorophians, arguing that the studied tetrapods were not amniotes.
 * Modesto (2024) reviews the phylogenetic studies that recovered diadectomorphs or recumbirostrans within the crown group of Amniota, and argues that the data presented so far is not sufficient to confidently classify both groups as amniotes.
 * Voigt et al. (2024) described diadectid footprints associated with a partial scaly body impression from the Permian strata in Poland, providing evidence of the presence of horned scales in tetrapods close to the origin of amniotes.

Research

 * Singh et al. (2024) provide evidence of a dramatic shift in the jaw functional morphology of carnivorous synapsids across the early-middle Permian transition, and interpret their findings as indicative of changes of feeding ecologies of predatory synapsids related to increasingly dynamic behaviors and interactions in the studied time interval.
 * Evidence of functional differentiation of teeth of Mesenosaurus efremovi is presented by Maho et al. (2024).
 * Maho, Holmes & Reisz (2024) describe new fossil material of large-bodied synapsids from the Richards Spur locality (Oklahoma, United States), including fossil material of a sphenacodontid which might be distinct from known members of the group and the first ophiacodontid material from this locality; the authors use photography, stipple drawings and coquille drawings for visual representation of the studied material, and argue that three forms of visual representation provide more information about the specimens compared to only using photographs.
 * Benoit et al. (2024) report evidence of neurological adaptations of Cistecynodon parvus to low-frequency hearing and low-light conditions, evidence that facial bosses of Pachydectes elsi were likely richly innervated and better suited for display, communication or species recognition than physical combat, and evidence of a healed braincase injury in a specimen of Moschognathus whaitsi, interpreted as likely head-butting related injury resulting from play-fighting of juveniles.
 * Taxonomic revision of the genus Endothiodon is published by Maharaj et al. (2024).
 * Shi & Liu (2024) describe new specimens of Turfanodon bogdaensis from the Permian Guodikeng Formation (Turpan, Xinjiang, China), providing new information on the skeletal anatomy of this species.
 * Description of the skull anatomy and a study on the affinities of Gordonia is published by George et al. (2024).
 * Pinto et al. (2024) tested for sexual dimorphism in Placerias, finding statistical evidence for two morphs of the size and length of the caniniform process but in no other studied elements, and suggest this is a secondary sexual trait.
 * Sidor & Mann (2024) describe an articulated sternum and interclavicle of a specimen of Aelurognathus tigriceps from the upper Madumabisa Mudstone Formation (Zambia), providing new information on the anatomy of the sternum in gorgonopsians.
 * Brant & Sidor (2024) describe a premaxilla of a member of the genus Inostrancevia from the Permian Usili Formation (Tanzania), representing the oldest record of the genus from the Southern Hemisphere reported to date.
 * Benoit et al. (2024) reevaluate the provenance of three gorgonopsian specimens from purported Lower Triassic strata in the Karoo Basin (South Africa), and interpret the studied fossils as expanding the range of the genus Cyonosaurus higher up in the extinction zone, but don't confirm the survival of gorgonopsians past the Permian–Triassic extinction event.
 * A study on the phylogeny of the Eutheriodontia and on the character evolution within the group is published by Pusch, Kammerer & Fröbisch (2024), who recover therocephalians as paraphyletic with regards to cynodonts.
 * A study on dental complexity in gomphodont cynodonts through time, indicating that the peak in postcanine complexity was reached early in the gomphodont evolution, is published by Hendrickx et al. (2024).
 * Roese-Miron et al. (2024) report the discovery of a specimen of Siriusgnathus niemeyerorum from Upper Triassic strata from the Várzea do Agudo site (Candelária Sequence of the Santa Maria Supersequence, Brazil), found above the layers yielding Exaeretodon riograndensis, and evaluate the implications of this finding for the biostratigraphy of the sites of the Candelária Sequence.
 * Kaiuca et al. (2024) provide new body mass estimates for multiple cynodont taxa, and report that rates of body size evolution were lower in prozostrodontians ancestral to the first Mammaliaformes than in other lineages.
