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Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 2025.

Flora

Plants

Cnidarians

Arthropods

Brachiopods

Molluscs

Echinoderms

Conodonts

Conodont research

• A study on the phylogenetic relationships, biogeography and biostratigraphy of members of the genus Gnathodus is published by Wang, Hu & Wang (2025).

Fish

Amphibians

Amphibian research

• Jenkins et al. (2025) redescribe the skull of Hapsidopareion lepton, consider Llistrofus pricei to represent a junior synonym of this species, and reevaluate the affinities of recumbirostrans, recovering them as a clade of stem-amniotes.

Reptiles

Synapsids

Mammals

Other animals

Other animal research

• Evidence from the study of Cambrian scalidophoran fossils, interpreted as indicating that the ventral nerve cord was ancestrally unpaired in scalidophorans, priapulids and possibly ecdysozoans in general, is presented by Wang et al. (2025).
• A study on fossil material of the tommotiid Lapworthella fasciculata from the Cambrian strata in Australia is published by Bicknell et al. (2025), who report evidence of increase of thickness of sclerites of L. fasciculata and increase of the frequency of perforated sclerites through time, and interpret these findings as the oldest evidence of evolutionary arms race between predator and prey reported to date.

Foraminifera

Other organisms

Research on other organisms

• Saint Martin et al. (2025) identify body fossils of Palaeopascichnus in the Neoproterozoic Histria Formation (Romania), providing evidence of the Ediacaran age of the studied formation.

History of life in general

• Maletz et al. (2025) revise Paleozoic fossils with similarities to feathers, and interpret the studied fossil material as including remains of macroalgae, hydrozoan cnidarians and graptolites.
• Zong et al. (2025) report the discovery of a new assemblage of well-preserved fossils (the Huangshi Fauna) in the Silurian (Rhuddanian) strata in south China, including fossils of sponges, cephalopods, arthropods and carbon film fossils of uncertain identity.
• A study on the assemblage of fossil teeth from the Middle Triassic (Anisian) strata from the Montseny area (Spain), providing evidence of presence of capitosaur temnospondyls, procolophonids, archosauromorphs and indeterminate diapsids, is published by Riccetto et al. (2025).

Other research

• Evidence of a link between marine iodine cycle and stability of the ozone layer throughout Earth's history, resulting in an unstable ozone layer until approximately 500 million years ago that might have restricted complex life to the ocean prior to its stabilization, is presented by Liu et al. (2025).
• Evidence of slow accumulation of Australian sediments preserving Archean mudrocks with high organic content is presented by Lotem et al. (2025), who interpret their findings as consistent with lower primary productivity in Archean than in present times.
• Cowen et al. (2025) study the geochemistry of dental tissue of Devonian fish fossils from Svalbard (Norway) and Cretaceous lungfish and plesiosaur fossils from Australia, and interpret their findings as indicative of preservation of the primary chemical composition of the bioapatite in the studied fossils.

Paleoclimate

• Evidence of low atmospheric CO₂ levels throughout the main phase of the late Paleozoic icehouse, and of rapid increase in atmospheric CO₂ between 296 and 291 million years ago, is presented by Jurikova et al. (2025).
• Evidence indicating that abrupt climate changes during the Last Glacial Period increased pyrogenic methane emissions and global wildfire extent is presented by Riddell-Young et al. (2025).

