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Dinosaurs often steal the limelight when it comes to fossils , but other prehistoric critter are just as deserving of our attention . As 2023 comes to a close , it ’s time to look back on some of the most jaw - drop dodo discoveries that were n’t all aboutT. rex . From a Pisces with eye too big for its stomach to the largest ever fossilized flower and mysterious nautical fossils that radiate amber , here ’s our pick of non - dino fossils that blew our socks off in 2023 .
Largest penguin to walk Earth
In February , scientists described fossils belong to the largest have it away species of penguins — Kumimanu fordycei , whichweighed a whopping 340 pounds(154 kilogram ) . These stupendous penguins glided through the sea around what is now New Zealand more than 50 million years ago , bones discovered inside beach boulders in North Otago on the country ’s South Island revealed .
investigator estimated the weight ofK. fordyceibased on the size and density of these bone equate with those of live penguin . The fossilized remains of eight other penguin specimen were also uncovered inside the Boulder , include those of the newfound speciesPetradyptes stonehouseiand a known specie of giant penguin , K. biceae .
jumbo penguins likely disappeared around 27 million yr ago , when they were outcompeted by maritime mammals alike in sizing , expert told Live Science .
The largest known penguin to ever waddle on Earth,Kumimanu fordycei, steps onto a beach surrounded by another newly discovered species,Petradyptes stonehousei,in this life reconstruction.
Tiny penguin skulls
In June , researchersidentified two petite skull fossilsfrom New Zealand ’s North Island as belonging to a never - before - seen extinct species , which they refer Wilson ’s small penguin ( Eudyptula wilsonae ) . The skulls , one from an adult and the other from a juvenile , were unmistakably similar to those of the modest living coinage of penguin today — the little penguin ( Eudyptula shaver ) .
Researchers do n’t know exactly how little the extinct birds were , but little penguins grow to a maximum size of 13.5 inch ( 35 centimeters ) and consider around 2 pounds ( 0.9 kg ) , which may be in the park .
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An artist’s interpretation of what the newly discovered species,Eudyptula wilsonae, would have looked like.
Fossilized flower mystery solved
In January , scientist finally catch to the bottom of a 150 - twelvemonth - old mystery . They discovered that aflower entombed in a lump of amberand break in the Baltic forests of Northern Europe in 1872 is a newfound species namedSymplocos kowalewskiithat dates to the late Eocene era ( roughly 38 million to 33.9 million years ago ) .
The specimen , which measure about 1 inch ( 2.8 cm ) wide , is the largest fossilized efflorescence ever record and is three times the sizing of the next - gravid gold - encased bloom .
Trilobites' hidden third eye
Scientists probe a fossilised trilobite specimen — an extinct marine arthropod that subsist during the Paleozoic Era ( 541 million to 252 million years ago ) — discovered that these prehistorical creatures did n’t have just a pair of compound middle , as previously reckon , but alsosported a third eye in the middle of their brow .
The trilobite specimen was missing a part of its head , which gave researchers a glimpse under a layer of shell that becomes opaque during the fossilization process and obscures the structures beneath . out of sight medial centre are coarse among arthropods hold out today .
Baby turtles mistaken for plants
A re - examination of two ancient " works " fossils discover in Colombia 50 years ago revealed they areactually the remains of hatchling turtlesfrom the dinosaur age . The 2 - inch - long ( 5 centimeter ) , leafage - work fossils fooled their finder , who originally placed them within a group of industrial plant that thrived during the LateDevonian(419.2 million to 358.9 million years ago ) and thePermian(298.9 million to 251.9 million years ago ) .
In December , it turn out the fossil were super rarified imprints of the upper shells of baby turtles go steady back to the Aptian old age ( 125 million to 113 million years ago ) of theCretaceous(145 million to 66 million years ago ) .
It ’s potential the hatchling were members of theoldest sea turtleson record — Desmatochelys padillai — but researchers would need a over underframe to confirm this .
The fossilized flower was discovered in a Baltic forest in 1872.
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Beheaded in action
A fossil from the Middle Triassic ( 247 million to 237 million years ago ) , which was discovered on the margin between Italy and Switzerland , showed pearl breaks and tooth marks coherent with a brutal decapitation . The victim , a gargantuan marine reptilian calledTanystropheus hydroideswith a neck three times as long as its torso , had itshead torn off in one clean and jerk biteby an even baneful brute that likely swoop down from above , expert said .
It ’s unclear which vulture could have killed the 20 - foot - long ( 6 meters ) reptile , but researchers narrowed down a listing of suspects by measuring the distance between the tooth marks . possible candidates include the 18 - pes - long ( 5.5 m ) ichthyosaurCymbospondylus buchseri ; an enormous reptile measuring up to 23 foot ( 7 m ) long calledNothosaurus giganteus ; andHelveticosaurus zollingeri — an enigmatic , 12 - foot - long ( 3.6 m ) predator .
