Open research questions in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

What the literature leaves open

• Our exploration sheds light on how palaeontological information is translated to node ages by the FBD process, and suggests that node calibration approaches remain an important alternative when the fossil record of the studied group is scarce and other prior information can be used to devise informative calibration densities.

  How to date a molecular phylogeny: comparison of effective priors between node calibration and fossilized birth–death · 2026 · DOI

• The challenge of understanding how teleosts might have evolved into terrestrial animals without the presence of sarcopterygians. The difficulty of identifying the genetic and morphological differences between sarcopterygians and actinopterygians. The need to overcome the developmental and structural hurdles that would have made the transition of teleosts to terrestrial environments challenging.

  Evolution of Bony Fish: Without a Cryptic Sarcopterygian, It May Have Evolved Actinopterygians into Terrestrial Animals · 2026 · DOI

• The paper highlights the need for careful analysis and interpretation of museum records. The paper notes the challenges of working with historical artifacts and the importance of preserving their integrity.

  Where did the One of our Dinosaurs is Missing dinosaur come from? · 2026 · DOI

• The paper highlights the need for further research on the history of paleontology and the development of museum collections.

  Where did the One of our Dinosaurs is Missing dinosaur come from? · 2026 · DOI

• The limited number of fossil specimens. The imprecision of the stratigraphic classification of some fossil remains.

  Panthera pardus burgtonnae ssp. nov. (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) from the Eemian of Burgtonna (Thuringia, Germany) – Late Pleistocene European leopards in a new perspective · 2026 · DOI

• The taxonomy of European Late Pleistocene leopards is unclear. The study of the Burgtonna fossil remains provides an opportunity to clarify the taxonomy of European Late Pleistocene leopards.

  Panthera pardus burgtonnae ssp. nov. (Mammalia, Carnivora, Felidae) from the Eemian of Burgtonna (Thuringia, Germany) – Late Pleistocene European leopards in a new perspective · 2026 · DOI

• Future research may involve the study of other extinct species using microCT scans and 3D modeling. Further research may be needed to refine the methods used in the paper.

  Conflicto endocast from Unlocking the early evolution of brain and feeding strategies in Anseriformes: the case of Conflicto antarcticus · 2026 · DOI

• The paper seeks to address this gap by estimating visual capacities and reconstructing the eyeball of Conflicto antarcticus.

  Conflicto endocast from Unlocking the early evolution of brain and feeding strategies in Anseriformes: the case of Conflicto antarcticus · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of understanding of the diversity of cockroaches during the Cretaceous period.

  Cultriblatta gen. n. – longest and curved ovipositor cockroach of Raphidiomimidae (Blattaria) in the Cretaceous period · 2026 · DOI

• Further studies could investigate the biomechanics of other long-necked animals. The development of new technologies or strategies for achieving efficient neck elongation could be informed by the findings of this study.

  Biomechanics of the extremely elongated neck of the Triassic archosauromorph Tanystropheus · 2026 · DOI

• The scarcity of well-preserved fossils has constrained interpretations of sensory evolution in snakes. The early fossil record of snakes is extremely sparse. Conflicting interpretations of fossil ecologies have hindered our understanding of snake evolution.

  Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes · 2026 · DOI

• Further investigation of this assemblage is therefore essential to better understand the evolutionary history of Pentastomida as well as their ecological diversification during the Early Palaeozoic.

  Hidden diversity in Early Palaeozoic parasites: new indication from Orsten-type Ordovician pentastomidans (tongue-worms) · 2026 · DOI

• Reevaluating existing collections for future research provides the potential to add significant new insights into crocodylian palaeontological research.

  A study of the early Oligocene and early Miocene Diplocynodon (Crocodylia) material housed in the Filhol collection of KU Leuven (Belgium) · 2026 · DOI

• Large theropod tracks are uncommon within the Hell Creek Formation. Trackways are exceedingly rare and have not supported a clear comparison with an adult T. rex. There is a lack of data on large tridactyl trackways from the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota.

  A large tridactyl trackway from the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota, likely attributable to an adult Tyrannosaurus rex · 2026 · DOI

• The material from the collection becomes dissociated from contextual information as an occurrence is transformed into a taxonomic name. The difficulty of carrying out fieldwork due to the presence of sociological factors. The need to account for biases in the literature when compiling data.

  A hundred years of dinosaur research in Mexico: skeletal completeness and phylogenetic information of the dinosaur fossil record in Mexico · 2026 · DOI

• The lack of taxonomic information in the physical fossil record. The need for a function to represent the observed material and the research effort invested on it.

  A hundred years of dinosaur research in Mexico: skeletal completeness and phylogenetic information of the dinosaur fossil record in Mexico · 2026 · DOI

• Although their remains have been known since the 1870s, the small, bipedal ornithischian dinosaurs from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western USA remain poorly known.

  Enigmacursor mollyborthwickae , a neornithischian dinosaur from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of the western USA · 2025 · DOI

• Despite this, the initial hosts of lice remain elusive, with speculation including early mammals, early birds, potentially other feathered theropod dinosaurs, and even haired pterosaurs.

