Paleontology

  1. Paleontology

    Dinosaur handprints reveal birdlike arm anatomy

    Inward-facing palms evolved much earlier than previously recognized, a new study finds.

    By
  2. Life

    New stegosaur is quite a stretch

    A newly discovered stegosaur has neck proportions like those of sauropods.

    By
  3. Life

    Step-by-step Evolution

    Hard to find, but very fruitful when found, transitional fossils fill in the gaps in the paleontological record.

    By
  4. Life

    Dinosaur day care dads

    A new study shows some male dinosaurs may have been the primary caretakers of their young.

    By
  5. Life

    Extreme preservation gives fly’s eye view

    The cell-by-cell detail of a 45 million-year–old retina is preserved in amber

    By
  6. Paleontology

    Bacteria may play big role in forming fossils

    Bacteria can build a biofilm that preserves a tissue's structure.

    By
  7. Life

    Mammoth genome approaching completion

    Genetic material extracted from the hair of woolly mammoths has revealed new information about the extinct creatures, including how closely related they are to modern elephants.

    By
  8. Chemistry

    Oldest evidence for complex life in doubt

    Chemical biomarkers in ancient Australian rocks, once thought to be the oldest known evidence of complex life on Earth, may have infiltrated long after the sediments were laid down, new analyses suggest.

    By
  9. Paleontology

    How pterosaurs took flight

    Extinct flying reptiles known as pterosaurs may have taken to the air with a technique akin to leapfrogging, new research suggests.

    By
  10. Life

    Fossil find may document largest snake

    Rocks beneath a coal mine in Colombia have yielded fossils of what could be the world's largest snake, a 12.8-meter–long behemoth that's a relative of today's boa constrictors.

    By
  11. Life

    How Tiktaalik got its neck

    The oldest fossil with a neck, Tiktaalik roseae, shows how animals developed a head for living on land.

    By
  12. Paleontology

    New arthropod species really stuck together

    Recent fossil discovery shows that new species of arthropod formed chains, raising the possibility of communal behavior.

    By