Paleontology
- Paleontology
Birds’ honks filled Late Cretaceous air
Oldest avian voice box fossil yet discovered belonged to a ducklike bird that lived during the age of the dinosaurs.
- Paleontology
Ancient microbe fossils show earliest evidence of shell making
Armor-plated, 809-million-year-old fossilized microbes discovered in Canada are the oldest known evidence of shell making.
- Animals
Barnacles track whale migration
The mix of oxygen isotopes in the shells of barnacles that latch on to baleen whales may divulge how whale migration routes have changed over millions of years.
- Paleontology
Pterosaurs weren’t all super-sized in the Late Cretaceous
A 77-million-year-old flying reptile may be the smallest pterosaur of the Late Cretaceous.
- Life
Fossils hint at India’s crucial role in primate evolution
Ancient fossils from coal mine in India offer clues to what the common ancestor of present-day primates might have looked like.
- Health & Medicine
Readers contemplate aging research
Aging research, dino guts and Earth's quasisatellite in reader feedback.
- Paleontology
Preteen tetrapods identified by bone scans
Roughly 360 million years ago, young tetrapods may have schooled together during prolonged years as juveniles in the water.
- Paleontology
Jurassic ichthyosaur dubbed ‘Storr Lochs Monster’ unveiled
A rare, 170-year-old skeleton discovered in Scotland is one of the best-preserved ichthyosaur fossils from the Middle Jurassic.
- Paleontology
Greenland may be home to Earth’s oldest fossils
Dating to 3.7 billion years ago, mounds of sediment called stromatolites found in Greenland may be the oldest fossilized evidence of life on Earth.
- Oceans
Lack of nutrients stalled rebound of marine life post-Permian extinction
Warm sea surface temperatures slowed the nitrogen cycle in Earth’s oceans and delayed the recovery of life following the Permian extinction, researchers propose.
- Earth
Americas’ hookup not so ancient after all
Debate lingers over when the Isthmus of Panama formed and closed the seaway that separated North and South America millions of years ago.
- Paleontology
Humans may have taken different path into Americas than thought
An ice-free corridor through the North American Arctic may have been too barren to support the first human migrations into the New World.