Slasher dolphin with jutting teeth
In June , investigator key out a stunningly preserved dolphin skull as a newfound metal money that survive 25 million years ago during the Oligocene period of time ( 34 million to 23 million class ago ) . The fogey , which was first discovered buried in a drop side in 1998 and was being held in a museum collection in New Zealand , wasrecently namedNihohae matakoi , from Maori words meaning " thresh about teeth , face sharp . "
The skull was around 2 feet ( 60 centimetre ) long and sported prospicient teeth that stuck out almost horizontally from what would have been the snout . These spade - comparable teeth were probably mismated to catching Pisces , the research worker said , but the tool may have thrashed at its target to stun it before slurping it up . It ’s also possible the mahimahi ’s jutting tooth wait on a intimate or social purpose .
Prehistoric fish’s last supper
An challenging fogey found in a museum draftsman captured the moment a prehistorical Pisces bury an ammonoid — an extinct marine shellfish — andchoked to death on it . The ammonoid remained intact inside the fish ’s dead body and became imprinted in John Rock , lodged up against the predatory animal ’s spine . The pair in all probability died together about 180 million years ago , during the Jurassic period ( 201 million to 145 million years ago ) .
The fossil was discovered in 1977 near Stuttgart , in southwesterly Germany , but researchers initially stash away it away , as they thought the pairing of the fossilise fish and ammonite was a coincidence . Another feeling latterly reveal the ammonoid was inside the fish and likely caused its destruction due to the mollusk ’s size — tantamount to a man swallowing a dinner home base .
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Much like modern-day arthropods, trilobites had more than two eyes.
Mysterious golden fossils
shimmer fossils of marine animals from Germany ’s Posidonia Shale were long thought to glow atomic number 79 thanks to a mineral called pyrite , but theyturned out to contain very little of it . rather , investigator traced the fossil ' golden gleaming to phosphate minerals with yellowish calcite . Unlike fool’s gold , phosphate minerals need oxygen to form , which revealed new information about the fossilization process in the region .
Fossils from the Posidonia Shale — which admit ammonite , bivalves and crustaceans from the Jurassic period — are feel in what researcher once thought was a totally O - exhaust environment . The uncovering of phosphate minerals in the grooves intend a burst of O must have attain them at some point , plough the fossil into what looks like gold .
Mystery of prehistoric shrimp’s supper solved
A shrimp - same Cambrian critter ’s choice of food has surprised scientists : It was recall to feed by piercing intemperately - shelled prey , but it turns out it probably track down diffused - corporal animals instead . In July , computer models of fossils dating to 500 million geezerhood ago suggestedAnomalocaris canadensis , which was about the size of a house cat and boasted two spiky facial process , in all likelihood swim like a cuttlefish with its appendagesoutstretched to pincushion fair game .
Contrary to what was previously think , A. canadensis ' appendages in all probability were n’t rich enough to spit trilobites — extinct marine arthropods with a tough exoskeleton . So the strange creature more in all probability feasted on squishy animate being floating in the body of water column .
Fleeing vampire with luminous organs
— 500 million - year - honest-to-god worm with ' shuriken ' spike named after mammoth ' Dune ' sandworms
— Scientists reveal face of 10 - foot ' killer polliwog ' that terrorized Earth long before the dinosaur
— 462 million - year - old fossilized eyes and brains uncovered in ' secret ' Welsh fossil land site
Left hand side shows a drawing of the turtle’s ribs and backbone superimposed onto the oval shaped fossil. Right hand shows the fossil without the drawing ontop.
A new psychoanalysis of fossils belonging to a group of mostly extinct , octopus - similar creatures call vampyromorpha unwrap a antecedently undescribed species witheight arms , sucker attachments like a vampire calamari and glow - in - the - dark organs .
The 3.2 - inch - long ( 8 curium ) , fastball - shaped creature stalked Earth ’s oceans 165 million years ago and likely snatched prey using its arms . Researchers in France named itVampyrofugiens atramentum — a combination of the Serbian word for vampire , " vampir , " and the Latin word for fly , " fugiens " — mean the fleeing vampire .
Artist impression ofTanystropheus hydroideshaving its neck bitten by a larger predator.
The fossilized skull ofNihohae matakoi— first found in 1998 — has now been described by scientists.
The tuna-likePachycormus macropterusgot an ammonite lodged inside its body just before it died, researchers found.
Phosphate minerals are what cause these fossil to glow.
Fossilized remains ofAnomalocaris canadensis.
A hypothesized reconstruction ofVampyrofugiens atramentum.