 * A study on nasal cavities of Thrinaxodon, Chiniquodon, Prozostrodon, Riograndia and Brasilodon is published by Fonseca et al. (2024), who find no evidence of the presence of ossified turbinals in the nasal cavities of the studied cynodonts, but report evidence of increase in the anatomical complexity of the structures anchoring the cartilages in the nasal region in cynodont lineages closer to mammaliaforms.
 * Szczygielski et al. (2024) redescribe Saurodesmus robertsoni, interpreting it as a valid cynodont taxon, possibly belonging to the family Tritylodontidae.
 * Hurtado, Harris & Milner (2024) describe possible eucynodont tracks from the Lower Jurassic Moenave Formation (Utah, United States), probably made in fine-grained sand on a flat lake shore (thus representing rare finding of early Mesozoic synapsid tracks outside eolian settings), and expanding known diversity of Early Jurassic animals from the Whitmore Point Member of the Moenave Formation.
 * New information on the morphology of the inner ear and stapes of Morganucodon is presented by Hoffmann et al. (2024).
 * Martin et al. (2024) describe new molars of Storchodon cingulatus from the Kimmeridgian Süntel Formation (Germany), and interpret the studied fossils as confirming the morganucodontan affinities of S. cingulatus, as well as confirming it as one of the largest morganucodontans.
 * Averianov & Voyta (2024) reinterpret fossil material of a putative Triassic stem mammal Tikitherium copei as a tooth of a Neogene shrew.
 * A study on synapsid species richness and distribution throughout the Mesozoic is published by Brocklehurst (2024), who finds evidence of two phases of decline of non-mammalian synapsids – a restriction of their geographic range between the Triassic and Middle Jurassic, and a decline in species richness during the Early Cretaceous.

Research

 * Morais et al. (2024) report the discovery of approximately 571-million-years-old microfossils from the Bocaina Formation (Brazil), sharing anatomical similarities with sections of cloudinids, protoconodonts, anabaritids and hyolithids, and interpreted as likely remains of early animals.
 * Delahooke et al. (2024) study frondose specimens from Ediacaran strata in Newfoundland (Canada) found forming closely spaced, linear arrangements, and interpret them as likely formed by runner-like stolons, providing possible evidence of a previously unknown reproductive strategy of rangeomorphs.
 * Cao, Meng & Cai (2024) use electrochemical methods to simulate the process of tube generation of Cloudina under the same phosphorus content as modern seawater.
 * Wang et al. (2024) describe fossil material of two distinct types of archaeocyaths from the Cambrian Shuijingtuo and Xiannüdong formations (China), including fossils with complicated interior network of canals which might be remains of a water filtration mechanism more complex and efficient than the ones seen in sponges.
 * Pruss et al. (2024) describe fossil material of Archaeocyathus from the Cambrian Mule Spring Limestone (Nevada) and Carrara Formation (California, United States), representing some of the latest record of archaeocyaths and providing evidence of local survival of members of the group after the disappearance of diverse archaeocyath reefs in western Laurentia, into the later Cambrian Age 4; the authors interpret their findings as an example of the dead clade walking phenomenon.
 * Review of events of decline in the evolutionary history of stromatoporoids is published by Kershaw & Jeon (2024).
 * Zhao et al. (2024) redescribe Calathites spinalis, and interpret it as a stem-ctenophore belonging to the family Dinomischidae.
 * Turk et al. (2024) redescribe the type material of Archaeichnium haughtoni, and interpret it as one of the earliest examples of marine worm burrow linings in the fossil record reported to date.
 * A specimen of Cricocosmia jinningensis preserved in the act of moulting is described from the Cambrian Chengjiang Lagerstätte (China) by Yu, Wang & Han (2024), who present a reconstruction of the moulting process of C. jinningensis.
 * Howard et al. (2024) redescribe "Protoscolex" latus and transfer this species to the genus Radnorscolex.
