Paleontology

Paleontology

Oxygen blew up ancient amoebas

Single-celled creatures' size spiked as oxygen levels rose.

Paleontology

Acidifying oceans helped fuel mass extinction

The great die-off 250 million years ago could trace in part to hostile water conditions, a modeling study suggests.

Paleontology

Sea monsters made great mothers

Fossilized plesiosaur with fetus suggests ancient reptiles cared for their young.

Paleontology

Dinosaurs died of rickets

After more than 80 years, a theory that too little vitamin D led to the demise of the dinos still awaits a shred of evidence.

Paleontology

Big dinosaurs kept their cool

Body temperature of long-gone beasts resembled that of mammals, study of fossil teeth suggests.

Paleontology

Supersized superbunny

Fossils reveal a non-hopping giant rabbit that lived on the island of Minorca 5 million years ago.

Paleontology

New dinosaur species is titanic

Titanoceratops may be the oldest known member of the triceratops group.

Paleontology

Early meat-eating dinosaur unearthed

Pint-sized, two-legged runner from Argentina dates back to the dawn of the dinos, 230 million years ago.

Paleontology

An ammonite’s last supper

A detailed X-ray image of a fossil reveals an ancient marine creature’s diet.

Paleontology

Oceans may have poisoned early animals

High sulfur and low oxygen produced a deadly brew nearly 500 million years ago that apparently stalled a burst of evolutionary change.

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.