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


Rare T-Rex skeleton to go under the hammer in Switzerland

Standing 3.9 meters high and measuring 11.6 meters long, it is only the third T-Rex skeleton to be offered at auction, and the first in Europe.

A 67-million-year-old T-Rex skeleton named "TRX-293 TRINITY Tyrannosaurus" and measuring 11.6m long and 3.9m high, is seen during a preview at Koller auction house in Zurich, Switzerland March 29, 2023.

Oldest known Ichthyosaur remains discovered in Arctic

Scientists discovered the oldest known Ichthyosaur remains. The paleontological find is changing how scientists see the emergence of the species as a whole.

 Icthyosaur

Record-breaking dinosaur footprint appears on the coast of England - study

Measuring nearly one meter long, the footprint is the largest of its kind found in the English county of Yorkshire.

Replica of theropod footprints attributed to Megalosaurus

Titanosaurus' massive nesting sites, fossilized eggs uncovered in central India

The fossil nests are part of one of the largest dinosaur hatcheries in the world, found in central India.

(A) Completely unhatched egg (B) Almost fully intact outline of egg possibly indicating it to be unhatched (C) Compressed egg showing hatching window (arrow) (D) Egg showing curved outline. (E) Deformed egg showing egg surfaces slipping past each other.

Diverse dinosaur fossils discovered in inhospitable South American valley

The fossilized remains, which consisted of teeth and post-cranial bone pieces, represent a diverse theropod community that lived up until the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction event.

 Fossilized bones of the Maip macrothorax, a newly identified megaraptor dinosaur that inhabited the Argentinian Patagonian area, are displayed at the Buenos Aires' Natural Science museum, in Buenos Aires, Argentina April 27,

Fossil algae predating land flora sheds light on plant kingdom

In recent years, Precambrian lifeforms have generated an ever-increasing interest because they revealed a rich eukaryotic diversity prior to the Cambrian explosion of modern animals.

An illustration of the shallow sea- floor ecosystem in the Ediacaran Gaojiashan  biota, the environment in which Protocodium sinense would have lived 541- million-years ago

Oldest dinosaur in Africa discovered in Zimbabwe - study

The research that went into these discoveries was published on Wednesday in Nature. Mbiresaurus was a sauropodomorph, a long-necked dinosaur, and is estimated to have been about six feet tall.

Artistic reconstruction of Mbiresaurus raathi (foreground) with the rest of the Zimbabwean animal assemblage in the background, including two rhynchosaurs (front right), an aetosaur (left), and a herrerasaurid dinosaur chasing a cynodont (back right).

Oldest known humans started walking on two feet 7m. years ago - study

Researchers claim this discovery may contribute to how early humans split apart from apes to start their own evolutionary line.

Slightly larger brains than modern humans, and stronger, but extinct. An illustration of the Neanderthal man.

Plesiosaurs inhabited freshwater in Morocco, researchers find - study

Fossils discovered in Morocco indicate that the ancient marine reptiles were adapted to freshwater conditions and may have spent their entire lives there.

 Plesiosaurus dolichodeirus, 2008.

Study refutes claim T. Rex was three separate species

"Based on all the fossil evidence we currently have, T. rex stands alone as the single giant apex predator from the end of the Age of Dinosaurs in North America.”

A fossil of a dinosaur claw.