 * Chen et al. (2024) describe new fossil material of Microdictyon from the Cambrian Qiongzhusi Formation (China), providing new information on the molting process of lobopodians, and evidence of similarities of the sclerites of Microdictyon and extant armored tardigrades.
 * A body fossil resembling tentacles of extant trypanorhynch tapeworms is described from the Cretaceous amber from Myanmar by Luo et al. (2024).
 * Yang et al. (2024) describe new fossil material of Gaoloufangchaeta bifurcus from the Cambrian Wulongqing Formation (China), and interpret G. bifurcus as the earliest known errantian annelid.
 * Tubular fossils which might belong to early sabellids are described from the Upper Permian deposits in southern China by Słowiński, Clapham & Zatoń (2024), potentially expanding known range of sabellids during the late Paleozoic.
 * Jamison-Todd et al. (2024) describe boring produced by members of the genus Osedax in marine reptile bones from the Cenomanian Lower Chalk (United Kingdom), Campanian Marlbrook Marl and Mooreville Chalk (Arkansas and Alabama, United States) and Maastrichtian Mons Basin (Belgium), providing evidence of the presence of Osedax on both sides of the northern Atlantic Ocean in the Cretaceous, as well as evidence of the presence of different morphotypes of borings which were possibly produced by different species.
 * A study on the taxonomic and morphological diversity of Cambrian hyoliths, providing evidence of increase in diversity in the early Cambrian followed by decline in the Miaolingian, is published by Liu et al. (2024).
 * Mussini et al. (2024) report evidence for the presence of a gut canal and a dorsal nerve chord in Pikaia, and recover vetulicolians, Yunnanozoon and Pikaia as early-diverging stem chordates.

Research

 * Kanaparthi et al. (2024) compare Archean microfossils from the Pilbara iron formation (Australia) and Barberton Greenstone Belt (South Africa) with extant microbes grown under conditions similar to possible environmental conditions of Archean Earth, and propose that the studied Archean microfossils were liposome-like protocells that had mechanisms for energy conservation, but not for regulating cell morphology and replication.
 * Demoulin et al. (2024) interpret Polysphaeroides filiformis from the Proterozoic Mbuji-Mayi Supergroup (Democratic Republic of the Congo) as a photosynthetic cyanobacterium representing the oldest unambiguous complex fossil member of Stigonemataceae known to date.
 * Evidence of preservation of thylakoid membranes within 1.78- to 1.73-billion-year-old fossils of Navifusa majensis from the McDermott Formation (Tawallah Group; Australia) and in 1.01- to 0.9-billion-year-old specimens from the Grassy Bay Formation (Shaler Supergroup; Canada) is reported by Demoulin et al. (2024).
 * A study comparing the preservation of fossils of cyanobacterial assemblages from the Ediacaran Gaojiashan biota and from the Cambrian Kuanchuanpu biota (China) is published by Min et al. (2024), who interpret the differences of preservation modes of the studied fossils as resulting from changes of atmospheric CO2 levels, which may have risen to approximately ten times present atmospheric level during the Ediacaran–Cambrian transition, and from related changes in marine chemical conditions.
 * McMahon et al. (2024) describe fossil material of a colony-forming entophysalid cyanobacterium from the Devonian Rhynie chert (Scotland, United Kingdom) with similarities to extant Entophysalis and mostly Proterozoic Eoentophysalis, and interpret this finding as suggestive of persistence of a single lineage with a broad environmental tolerance across 2 billion years.
 * Miao et al. (2024) describe 1.63-billion-year-old fossils of Qingshania magnifica from the Chuanlinggou Formation (China), and interpret the studied fossils as indicating that simple multicellularity evolved early in eukaryote history.
 * A study on the depositional setting of the strata of the Diabaig and Loch na Dal formations (Scotland, United Kingdom) preserving approximately 1-billion-year-old eukaryotic microfossils is published by Nielson, Stüeken & Prave (2024), who interpret their findings as indicating that early eukaryotes from the studied formations lived in estuaries rather than lakes, and were likely exposed to frequently changing water conditions.
