World’s Oldest Python Found in Messel Pit
Fossils suggest that the constrictors’ origin lies in Europe. Together with his colleague Hussam Zaher of the University in São Paulo, Senckenberg scientist Krister Smith…
Fossils
New Insights Into the Origins of Flight From Ancient Archaeopteryx Fossil
Research reveals earliest flight-related molting strategy in 150-million-year ancient bird. Flying birds molt their feathers when they are old and worn because they inhibit flight…
Jurassic Scelidosaurus harrisonii: Only Dinosaur Bones Ever Discovered in Ireland
The only dinosaur bones ever found on the island of Ireland have been formally confirmed for the first time. The only dinosaur bones ever found…
Scientists Reconstruct Beetles From the Cretaceous – 99 Million Years Ago
International research team gains new insights into the evolution of fossil beetles. About a year ago, researchers found fossil specimens of beetles in an amber…
Sexual Intercourse of Ostracods Revealed Through 100-Million-Year-Old Amber Discovery
Small bivalved crustacean ostracods are the most abundant fossil arthropods since the Ordovician and play an important role in paleoenvironmental reconstruction and evolutionary biology. The…
Genetic Evidence From Fossilized Remains Show Climate Change Drove Mastodons Vast Distances Across North America
New research from an international team of evolutionary geneticists, bioinformaticians, and paleontologists suggests that dramatic environmental changes accompanying the shift or melting of continental glaciers…
New Fossil Ape Discovered in India Fills Major Gaps in the Primate Fossil Record
The 13-million-year-old gibbon ancestor fills major gaps in the primate fossil record. A 13-million-year-old fossil unearthed in northern India comes from a newly discovered ape,…
Evidence of Hibernation-Like State Discovered in Tusks of Strange 250-Million-Year-Old Antarctic Creature
Researchers discover Fossil evidence of ‘hibernation-like’ state in tusks of 250-million-year-old Antarctic animal. Among the many winter survival strategies in the animal world, hibernation is…
Triassic Megapredator’s Last Meal Was a Massive Marine Reptile
Some 240 million years ago, a dolphinlike ichthyosaur ripped to pieces and swallowed another marine reptile only a little smaller than itself. Then it almost…
Massive Reptile Discovered in the Belly of a Triassic Megapredator
When paleontologists digging in a quarry in southwestern China uncovered the nearly complete skeleton of a giant, dolphin-like marine reptile known as an ichthyosaur, they…
Stunning 99-Million-Year-Old Fossil Reveals “Hell Ants” in Detail: Hunted With Bizarre, Deadly Mandibles
In a 99-million-year-old preserved amber fossil, researchers get a detailed glimpse into how ‘Hell Ants’ hunted with scythe-like mandibles and horn appendages. In findings published…
Solved: Mystery That’s Been Puzzling Scientists Since 1852 – Bizarre Giraffe-Necked Reptile Hunted Underwater
Twenty-foot-long specimens described as separate species from their cousins, named after mythology’s Hydra. A fossil called Tanystropheus was first described in 1852, and it’s been puzzling…
Dinosaur Diagnosed With Malignant Cancer for the First Time – Cancerous Bone From 77 Million Years Ago
Royal Ontario Museum and McMaster University researchers diagnose osteosarcoma in a Centrosaurus apertus. A collaboration led by the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and McMaster University…
MIT’s New Evidence on Dinosaur Evolution
Geological evidence suggests the known dinosaur groups diverged early on, supporting the traditional dinosaur family tree. The classic dinosaur family tree has two subdivisions of…
Discovery of Giant 15′ Extinct Dolphin Shows Surprising Parallel Evolution With Whales
A report in the journal Current Biology on July 9 offers a detailed description of the first nearly complete skeleton of an extinct large dolphin, discovered in…
Fossil Discovered in the 1960s Finally Reveals Its Secrets: New Plant Species That Lived About 365 Million Years Ago
Antoine Champreux, a PhD student in the Global Ecology Lab at Flinders University, has catalogued the discovery of the new fern-like plant species as part…
Giant Armored Fish Fed Similar to Basking Sharks 380-Million-Years Ago
Scientists from the University of Bristol and the University of Zurich have shown that the Titanichthys — a giant armored fish that lived in the seas…
Microscopic Feather Features Explain Why These Terrifyingly Dangerous Birds Shine
Cassowaries are big flightless birds with blue heads and dinosaur-looking feet; they look like emus that time forgot, and they’re objectively terrifying. They’re also, along…