Paleontology

160 million years later: This rare fossil is overturning everything we knew about how birds evolved

Research on the Anchiornis specimen reveals hidden feather structures that contradict old theories on dinosaur flight. Scientists are now re-evaluating how and when animals first took to the skies.

160-million-year-old Anchiornis fossils.
Dinosaur, edmontosaurus close up with open mouth. Ukraine, Khmelnitsky, October 2021.

'Medusa,' possible 'dinosaur mummy' discovered in Badlands, transferred for further research

People in protective suits examine a frozen woolly mammoth from Siberia named "Yuka" during a media preview at the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Hall in Taipei November 6, 2013.

Scientists discover RNA molecules from a mammoth that went extinct 40,000 years ago

 an illustration of a shark being eaten by an even larger shark Scientists have long assumed megalodons looked like big great white sharks, but new research suggests this is not the case

Megalodon shark may have reached 80 feet, new study finds


New dino species discovery may explain why the T-Rex had tiny arms - study

The newly-discovered dino, the Meraxes gigas, was another predator that had a large skull and short arms like the Tyrannosaurus rex.

 An artist's reconstruction of the Cretaceous Period meat-eating dinosaur Meraxes gigas.

Hundreds of frogs died mid-sex in a swamp 45 million years ago - study

Irish paleontologists have uncovered why hundreds of fossil frogs were buried under an ancient swamp millions and millions of years ago.

 Eopelobates wagneri, frog, Eocene, Messel, Hesse, Germany - Houston Museum of Natural Science

Dinosaurs survived one extinction in chilly temperatures - study

Feathers and a high metabolism helped dinosaurs thrive while most other species died out, a new study shows.

 A handout illustration shows a sauropod dinosaur that lived in what is now Montana 150 million years ago during the Jurassic Period.

Analysis of mastodon tusk reveals first evidence of seasonal migration

Using new isotopic and life-history analyses technology, scientists were able to reconstruct he landscape where the animal roamed during his adolescence and final years of his life.

 University of Michigan paleontologist and study co-leader Daniel Fisher participated in the Buesching mastodon excavation 24 years ago. He later used a bandsaw to cut a thin, lengthwise slab from the center of the animal’s banana-shaped, 9½-foot right tusk.

Ancient giraffes had shorter necks and armored heads - study

New fossils found in northern China have revealed that ancient giraffes had a disk-shaped bone structure on their heads intended for head-butting opponents.

 A giraffe in the Akagera National Park.

Squamates were present on Earth for longer than previously thought - study

Although the Squamata is the largest order of reptiles, made up of over 10,000 different species, their evolutionary origins are not yet well understood.

Lizard 521

Perfectly preserved egg reveals what birds have inherited from dinosaurs

Birds are descended from a dinosaur species called Oviraptorosaurs.

Dinosaurs

Preserved dinosaur embryo sheds light on connection to modern birds

Scientists believe the embryo was fossilized in its egg after being buried by a mudslide that protected it from exposure to the elements and scavengers.

Dinosaurs

120-million-year-old bird may have used long tongue to catch food -study

B. macrohyoideus had curved bones for its tongue, suggesting that it had an elongated tongue that it used to retrieve food and move it around its mouth, like woodpeckers and hummingbirds.

Hummingbird

Footprints in Spain show meat-eating dinosaurs were fast and furious

It roughly matches the top speed achieved by Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, the world's fastest human being.

Dinosaurs