Paleontology
- Animals
Fossil find suggests this ancient reptile lurked on land, not in the water
An exquisitely preserved fossil shows that an ancient armored reptile called Eusaurosphargis dalsassoi wasn’t aquatic, as scientists had suspected.
- Paleontology
Giant armored dinosaur may have cloaked itself in camouflage
An armored dinosaur the size of a Honda Civic also wore countershading camouflage, a chemical analysis of its skin suggests.
- Paleontology
New fossils shake up history of amphibians with no legs
The oldest near-relative of today’s snake-shaped caecilians could have an unexpected backstory.
- Paleontology
Ancient attack marks show ocean predators got scarier
Killer snails and other ocean predators that drill through shells have grown bigger over evolutionary time.
- Paleontology
New dinosaur resurrects a demon from Ghostbusters
The most complete skeleton of an ankylosaur shows an armored, club-tailed dinosaur with a head like a Ghostbusters demon.
- Paleontology
Primitive whales had mediocre hearing
Fossils suggest that early whale hearing was run-of-the-mill, along the same line as that of land mammals.
- Paleontology
Sea scorpions slashed victims with swordlike tails
Ancient sea scorpion used a flexible, swordlike tail to hack at prey and defend against predators.
- Paleontology
Ancient whale tells tale of when baleen whales had teeth
A 36 million-year-old whale fossil bridges the gap between ancient toothy predators and modern filter-feeding baleen whales.
- Paleontology
‘Baby Louie’ dinosaur identified as a new species
A fossil embryo known as Baby Louie has been identified as a new species of dinosaur called Beibeilong sinensis.
- Animals
Beetles have been mooching off insect colonies for millions of years
The behavior, called social parasitism, has been going on for about 100 million years.
- Paleontology
Early dinosaur relative sported odd mix of bird, crocodile-like traits
Teleocrater rhadinus gives researchers a better picture of what early dinosaur relatives looked like.
- Paleontology
Bedbugs bugged prehistoric humans, too
Scientists have found the oldest known specimens of bedbug relatives in an Oregon cave system where ancient humans once lived.