 * A study on the evolutionary history of Arcellinida, as indicated by molecular data and fossil record, is published by Porfirio-Sousa et al. (2024), who determine that nodes leading to extant microbial eukaryote lineages originated in the latest Mesoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic, but the divergence of modern subclades of Arcellinida postdates the Silurian.
 * A study on the impact of the climatic and environmental changes across the Cenozoic on the distribution and diversity of planktonic marine foraminifera is published by Swain et al. (2024).
 * Surprenant & Droser (2024) compile a database of all occurrences of non-biomineral Ediacaran tubular organisms, and report evidence of previously unrecognized morphological diversity of the studied organisms.
 * Sun et al. (2024) provide new information on the developmental biology of Spiralicellula, and reject the interpretation of Spiralicellula and other components of the early Ediacaran Weng'an biota (Doushantuo Formation, China) as members of the animal crown group.

History of life in general

 * Moody et al. (2024) interpret the last universal common ancestor as a prokaryote-grade anaerobic acetogen that lived approximately 4.2 billion years ago, had an early immune system and was a part of an established ecological system.
 * Evidence of impact of ocean oxygenation events from Cryogenian to Cambrian on early evolution of animals is presented by Kaiho et al. (2024).
 * Crockett et al. (2024) argue that environmental changes at the time of the Snowball Earth generated selective pressures for multicellular morphologies that, combined with constraints caused by different biological organization, gave multicellular eukaryotes an evolutionary advantage not shared by bacteria.
 * Gutarra et al. (2024) find that Ediacaran marine animal communities from the Mistaken Point Formation (Newfoundland, Canada) were capable of strongly mixing the surrounding water, and might have contributed to the ventilation of the oceans.
 * Ediacaran shallow-marine macrofossils from the Llangynog Inlier (Wales, United Kingdom) are determined to be approximately 564.09 million years old by Clarke et al. (2024).
 * New silicified fossil assemblage is described from the Ediacaran Dengying Formation (Shaanxi, China) by Dai et al. (2024), who interpret fossil material of Cloudina from this assemblage as indicating that Cloudina had a worldwide distribution in different paleoecologies and biofacies.
 * Evidence indicative of existence of long-term factors driving changes of diversity of skeletonized marine invertebrates throughout the Phanerozoic is presented by Wilson, Reitan & Liow (2024).
 * Cui et al. (2024) describe approximately 535-million-years-old microbial fossils from the Yuhucun Formation (China), interpreted as comparable to modern cyanobacteria, microalgae and fungi (including mold- and yeast-like morphotypes), and interpret the studied microorganisms as building symbiotic mats composed of decomposers and producers.
 * Evidence from the strata of the Dengying, Yanjiahe and Shuijingtuo formations (China), interpreted as indicative of the existence of a relationship between variable oceanic oxygenation, nitrogen supply and the evolution of early Cambrian life, is presented by Wei et al. (2024).
 * Slater (2024) describes a diverse assemblage of arthropod and molluscan microfossil from the Cambrian Stage 3 Mickwitzia Sandstone (Sweden), providing evidence of diversification of molluscan radulae which happened by the early Cambrian.
 * Evidence indicating that pulse of supracrustal deformation along the edge of west Gondwana caused a series of environmental changes that resulted in the Cambrian Stage 4 Sinsk event (the first major extinction of the Phanerozoic) is presented by Myrow et al. (2024).
 * Evidence indicating that patterns of extinctions of marine invertebrates over the past 485 million years were affected by physiological traits of invertebrates and by climate changes is presented by Malanoski et al. (2024).
 * Saleh et al. (2024) report the discovery of a new Early Ordovician Lagerstätte from Montagne Noire (France), preserving fossils of a diverse polar assemblage of both biomineralized and soft-bodied organisms (the Cabrières Biota).
