Paleontology

Earth

A new book reveals stories of ancient life written in North America’s rocks

In ‘How the Mountains Grew,’ John Dvorak probes the interlinked geology and biology buried within the rocks of North America.

Life

If confirmed, tubes in 890-million-year-old rock may be the oldest animal fossils

Newly described wormlike fossils may be ancient sea sponges. If confirmed, the fossils would reveal a remarkably early start to animal life.

Paleontology

3.42-billion-year-old fossil threads may be the oldest known archaea microbes

The structure and chemistry of these ancient cell-like fossils may hint where Earth’s early inhabitants evolved and how they got their energy.

Paleontology

Pterosaurs may have been able to fly as soon as they hatched

A fossil analysis shows the flying reptile hatchlings had a stronger bone crucial for lift-off that adults and shorter, broader wings for agility.

Paleontology

Insects had flashy, noise-making wings as early as 310 million years ago

The structure of a grasshopper-like insect’s fossilized wing suggests it crackled and reflected light, perhaps to attract mates or warn off predators.

Paleontology

Fossilized dung from a dinosaur ancestor yields a new beetle species

Whole beetles preserved in fossilized poo suggest that ancient droppings may deserve a closer look.

Paleontology

For some dinosaurs, the Arctic may have been a great place to raise a family

Fossils of baby dinosaur remains found in northern Alaska challenge the idea that some dinosaurs spent only summers in the Arctic.

Paleontology

An ancient creature thought to be a teeny dinosaur turns out to be a lizard

CT scans of hummingbird-sized specimens trapped in amber reveal that the 99-million-year-old fossils have a number of lizardlike features.

Paleontology

Something mysteriously wiped out about 90 percent of sharks 19 million years ago

Deep sediments beneath the Pacific Ocean revealed a mystery: a massive shark die-off with no obvious cause.

Paleontology

T. rex’s incredible biting force came from its stiff lower jaw

T. rex could generate incredibly strong bite forces thanks to a boomerang-shaped bone that stiffened the lower jaw, a new analysis suggests.

Paleontology

‘Monkeydactyl’ may be the oldest known creature with opposable thumbs

A newly discovered pterosaur that lived during the Jurassic Period could have used its flexible digits to climb trees like a monkey.

Paleontology

The dinosaur-killing asteroid impact radically altered Earth’s tropical forests

The asteroid impact fundamentally reset the nature of Earth’s tropical rainforests, decreasing diversity at first and making them permanently darker.