Organizational structure of the Institute of Paleobiology - Institute Of Paleobiology Polish Academy of Sciences

12.09.2025 10:30

First known free-living lithistid sponge

Lithistids, an informal grouping of demosponges, are sponges with skeletons built of articulated spicules. Typically they are found in deep waters, but off the Somali coast we discovered six species inhabiting sandy sea-bottom at a depth of 50 metres.

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11.09.2025 12:04

An ichthyosaur skeleton hidden under paint

Ichthyosaurs are one of the symbols of the Mesozoic and, alongside whales, the best-adapted to a marine lifestyle amniotes. The Lower Jurassic Posidonia Shale abounds in excellently preserved fossils, including ichthyosaurs. We present a specimen of Stenopterygius quadriscissus (Bad Boll, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) from the collection of the Jagiellonian University in Cracow.

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22.08.2025 11:42

A new plesiosaur from Holzmaden

Plesionectes longicollum is a new plesiosauroid taxon from the lower Toarcian (Lower Jurassic) Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden, Germany, based on a nearly complete skeleton discovered in 1978. It exhibits a distinctive combination of anatomical features, including an extraordinarily long neck.

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18.08.2025 12:22

Rich fauna in the Upper Cretaceous of Romania

An outcrop in southern Transylvania displays Upper Cretaceous transitional sediments from a marine to brackish environment with terrestrial elements. An international research group (including three members of the Institute of Paleobiology) conducted a comprehensive faunal study of this outcrop and identified 102 taxa of organisms

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06.08.2025 10:15

New fossils from Owadów-Brzezinki

For over a decade, intensive research have been conducted at Upper Jurassic (Tithonian) at the Owadów-Brzezinki palaeontological site. The latest paper on the faunal assemblage from this locality deals above all with insects – a brief interpretation of their taphonomy is provided, and the challenges faced during their search in the quarry are highlighted.

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05.08.2025 13:55

Parasitic infestation in the crinoid fossil record

Early Devonian crinoids from Morocco, inhabiting the northern Gondwana shelf, are described. It was discovered that more than half of their stem fragments were colonized during host life by various epibionts.

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