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Paleontology & Fossils news
Rethinking how we name and classify our human ancestors following recent evolutionary discoveries
Recent advances in our understanding of human evolution challenge the way we currently name and classify our ancestors, according to new research from Monash University. The study, published in the American Journal of Biological ...
Evolution
5 hours ago
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Male Neanderthal pelvises resemble those of modern females, challenging decades-old assumptions
A new study by the Department of Anatomy and Anthropology at Tel Aviv University, published in Scientific Reports, offers an explanation for one of the striking differences between men and women: the evolutionary development ...
Evolution
Aug 17, 2026
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802
Last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees could have been a vertical climber, no matter its feet
New research suggests that no matter what we eventually determine the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees to be, we'll learn it was a primate that climbed trees.
Evolution
Aug 17, 2026
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141
Amber fossil reveals firefly relative with unprecedented antennae
Insects rely on a wide range of strategies to sense their surroundings and communicate with their peers. Fireflies (Lampyridae) and some related beetles are known for their ability to produce visible light through chemical ...
Giant crocodylians dominated the food chain in Miocene South America, fossil evidence suggests
South America was a frightening place during the Miocene. More than 10 million years ago, a vast lake covered much of the continent, home to giant turtles and crocodylians.
Ecology
Aug 16, 2026
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488
Crocodiles can't fly. Birds can. Scientists have finally figured out why
The closest living relatives of crocodiles and alligators are, perhaps surprisingly, birds. Both are archosauriforms, a group of species that originated about 250 million years ago near the beginning of the Triassic period.
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 14, 2026
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66
Two oceans, one country—and 20 times more sharks in the prehistoric Pacific
How many sharks should a coral reef have? It sounds like a simple question, but almost nowhere on Earth is there a reef that has not at some time been fished or otherwise affected by humans, so there is no yardstick against ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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91
Paleontologists reconstruct forests of 56 million years ago with chilling parallels for our warming planet
If you want to know how rapidly pumping carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will affect future forest ecosystems, you have to look into the distant past. The researchers behind a new study published in Science have done just ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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Climate change decided who ruled as top predator 35 million years ago
An international team of researchers from Belgium, France, Switzerland, Spain and the U.S. has reconstructed the evolution of body mass in carnivorous mammals during the Paleogene—a crucial window in the diversification of ...
Ecology
Aug 13, 2026
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A 236-million-year-old fossil challenges the story of mammalian live birth
Some cynodonts may have been giving birth to live young much sooner in evolutionary history than previously assumed. A new Frontiers in Mammal Science study has offered the first compelling evidence that cynodonts may have ...
Evolution
Aug 13, 2026
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322
New evidence helps solve how earliest birds took flight
The first bird to inhabit Earth used its robust hind legs to make two or three powerful leaps while flapping its way to flight, according to a study by the University of Southampton published in Developmental Biology.
Evolution
Aug 12, 2026
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170
Arctic fossil abandoned in 1948 proves to be record-size Triassic hunter
Nearly 80 years ago, a British expedition discovered the battered remains of a giant fossil on the peak of an Arctic island. Unable to take it with them, they snapped some pictures, took some bones and left the fossil to ...
Early snakes explored life underground, on land and at sea
Snakes are highly modified lizards, with more than 4,000 living species today. The origin of snakes has long been one of evolutionary biology's most debated questions. Their sparse fossil record has made it hard to pin down ...
Evolution
Aug 9, 2026
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Dodo birds more clever than we thought
The Mauritian dodo—a global symbol of human-caused extinction and one of the world's largest pigeons—may not have deserved its reputation as a silly simpleton and may have been the only member of its group to live in the ...
Ecology
Aug 8, 2026
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Dodos probably weren't as stupid as historians made them out to be: new research
The dodo has been extinct for more than 300 years, wiped out within decades of humans arriving on its home island of Mauritius, but it lives on in the public imagination.
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 8, 2026
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Small dinosaur fossil suggests Fukushima coast hosted iguanodontians of different sizes
Iguanodontians are a diverse group of herbivorous dinosaurs that lived from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous and had a worldwide distribution. Intercontinental dispersal events between Asia, North America and Europe ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 6, 2026
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Fossil study finds vision—not the 'thinking' frontal lobe—drove varied brain development in primates
A new study led by a Duke University scientist overturns a long-held idea about how primates, including humans, came to have such large and sophisticated brains. The research finds that the dramatic expansion of the primate ...
Evolution
Aug 6, 2026
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356
One of the world's only two complete dodo skulls reveals new clues about the extinct bird
Only two complete dodo skulls are known to exist anywhere in the world: one at the Natural History Museum Denmark and one at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History. The specimen housed in Copenhagen has been preserved ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 5, 2026
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66
Ancient armored fish that narrowly avoided meteorite strike reveals life before Earth's largest mass extinction
A rare fossil discovered near South America's largest known meteorite crater has been named a new species. Initially mistaken for a frog by locals, Leolepis matogrossensis is actually a species of ancient ray-finned fish—the ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 5, 2026
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Were there tiny dinosaurs? New study explores one of evolution's biggest mysteries
Dinosaurs are famous for being big, from the towering Tyrannosaurus rex to the colossal Apatosaurus. But a new study published today in the journal Evolution by scientists at the American Museum of Natural History and Princeton ...
Evolution
Aug 5, 2026
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More news
Before North and South America were connected, their mammals found a way to intermingle
Ancient DNA reveals Ice Age humans targeted female woolly mammoths
Mammoth bones found on parched bed of Danube in Bulgaria
Scientists discover 210-million-year-old dinosaur in Zimbabwe
'Bag of Bones' preserves rare three-tier prehistoric meal in Outback Queensland
Fossil footprints reveal body size and group dynamics of 1.4-million-year-old human relative
Other news
Physicists entangle quantum memories across a record-breaking 420 km
Ruby-forming mineral found by Mars rover hints at violent impacts
A new approach to building noise-resistant quantum sensors
Secrets of a mystery mammal from Patagonia revealed at last
How body size and habitat shape the vocal repertoires of primates
Genome-folding complex reveals a mechanism that helps establish neuron identity
Structural snapshots reveal key steps in switching on DNA replication
Krypton gas emerges as a new ingredient for quantum computing
Storms that built a graveyard: Ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil site
Danish fish fossil cliffs set to gain UNESCO status
Jurassic sea monster was smaller than once thought, but no less formidable
New web tool maps fossil locations across ancient continents in seconds
Japan's first mosasaur premaxilla fossil hints at a new species
Building real-time control for engineered biological systems
An African bat overlooked for two centuries is confirmed in Europe
End-to-end design creates two low-cost materials to capture methane