References

1. Gini-Newman, Garfield; Graham, Elizabeth (2001). Echoes from the past: world history to the 16th century. Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson Ltd. ISBN 9780070887398. OCLC 46769716.
2. Krutykh, A. A.; Mirantsev, G. V.; Rozhnov, S. V. (2025). "Sutherlandia gzheliensis sp. nov.—a New Species of Favositid Coral from the Gzhelian Stage of the Moscow Syneclise". Paleontological Journal. 58 (11): 1208–1215. doi:10.1134/S0031030124601075.
3. Baranov, V. V.; Kebrie-ee Zade, M. R.; Blodgett, R. B. (2025). "New Late Devonian (Upper Famennian) Athyridids from the Khoshyeilagh Formation of Eastern Alborz Mountains, North-East Iran". Paleontological Journal. 58 (11): 1232–1241. doi:10.1134/S0031030124601105.
4. Rozhnov, S. V. (2025). "Kukrusecrinus stellatus gen. et sp. nov.—the First Representative of the Family, Colpodecrinidae (Crinoidea, Camerata) in the Baltic Ordovician, Its Paleobiogeographic Significance and the Family Phylogenetic Position". Paleontological Journal. 58 (11): 1266–1280. doi:10.1134/S0031030124601129.
5. Tolmacheva, T. Yu.; Dronov, A. V.; Lykov, N. A. (2025). "Multielement Conodonts from the Upper Ordovician of the Siberian Platform". Paleontological Journal. 58 (11): 1242–1265. doi:10.1134/S0031030124601117.
6. Wang, W.; Hu, K.; Wang, X. (2025). "Temporal and spatial evolution of Mississippian conodont: A case study". Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 112701. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2024.112701.
7. Jenkins, X. A.; Sues, H.-D.; Webb, S.; Schepis, Z.; Peecook, B. R.; Mann, A. (2025). "The recumbirostran Hapsidopareion lepton from the early Permian (Cisuralian: Artinskian) of Oklahoma reassessed using HRμCT, and the placement of Recumbirostra on the amniote stem". Papers in Palaeontology. 11 (1). e1610. doi:10.1002/spp2.1610.
8. Wang, D.; Vannier, J.; Martín-Durán, J. M.; Herranz, M.; Yu, C. (2025). "Preservation and early evolution of scalidophoran ventral nerve cord". Science Advances. 11 (2). eadr0896. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adr0896. PMC 11721716. PMID 39792685. {{cite journal}}: Check |pmc= value (help)
9. Bicknell, R. D. C.; Campione, N. E.; Brock, G. A.; Paterson, J. R. (2025). "Adaptive responses in Cambrian predator and prey highlight the arms race during the rise of animals". Current Biology. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2024.12.007. PMID 39755119.
10. Kaminski, M. A.; Korin, A. (2025). "Flabellogaudryina n.gen, a new agglutinated foraminiferal genus from the Eocene of Saudi Arabia". Micropaleontology. 71 (1): 93–100. doi:10.47894/mpal.71.1.04.
11. Saint Martin, J.-P.; Charbonnier, S.; Saint Martin, S.; Cazes, L.; André, J.-P. (2025). "New records of Palaeopaschichnus Palij, 1976 from the Ediacaran of Romania". Geodiversitas. 47 (1): 1–16. doi:10.5252/geodiversitas2025v47a1.
12. Maletz, J.; Zhu, X.-J.; Zhang, Y.-D.; Gutiérrez-Marco, J. C. (2025). "The identification of 'feather-like' fossils in the Palaeozoic: Algae, hydroids, or graptolites?". Palaeoworld. doi:10.1016/j.palwor.2025.200909.
13. Zong, R.; Liu, Y.; Liu, Q.; Ma, J.; Liu, S. (2025). "A new exceptionally preserved fauna from a lowest Silurian black shale: Insights into the recovery of deep-water ecosystems after the Late Ordovician mass extinction". Geology. doi:10.1130/G53042.1.
14. Riccetto, M.; Mujal, E.; Bolet, A.; De Jaime-Soguero, C.; De Esteban-Trivigno, S.; Fortuny, J. (2025). "Tooth morphotypes shed light on the paleobiodiversity of Middle Triassic terrestrial vertebrate ecosystems from NE Iberian Peninsula (southwestern Europe)". Rivista Italiana di Paleontologia e Stratigrafia. 131 (1): 39–62. doi:10.54103/2039-4942/22340.
15. Liu, J.; Hardisty, D. S.; Kasting, J. F.; Fakhraee, M.; Planavsky, N. J. (2025). "Evolution of the iodine cycle and the late stabilization of the Earth's ozone layer". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 122 (2). e2412898121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2412898121. PMID 39761407.
16. Lotem, N.; Rasmussen, B.; Zi, J.-W.; Zeichner, S. S.; Present, T. M.; Bar-On, Y. M.; Fischer, W. W. (2025). "Reconciling Archean organic-rich mudrocks with low primary productivity before the Great Oxygenation Event". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 122 (2). e2417673121. doi:10.1073/pnas.2417673121. PMID 39761395.
17. Cowen, M. B.; de Rafélis, M.; Ségalen, L.; Kear, B. P.; Dumont, M.; Žigaitė, Ž. (2025). "Visualizing and quantifying biomineral preservation in fossil vertebrate dental remains". PeerJ. 13. e18763. doi:10.7717/peerj.18763. PMC 11700492. PMID 39763693. {{cite journal}}: Check |pmc= value (help)
18. Jurikova, H.; Garbelli, C.; Whiteford, R.; Reeves, T.; Laker, G. M.; Liebetrau, V.; Gutjahr, M.; Eisenhauer, A.; Savickaite, K.; Leng, M. J.; Iurino, D. A.; Viaretti, M.; Tomašových, A.; Zhang, Y.; Wang, W.; Shi, G. R.; Shen, S.; Rae, J. W. B.; Angiolini, L. (2025). "Rapid rise in atmospheric CO₂ marked the end of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age". Nature Geoscience: 1–7. doi:10.1038/s41561-024-01610-2.
19. Riddell-Young, B.; Lee, J. E.; Brook, E. J.; Schmitt, J.; Fischer, H.; Bauska, T. K.; Menking, J. A.; Iseli, R.; Clark, J. R. (2025). "Abrupt changes in biomass burning during the last glacial period". Nature. 637 (8044): 91–96. doi:10.1038/s41586-024-08363-3. PMID 39743610.

• 2025 in paleontology