  Cretaceous chewing-louse eggs on enantiornithine birds · 2025 · DOI

• Further comprehensive analyzes of ostracod morphometrics can be conducted using the AutoMorph method. The study suggests that the method can be applied to other fossil groups for evolutionary and developmental investigations.

  Testing the applicability of automated size and shape analyses in non-marine ostracods – a case study from the Tibetan Plateau · 2026 · DOI

• Such features include large dorsal foramina restricted to mobile osteoderms probably related to a highly developed glandular system; serrated borders of the articular portion of mobile osteoderms; and rectangular fixed osteoderms with a poorly defined ornamentation pattern including long and narrow central figures.

  New endemic Dasypodidae (Xenarthra, Cingulata) from the Late Miocene of Ecuador and the importance of the tropics in the cladogenesis of armadillos · 2026 · DOI

• If our hypothesis is correct, then the overall avian karyotypic structure provides the substrate for the vast phenotypic diversity and adaptation to change that we see now in birds and that has…

  Did the evolution of multiple microchromosomes help save bird and other dinosaurs from extinction? · 2026 · DOI

• Further evaluation of the model on a larger and more diverse dataset. Investigation of the potential for applying the model to other types of fossil tracks.

  Deep learning enables automated detection of dinosaur footprints with high accuracy · 2026 · DOI

• Further study of the fossil record of Raphidiomimidae. Investigation of the evolutionary relationships between Cultriblatta and other genera of Raphidiomimidae.

  Cultriblatta gen. n. – longest and curved ovipositor cockroach of Raphidiomimidae (Blattaria) in the Cretaceous period · 2026 · DOI

• Further study of the fossil record to uncover more well-preserved fossils, - Investigation of sensory evolution in stem snakes, - Analysis of the ecological diversity of early…

  Exceptional brain and ecological diversity in the earliest snakes · 2026 · DOI

• Further study of the trackway and surrounding area to gather more information, - Comparison with other large theropod trackways to determine walking speed and behavior, - Investigation of the preservation process of the tracks to understand how they…

  A large tridactyl trackway from the Upper Cretaceous Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota, likely attributable to an adult Tyrannosaurus rex · 2026 · DOI

Most-cited papers in Paleontology and Evolutionary Biology

• THE ORGANIZATION OF THE AVIAN TELENCEPHALON AND SOME SPECULATIONS ON THE PHYLOGENY OF THE AMNIOTE TELENCEPHALON* · Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 1969 · 434 citations
• Origin and Evolution of the Elephantidae · Transactions of the American Philosophical Society · 1973 · 413 citations
• Australopithecus to Homo: Transformations in Body and Mind · Annual Review of Anthropology · 2000 · 249 citations
• Energetics and the Evolution of the GenusHOMO · Annual Review of Anthropology · 2002 · 200 citations
• The Brain and Its Role in the Phylogenetic Transformation of the Human Skull · Transactions of the American Philosophical Society · 1941 · 183 citations
• Into the Light: The Origin of Anthropoidea · Annual Review of Anthropology · 2000 · 162 citations
• Infrasonic calls of the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) · Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology · 1986 · 162 citations
• The Early Tertiary Rodents of the Family Paramyidae · Transactions of the American Philosophical Society · 1962 · 121 citations
• Functional Affinities of the Olduvai Hominid 8 Talus · Man · 1968 · 119 citations
• Late Permian Terrestrial Vertebrates, U. S. A. and U. S. S. R. · Transactions of the American Philosophical Society · 1962 · 112 citations

Most recent work

• Scimitar-crested Spinosaurus species from the Sahara caps stepwise spinosaurid radiation · Science · 2026
• New Species of Vegavis (Neornithes) from Antarctica Highlights Unexpected Cretaceous Antarctic Diversity · Diversity · 2026
• First high-precision radioisotopic age from the Permian Bromacker lagerstätte (Tambach Formation, Germany) and implications for biochronology and biota evolution · Gondwana Research · 2026
• Prolonged growth and extended subadult development in the Tyrannosaurus rex species complex revealed by expanded histological sampling and statistical modeling · PeerJ · 2026
• Hemiplasy helps explain high rates of apparent morphological convergence in neoavian birds · Current Biology · 2026
• Late Cretaceous origins for major nightshade lineages from total-evidence timetree analysis · Annals of Botany · 2026
• The phylogenetic origin of turtles · Current Biology · 2026
• Filling a key gap in growth patterns of Pseudosuchia through the osteohistology of Dynamosuchus collisensis (Ornithosuchidae: Archosauria) · Royal Society Open Science · 2026
• Microbial oxidation and carbonate cementation led to three-dimensional preservation of ichthyosaur bones · Communications Earth & Environment · 2026
• A Thick-Skulled Troodontid Theropod from the Late Cretaceous of Mexico · Diversity · 2026

Related topics in Earth and Planetary Sciences