 * The Devonian vertebrate assemblage from the Cloghnan Shale at Jemalong (New South Wales, Australia), including fossil material of Metaxygnathus, is interpreted as more likely Givetian–Frasnian than Famennian in age by Young (2024).
 * Faure-Brac et al. (2024) study the size of the primary vascular canals in early amniotes and non-amniote tetrapods, interpreted as a proxy for the size of red blood cells and for thermophysiology of the studied taxa, and argue that amniotes were ancestrally ectotherms, with different amniote group evolving endothermy independently.
 * Evidence from strata from the Permian–Triassic transition from southwest China, interpreted as indicative of temporal decoupling of the terrestrial and marine extinctions in Permian tropics during the Permian–Triassic extinction event and of a protracted terrestrial extinction spanning approximately 1 million years, is presented by Wu et al. (2024).
 * Evidence interpreted as indicative of two-stage pattern of the end-Permian extinction of the deep water organisms from the Dongpan Section (Guangxi, China), likely related to the upward and downward expansion of an oxygen minimum zone in the studied area, is presented by He et al. (2024).
 * A study on the extinction selectivity of marine animals during the Permian–Triassic extinction event is published by Song et al. (2024), who find that animal groups with hemoglobin and hemocyanin were less affected by the extinction than animals with hemerythrin or relying on diffusion of oxygen.
 * Liu et al. (2024) study the extinction selectivity of six marine animal groups during the Permian–Triassic extinction event, finding evidence of selective loss of complex and ornamented forms among ammonites, brachiopods and ostracods, but not bivalves, gastropods and conodonts.
 * Zhou et al. (2024) report the discovery of a new Early Triassic fossil assemblage dominated by ammonites and arthropods (the Wangmo biota) from the Luolou Formation (China), interpreted as evidence of the presence of a complex marine ecosystem that was rebuilt after the Permian–Triassic extinction event.
 * A study on the fossil record of Early Triassic conodonts and palynomorphs from the Vikinghøgda Formation (Svalbard, Norway), providing evidence of a shift from lycophyte-dominated to a gymnosperm-dominated vegetation related to the onset of a cooling episode, as well evidence indicating that temperature wasn't the main regulator for the distribution of segminate conodonts in the Early Triassic, is published by Leu et al. (2024).
 * Revision of the fossil record of the Triassic tetrapods from Russia is published by Shishkin et al. (2024).
 * Klein et al. (2024) report the discovery of a new locality in the Holbrook Member of the Moenkopi Formation (Anisian; Arizona, United States), likely representing the most extensive Middle Triassic tetrapod tracksite in North America reported to date.
 * Simms & Drost (2024) interpret Triassic caves within Carboniferous limestone outcrops in south-west Britain as Carnian in age, and consider terrestrial vertebrate fossils preserved in those caves to be Carnian or at least significantly pre-Rhaetian in age.
 * Campo et al. (2024) describe fossil material of Carnian tetrapods from the Faixa Nova-Cerrito I site, and evaluate its implications for the knowledge of the biostratigraphy of the Brazilian Upper Triassic record.
 * A study on the femoral histology of amniotes from the Triassic Ischigualasto Formation (Argentina) is published by Curry Rogers et al. (2024), who find that early dinosaurs known from this formation grew at least as quickly as sauropodomorph and theropod dinosaurs from the later Mesozoic, and that their elevated growth rates did not set them apart from other amniotes living at the same time.
 * Taphonomic revision of Jurassic marine reptile fossils from the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese (Italy) is published by Serafini et al. (2024), who find similarities between the studied fossil material and modern whale falls in pelagic-bathyal zones, and interpret those similarities as consistent with a bathyal, deep-water interpretation of the Rosso Ammonitico Veronese depositional setting.
 * A study on patterns of diversity changes of Late Jurassic tetrapods from the Morrison Formation through time and space is published by Maidment (2024).
