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Paleontology & Fossils news
Plants struggled for millions of years after the world's worst climate catastrophe, scientists reveal
A team of scientists from University College Cork (UCC), the University of Connecticut, and the Natural History Museum of Vienna have uncovered how plants responded to catastrophic climate changes 250 million years ago.
Plants & Animals
12 hours ago
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New fossil discovery of an early human relative reveals that it walked upright, just like humans
Paranthropus robustus was a species of prehistoric human that lived in South Africa about 2 million years ago, alongside Homo ergaster, a direct ancestor of modern people. Fossils of Paranthropus robustus are found in abundance ...
Evolution
Mar 5, 2025
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143
Ancient DNA reveals 6,000 years of the lives of Antarctic penguins
Analysis of sedimentary ancient DNA has illuminated 6,000 years of the lives of Adélie penguin colonies on Antarctica's Ross Sea coast, showing how animals in the region responded to climate and environmental change events ...
Ecology
Mar 5, 2025
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Ancient amphibians bounced back from Earth's greatest mass extinction by exploiting freshwater prey, study suggests
Ancient frog relatives survived the aftermath of the largest mass extinction of species by feeding on freshwater prey that evaded terrestrial predators, University of Bristol academics have found.
Ecology
Mar 4, 2025
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Fossil study reveals oldest larval eyes with high-resolution vision
Adult insects are known for their fascinating and complex eyes, which allow them to accomplish remarkable sensory feats when performing functions such as searching for food or mates. In many insect larvae, however, these ...
Evolution
Mar 4, 2025
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67
When did our ancestors start to eat meat regularly? Fossilized teeth get us closer to the answer
For decades, scientists have been learning more about the diets of early hominins, particularly their reliance on plants. Yet we still don't know when these ancestors of humans started eating meat.
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 3, 2025
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Digitization as the key to processing colonial natural history collections
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has published a commentary in Nature Reviews Biodiversity highlighting how digitization in a contextualized form can be used as a powerful research ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Mar 3, 2025
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Eocene mudflat fossils reveal ancient waterbird foraging behaviors and four new species
Recently, paleontologists Dr. John-Paul Zonneveld, Dr. Sarah Naone, and Dr. Brooks Britt described the discovery and classification of four new ichnotaxa (fossilized trace taxa) from the Eocene mudflat successions of Utah.
When birds lose the ability to fly, their bodies change faster than their feathers, scientists discover
More than 99% of birds can fly. But that still leaves many species that evolved to be flightless, including penguins, ostriches, and kiwi birds. In a study in the journal Evolution, researchers compared the feathers and bodies ...
Evolution
Feb 27, 2025
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Utah dig site reveals increased diversity of fossilized eggshells
A team of biological, Earth and environmental scientists from North Carolina State University, Stellenbosch University and the University of Minnesota has found new types of ancient eggshells in the Mussentuchit Member in ...
How paleontologists are uncovering dinosaur behavior
How do scientists study the behavior of dinosaurs, who died 65 million years ago? After all, dinosaur fossils are rare enough as it is, and most are fragments and difficult to work with.
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 26, 2025
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Earliest evidence for humans in rainforests discovered
Rainforests are a major world biome which humans are not thought to have inhabited until relatively recently. New evidence now shows that humans lived in rainforests at least 150 thousand years ago in Africa, the home of ...
Evolution
Feb 26, 2025
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Humans have the earliest jawed fish to thank for their flexible joints, study suggests
The efficient architecture of our joints, which allows our skeletons to be flexible and sturdy, originated among our most ancient jawed fish ancestors, according to a study published in the open-access journal PLOS Biology ...
Evolution
Feb 25, 2025
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Discovery reveals giant flying squirrel once soared over Southern Appalachia
A giant flying squirrel—about the size of today's house cats—once soared through the skies over what is now Southern Appalachia, gliding above rhinos, mastodons and red pandas.
Evolution
Feb 24, 2025
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103
Volcanic forces may have fueled early marine life, study suggests
Analysis of fossilized rocks known as stromatolites from more than 2.5 billion years ago has provided new insights into the conditions on Earth before the evolution of oxygen.
Evolution
Feb 24, 2025
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A 380-million-year-old fossil 'fish' from Scotland has been discovered in Australia
Queensland is renowned for its fossils of Australia's largest back-boned animals—dinosaurs, of course, like the Jurassic Rhoetosaurus, the Cretaceous Wintonotitan, and other large sauropods.
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 24, 2025
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New sauropod species from Romania transforms understanding of dinosaur island life in Europe
The end of the Cretaceous Period, 66 million years ago, marked the dramatic extinction of the dinosaurs. Until now, our understanding of this mass extinction has been largely shaped by fossils from North America. However, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 21, 2025
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Carnivorous dinosaurs thrived in Australia 120 million years ago, new fossils show
Between 122 and 108 million years ago, the Australian landmass was much farther south than today. Victoria was positioned within the Antarctic Circle, separated from Tasmania by a vast rift valley rather than open sea.
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 20, 2025
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The inner ear of Neanderthals reveals clues about their enigmatic origin
New research on the inner ear morphology of Neanderthals and their ancestors challenges the widely accepted theory that Neanderthals originated after an evolutionary event that implied the loss of part of their genetic diversity. ...
Evolution
Feb 20, 2025
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The origin of feathers remains a mystery
Birds are inextricably linked to feathers, which allow them to fly, keep warm and put on dramatic displays. Feathers, however, predate birds—having first belonged to extinct dinosaurs. Finding out exactly when feathers ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Feb 20, 2025
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More news
New Australian dinosaurs and the oldest megaraptorid fossils in the world
France finds smuggled dinosaur teeth in parcels bound for Italy
Underwater fossil bed discovered by collectors preserves rare slice of Florida's past
Museum fossils go to space
Soft tissue of a plesiosaur reveals it had scales similar to those of sea turtles
How a student's teenage curiosity led to the first megalodon discovery in Canada
Cretaceous fossil from Antarctica reveals earliest modern bird
Other news
Private lunar lander touches down on the moon, but its status is unknown
Bacterial 'jumping genes' can target and control chromosome ends
Prague museum to host first European display of 3.18 million year old Lucy
New genus and species within Ornithomimidae dinosaur family identified in Mexico
Discovery of collagen in fossil bone could unlock new insights into dinosaurs
Rare pterosaur fossil reveals crocodilian bite 76 million years ago
How we uncovered the UK's biggest site of dinosaur tracks in a quarry in Oxfordshire
Romanian fossils show hominins in Europe 500,000 years earlier than thought
European rocket successfully carries out first commercial mission
Salt-based catalysts enable selective production of mirror-image molecules
