Primordial “Hyper-Eye” Discovered: Astonishing 390 Million-Year-Old Hyper-Compound Eye With 200 Lenses
Trilobites of the suborder Phacopina had a unique eye in which about 200 large lenses in each eye spanned at least six individual facets, each…
Fossils
New Species of Tardigrade (Water Bear) Discovered in 16 Million-Year-Old Dominican Amber
Tardigrades, also known as water bears, are a diverse group of charismatic microscopic invertebrates that are best known for their ability to survive extreme conditions….
Fossil Footprints Reveal Humans Inhabited North America Over 21,000 Years Ago
Newly discovered fossil human footprints embedded in an ancient lakebed show that humans inhabited North America during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), occupying the region…
Researchers Discover Four Dinosaurs in Montana: Fieldwork Pieces Together Life at the End of “Dinosaur Era”
A team of paleontologists from the University of Washington and its Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture excavated four dinosaurs in northeastern Montana this…
A Very Rare Discovery: 25-Million-Year-Old Ancient Eagle Ruled the Roost in Australia
63 bone fossil finding in desert is one of the “best preserved” eagles ever and a very rare discovery. A 25-million-year-old eagle fossil found in…
Child’s Play: Are Tibetan Hand and Foot Traces From 200,000 Years Ago the Earliest Example of Parietal Art?
Fossilized footprints, and more rarely, handprints, can be found around the world left as people went about their daily business, preserved by freak acts of…
Ancient Footprints Provide Evidence of Human Activity in the Americas Thousands of Years Earlier Than Thought
Footprints found at White Sands National Park in New Mexico provide the earliest unequivocal evidence of human activity in the Americas and offer insight into…
Giant Waikato Penguin: School Kids in New Zealand Discover New Species
A giant fossilized penguin discovered by New Zealand school children has been revealed as a new species in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology by Massey University…
Exquisitely Preserved Fossils Show What the Ancestral Brains of Arthropods Looked Like 500 Million Years Ago
Rare fossils preserving the brains of creatures living more than half a billion years ago shed new light on the evolution of arthropods. Exquisitely preserved…
All Living Snakes Evolved From a Few Survivors of Asteroid That Killed the Dinosaurs
Research from the Milner Center for Evolution suggests modern snakes evolved from a handful of ancestors that survived the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. A…
500-Million-Year-Old “Worm-Like” Fossil Represents Rare Discovery of Ancient Animal in North America
Scientists at the University of Missouri are using an ancient find to unlock new clues surrounding the diversity of species following the Cambrian explosion. Many…
Paleontologists Reconstruct One of the Strangest Carnivorous Dinosaurs Ever Discovered
Scientists Reveal the Fossilized Skin of a Bull-Like Carnivorous Dinosaur One of the strangest carnivorous dinosaurs ever discovered has been given a makeover by a…
Who Was King Before T. rex? Dinosaur Fossil Reveals New Apex Predator
University of Tsukuba researchers have described a new apex predator from the lower Upper Cretaceous of Central Asia, Ulughbegsaurus uzbekistanensis, which coexisted with a smaller…
Surprising Diversity of Cretaceous Reptiles at Argentina Fossil Site – Revealed by Discovery of Ancient Teeth
Remains include the first armored dinosaurs and land-dwelling crocs from the region. Where skeletons are rare, isolated teeth can flesh out our understanding of ancient…
Police Raid Uncovers Fossil of Exceptional Flying Reptile From Brazil
Complete skeleton provides first look at entire body of Tupandactylus navigans. A fossil acquired in a police raid has turned out to be one of…
400-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal How the First Roots Evolved
A plant fossil from a geological formation in Scotland sheds light on the development of the earliest known form of roots. A team led by…
Closing a 25-Million Year Gap Between the “Molecular Clock” and the Fossil Record of Plants
Early Land Plants Evolved From Freshwater Algae, Fossils Reveal The world may need to start thinking differently about plants, according to a new report in…
Reconstruction of Tyrannosaur Braincases Shows More Variation Than Previously Thought
Among the fierce carnivores that lived during the late Cretaceous was a predator named Daspletosaurus. The massive tyrannosaur, about nine meters long, lived in the…