 * Aouraghe et al. (2024) report the discovery of a new fossiliferous locality from the Tithonian–Berriasian interval of the Anoual Syncline (Morocco), preserving remains of plants and aquatic reptiles, and interpret the taxonomic composition of the studied assemblage as similar to the composition of contemporaneous Laurasian assemblages, potentially indicating that Laurasian and Gondwanan biotas diverged after the Jurassic-Cretaceous transition.
 * Evidence from calcareous nannofossils and small foraminifera from the Transylvanian Basin (Romania), interpreted as indicative of the appearance of a diverse continental vertebrate faunal assemblage on Hațeg Island by the second half of the late Campanian, presence of kogaionid multituberculates in the earliest known Hațeg faunas, and post-Campanian arrivial of hadrosauroids and titanosaur sauropods on the island, is presented by Bălc et al. (2024).
 * A study on the body size evolution of Mesozoic dinosaurs (including birds) and mammaliaforms is published by Wilson et al. (2024), who find no evidence that Bergmann's rule applied to the studied taxa.
 * Sarr et al. (2024) describe Maastrichtian micro- and macrofossils from a new locality from the Cap de Naze Formation, including fossil material of the first Cretaceous dyrosaurid from Senegal.
 * Boles et al. (2024) describe a new assemblage of vertebrate microfossils from the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition from the Hornerstown Formation (New Jersey, United States), providing evidence of slow recovery of elasmobranchs and ray-finned fish after the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.
 * Fossil material of a reef biota that survived the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, including scleractinian corals and domical and bulbous growth forms which might be fossils of calcified sponges, is described from the Maastrichtian and Paleocene strata from the Adriatic islands Brač and Hvar (Croatia) by Martinuš et al. (2024).
 * A study on changes of the diversity of ostracods from the Indo-Australian Archipelago region throughout the Cenozoic, aiming to determine factors responsible for recorded changes, is published by Tian et al. (2024), who argue that the studied region became the richest marine biodiversity hotspot mostly as a result of immunity to major extinction events during the Cenozoic, shift towards colder climate and the increase in habitat size (shelf area).
 * New Miocene and Pleistocene vertebrate assemblages are described from the Sin Charoen sandpit (Nakhon Ratchasima province, Thailand) by Naksri et al. (2024), who intepret the Pleistocene assemblage as having strong faunal relationships with the Early-Middle Pleistocene faunas of Java (Indonesia).
 * Tattersfield et al. (2024) study the ecological associations of extant terrestrial gastropods from the Laetoli-Endulen area (Tanzania) and compare them with Pliocene gastropod assemblages from Laetoli, interpreting gastropods from the Lower Laetolil beds as indicative of semi-arid environment, those from the Upper Laetolil Beds as indicative of a mosaic of forest, woodland and bushland habitats, and gastropods from the Upper Ndolanya Beds as indicative of humid environment.
 * Antoine et al. (2024) report the discovery of fossil material from Kourou (French Guiana) providing evidence of the presence of diverse foraminifer, plant and animal communities near the equator in the 130,000-115,000 years ago time interval, as well as evidence of marine retreat and dryer conditions with a savanna-dominated landscape and episodes of fire during the onset of the Last Glacial Period.

Other research

 * A study on the oxygenation of atmosphere and oceans and on marine productivity during the Neoproterozoic and Paleozoic is published by Stockey et al. (2024), who find no evidence of the wholesale oxygenation of Earth's oceans in the Neoproterozoic, but report evidence of a late Neoproterozoic increase in atmospheric oxygen and marine productivity, which likely increased oxygenation and food supply in shallow marine habitats at the time of the first radiation of major animal groups.
 * Huang et al. (2024) report evidence of a period in the Ediacaran when Earth's magnetic field was weakened, lasting 26 million years, overlapping temporally with atmospheric and oceanic oxygenation and potentially causing it and ultimately allowing diversification of the Ediacara Fauna.
