Paleontology

Animals

Island orangs descend from small group

Bornean apes went through a genetic bottleneck when isolated during an ancient glaciation.

Paleontology

Ancient trumpets played eerie notes

Acoustic scientists re-create and analyze sounds from 3,000-year-old shell instruments for insight into pre-Inca civilization.

Paleontology

India yields fossil trove in amber

Insect remains suggest the continent hosted a surprisingly wide variety of creatures 50 million years ago.

Paleontology

The hunchback of central Spain

An exquisitely preserved dinosaur from central Spain has a hump on its back and suggestions of featherlike appendages on its arms. The primitive carnivore lived about 125 million years ago and may push back the first known instance of feathers on the dinosaur family tree.

Earth

Primordial bestiary gets an annex

A classic Canadian fossil trove extends to thinner deposits, geologists find.

Paleontology

Oldest dog debated

A fossil jaw may, or may not, come from the oldest known example of man’s best friend.

Paleontology

Apes and Old World monkeys may have split later than thought

A 29- to 28-million-year-old primate fossil found in Saudi Arabia assists scientists in timing a major evolutionary transition.

Earth

Moby Dick meets Jaws

A recently discovered fossil demonstrates that giant whales weren’t always as gentle as they are today.

Earth

Ancient marine reptiles losing their cool

Warm-bloodedness may help explain the creatures’ evolutionary success, a new study suggests.

Paleontology

Octopus origins

After examining more than 90 new specimens of Nectocaris pteryx, paleontologists put it near the root of the cephalopod evolutionary tree.

Earth

Earliest birds didn’t make a flap

The feathers of Archaeopteryx and Confuciusornis probably were not strong enough to support sustained flight.

Earth

Archaeopteryx fossil seen in new light

X-ray technique reveals original tissue in the feathers of a primitive bird fossil.