Paleontology
- Paleontology
Oldest known avian relative of today’s birds found in China
Fossil find suggests modern birds’ oldest avian relative lived about 6 million years before previous record holder.
By Meghan Rosen - Animals
Rare fossils expand evolutionary history of sperm whales
A pygmy fossil unearthed in Panama reveals that the organ the whales use to produce sound and echolocate shrunk over time.
- Paleontology
This dinosaur’s ride may have been a glide
A new dino called Yi qi may have taken to the skies with wings akin to those of pterosaurs and flying squirrels.
- Paleontology
‘Frankenstein’ dinosaur was a mash-up of meat eater and plant eater
Fossils of a bizarre-looking dinosaur found in Chile are challenging ideas about how dinosaurs adapted to their environments.
- Paleontology
Your toy stegosaurus may be a girl
Male and female stegosaurs may have looked different, a new study finds.
- Paleontology
Fossil reveals terror bird’s power
Bones of a new terror bird confirm the creatures used their beaks to hatchet their prey but also raise questions about what drove the birds extinct.
- Paleontology
Tyrannosaurs fought and ate each other
Evidence from a tyrannosaur skull and jaw fossils add to the argument that the ancient reptiles fought and weren’t above scavenging their own.
- Paleontology
Brontosaurus deserves its name, after all
Brontosaurus belongs in a genus separate from Apatosaurus, a new study proposes.
- Anthropology
Footprints offer clues about daily hominid life
Early male members of the human genus spent a lot of time together by the water, as their footprints attest.
By Bruce Bower - Paleontology
Fossil of monstrous fish-eating amphibian unearthed
A new Triassic species of giant amphibian lived like a crocodile instead of like its cute little salamander and frog relatives of today.
By Susan Milius - Paleontology
Fearsome croc called the Carolina Butcher once ruled the north
Early ancestors of crocodiles, not dinosaurs, may have been northern Pangaea’s top predator 230 million years ago, according to a new fossil find.
- Paleontology
Rise of East African Plateau dated by whale fossil
A whale fossil is helping to pinpoint when the East African Plateau started to rise and how the uplift played a role in human evolution, scientists say.