 * 563-million-year-old horizontal markings with similarities to horizontal animal trace fossils, reported from the Itajaí Basin (Brazil), are interpreted as pseudofossils of tectonic origin by Becker Kerber et al. (2024), who propose a set of criteria which can be used to evaluate the identity of putative trace fossils.
 * Evidence of preservation of internal organs of soft-bodied organisms from the interbedded background mudstone beds of the Cambrian Yu'anshan Formation (China) as carbonaceous compressions is presented by Lei et al. (2024).
 * A study on silicified fossils from the Ordovician Edinburg Formation (Virginia, United States), aiming to determine sources of potential bias in fossil recovery, is published by Jacobs et al. (2024).
 * Purported Precambrian trace fossil Rugoinfractus ovruchensis is interpreted as mud cracks preserved in Devonian strata by Dernov (2024).
 * Evidence from the Bicheno-5 core in eastern Tasmania (Australia), interpreted as indicative of carbon cycle perturbations in the middle Permian, Carnian and Norian which triggered climatic and environmental changes within the Permian and Triassic Antarctic circle, is presented by Lestari et al. (2024).
 * Evidence interpreted as indicative of strong ozone depletion of the atmosphere at the onset of the Permian–Triassic extinction event is presented by Li et al. (2024).
 * A study on the lower Carnian basinal succession from the Polzberg Lagerstätte (Austria), providing evidence of deposition during the onset of the Carnian pluvial episode and of peculiar oceanographic conditions affecting the Reifling Basin at the time, is published by Lukeneder et al. (2024).
 * Rigo et al. (2024) report evidence of a previously unknown oceanic anoxic event of global extent that spanned the Norian-Rhaetian transition, likely related to extinctions and diversity losses among radiolarians, bivalves, ammonites, conodonts and marine vertebrates.
 * Evidence from mercury anomalies and fern spores from the Lower Saxony Basin (Germany), interpreted as indicative of persistence of volcanic-induced mercury pollution after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event resulting in high abundances of malformed fern spores during the Triassic–Jurassic transition and during the Hettangian, is presented by Bos et al. (2024).
 * Evidence of global expansion of marine anoxia during the Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event, interpreted as indicating that anoxic waters covered ~6 to 8% of the global seafloor during the peak of the event, is presented by Remírez et al. (2024).
 * Woolley et al. (2024) attempt to quantify the amount of phylogenetic information available in the global fossil records of non-avian theropod dinosaurs, Mesozoic birds and squamates, and find that the studies of the phylogenic relationships of extinct animals are less affected by disproportionate representation of taxa from specific geologic units (especially Lagerstätten) in the evolutionary tree when the entire global fossil record of the studied groups, rather than just fossils from specific geologic units, preserves higher amount of phylogenetic information; the authors also find that Late Cretaceous squamate fossils from the Djadochta and Barun Goyot formations (Mongolia) provide a diproportionally large amount of phylogenetic information available in the squamate fossil record.
 * Almeida et al. (2024) provide new paleocurrent measurements for the Cretaceous and Paleogene in the eastern Amazonia region, and find persistent pattern of the river flow to the East in the Amazonas Basin from the Cretaceous to the present to be more likely than a reversal from the westward river flow to the eastward one.
 * Eberth (2024) revises the stratigraphic architecture of the Campanian Belly River Group (Alberta, Canada).
 * A study on the environmental conditions in the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway is published by Wostbrock et al. (2024), who reconstruct δ18O seawater values consistent with open ocean during greenhouse climate for the Campanian and consistent with more evaporative conditions for the Maastrichtian.
 * Evidence indicating that, in spite of high global temperatures, oxygen availability in the waters of the tropical North Pacific actually rose during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, is presented by Moretti et al. (2024), who argue that this oxygen rise in the ocean might have prevented a mass extinction during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum.
 * Evidence indicating that West Antarctica's Pacific margin was not covered by West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the Early Oligocene Glacial Maximum is presented by Klages et al. (2024).
