‘Bloat-and-Float’ Explains Dinosaur Fossil Mystery
A scientist with the Canadian Museum of Nature has answered a long-standing mystery about why fossils of ankylosaurus—the “armoured tanks” of the dinosaur world—are mainly…
Paleontology
New Discovery Changes Perceptions of the Evolution of Earth’s Biosphere
For the first four billion years of Earth’s history, our planet’s continents would have been devoid of all life except microbes. All of this changed…
Paleontologists Discover Never-Before-Seen Ancient Fish Species
Paleontologists from the University of Alberta have discovered a never-before-seen species of fish in South America, with the help of a curious tourist. The fossil,…
Cretaceous Footprints Found at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
A slab of sandstone discovered at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center contains at least 70 mammal and dinosaur tracks from more than 100 million years…
Newly Discovered Dinosaur (Mansourasaurus shahinae) Links Africa and Europe
When it comes to the final days of the dinosaurs, Africa is something of a blank page. Fossils found in Africa from the Late Cretaceous,…
New Approach to Studying Biomarkers Helped Solve 500-Million-Year-Old Mystery
A postgraduate student of the Faculty of Geology of MSU, working with an international scientific group, participated in chemical analysis of biomarkers — compounds that…
Tiny Jurassic Dinosaur Featured Rainbow Ruff and a Bony Crest
Ancient dinosaurs were adorned in some amazing ways, from the horns of the triceratops to the plates and spikes of the stegosaurus. A newly discovered,…
Habelia Optata – A 508-Million-Year-Old Sea Creature
Paleontologists at the University of Toronto (U of T) and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) in Toronto have entirely revisited a tiny yet exceptionally fierce…
Permian Ecosystems Tell Us A Lot About Modern Earth
A whopping two hundred and fifty-two million years ago, Earth was crawling with bizarre animals, including dinosaur cousins resembling Komodo dragons and bulky early mammal-relatives,…
Archaeologists Discover Oldest Known Funereal Fish Hooks
An archaeologist from The Australian National University (ANU) has uncovered the world’s oldest known fish-hooks placed in a burial ritual, found on Indonesia’s Alor Island,…
Inner Ears of Living Aquatic Animals Resemble Those of Extinct Sea Monsters
The inner ears of extinct aquatic reptiles from millions of years ago closely resemble those of some living aquatic animals with similar lifestyles or body…
Fossil Shows Transition From Life on Land to Life in the Sea
Using modern research tools on a 155-million-year-old reptile fossil, scientists at Johns Hopkins and the American Museum of Natural History report they have filled in…
Exceptionally Preserved Embryos Detail the Life History of a Pterosaur
The pterosaur record is generally poor, and pterosaur eggs are even rarer. Only a handful of isolated occurrences of eggs and embryos have been reported…
Mongolian Microfossils Shed Light on the Rise of Animals
A newly published study from Yale University details how a cache of embryo-like microfossils discovered in northern Mongolia may shed light on questions about the…
Scientists Identify a New Species of Giant Birdlike Dinosaur
The mystery of the world’s largest dinosaur eggs has been solved, paleontologists have identified the Baby Louie specimen as the embryo of a new species…
Drepanosaurus – A Small Reptile with a Rearsome Finger
A newly published study confirms that Drepanosaurus, a prehistoric cross between a chameleon and an anteater, was a small reptile with a fearsome finger. The…
Researchers Discover 305 Million-Year-Old “Early Spider” Fossil
A team of scientists has discovered the fossil of a 305 million-year-old arachnid, revealing more about the early origins of modern-day spiders. The new species,…
Yale Biologists Solve the Mystery of the Tully Monster
A newly published study from Yale University reveals that the Tully Monster had gills and a notochord, which functioned as a rudimentary spinal cord. The…