 * Yu et al. (2024) provide new age estimates for the Aves Cave and Milo's Cave deposits (Bolt's Farm cave complex in the Cradle of Humankind, South Africa), and argue that there are no definitive examples of cave deposits in the Cradle of Humankind that are older than 3.2 million years.
 * Evidence of change in fire regime in northern Australia that happened at least 11,000 years ago, resulting in fires becoming more frequent but less intense and interpreted as resulting from Indigenous fire management, is presented by Bird et al. (2024).
 * Wiseman, Charles & Hutchinson (2024) compare multiple reconstructions of the musculature of Australopithecus afarensis, evaluating the capability of different models to maintain an upright, single-support limb posture, and find that models which are otherwise identical might be either able or unable support the body posed on an extended limb solely as a result of changing the input architectural parameters and including or excluding an elastic tendon.
 * Sullivan et al. (2024) argue that the process of generating rigorous reconstructions of extinct animals can lead to fresh inferences about the anatomy of the studied animals, and support their claims with examples from dinosaur paleontology.
 * Didier & Laurin (2024) propose a new model-based approach which can be used to study the diversification of fossil taxa, and apply it to the fossil record of ophiacodontids, edaphosaurids and sphenacodontids, finding evidence that the diversification of the studied synapsids slowed down around the Asselian/Sakmarian transition but no evidence of a late Sakmarian or Artinskian extinction event, and interpreting Olson's Extinction as a protracted decline in biodiversity over 20 million years rather than a rapid extinction event.
 * Cooper, Flannery-Sutherland & Silvestro (2024) present a deep learning approach which can be used to estimate biodiversity through time from the incomplete fossil record, and use this approach to estimate global biodiversity dynamics of marine animals from the Late Permian to Early Jurassic and proboscideans.
 * Reumer (2024) hypothesizes that Beringer's Lying Stones represent the first recorded case of an intentional paleontological fraud in history, and might have been perpetrated by Johann Beringer himself.

Paleoclimate

 * A multibillion-year history of seawater δ18O, temperature, and marine and terrestrial clay abundance is reconstructed by Isson & Rauzi (2024), who report evidence interpreted as indicative of temperate Proterozoic climate, and evidence indicating that declines in clay authigenesis coincided with Paleozoic and Cenozoic cooling, the expansion of siliceous life, and the radiation of land plants.
 * Gurung et al. (2024) use a new vegetation and climate model to study links between plant geographical range, the long-term carbon cycle and climate, and find that reduced geographical range of plants in Pangaea resulted in increased atmospheric CO2 concentration during the Triassic and Jurassic periods, while the expande geographical range of plants after the breakup of Pangaea amplified global CO2 removal.
 * A study on the geochemistry of Jurassic deposits of the External Rif Chain (Morocco), providing evidence of climate changes in northwest Gondwana during the Jurassic period (from cool climate with low rainfall and productivity during the Early Jurassic, to moister, warmer climate during the Middle and Late Jurassic, subsequently returning to arid and cool climate during the Late Jurassic), is published by Kairouani et al. (2024).
 * Evidence indicating that small to large ice sheets were present in Antarctica throughout much of the Early Cretaceous, briefly melting in response to episodic volcanism, is presented by Nordt, Breecker & White (2024).
 * A study on calcite from Early Cretaceous belemnite rostra from the Mahajanga Basin (Madagascar), providing evidence of the Valanginian cooling event in the Southern Hemisphere, is published by Wang et al. (2024).
 * Clark et al. (2024) present a new reconstruction of global temperature changes over the past 4.5 million years, interpreted as consistent with changes in the carbon cycle.
 * Amarathunga et al. (2024) present evidence indicative of a humid period in North Africa lasting from 3.8 to 3.3 million years ago, possibly sustaining persistent green corridors that facilitated early hominin connectivity and migration.

Deaths

 * Estella Leopold, paleobotanist and conservation paleontologist passes on February 25, 2024 at 97. Leopold's work as a conservationist included taking legal action to help save the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado, and fighting pollution. She was the daughter of Aldo Leopold.