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Paleontology & Fossils news
Scientists discover 210-million-year-old dinosaur in Zimbabwe
A newly discovered dinosaur from Zimbabwe is offering fresh clues to how the animals diversified, suggesting they spread across distinct ecosystems in southern Africa, scientists said Wednesday.
Paleontology & Fossils
19 minutes ago
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Deformed head shapes in fossilized humans show their infants were probably just as helpless as modern human babies
Archaic human parents had to look after helpless infants like modern-day parents do, according to new research. Human babies are born less developed than those of other great apes and are therefore unable to move as freely. ...
Evolution
9 hours ago
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'Bag of Bones' preserves rare three-tier prehistoric meal in Outback Queensland
An ancient marine 'crime scene' discovered near Richmond captures the world first evidence of a flying reptile being eaten by a sea monster… before that predator became dinner itself.
Paleontology & Fossils
10 hours ago
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Fossil footprints reveal body size and group dynamics of 1.4-million-year-old human relative
Ancient footprints preserved along the shores of Kenya's Lake Turkana are reshaping scientists' understanding of one of humanity's extinct relatives. A paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 27, 2026
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Saber-toothed cats' spinal tumors suggest inbred species struggled to survive
The fossilized spines of saber-toothed cats in the La Brea Tar Pits reveal evidence of an unexpectedly high prevalence of rare spinal nerve tumors, suggesting that the species became inbred just before extinction. These tumors, ...
Evolution
Jul 27, 2026
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Why evolution never produced mammal teeth that slice and crush equally well
Evolution is all about trade-offs. Traits that may be beneficial in one situation may backfire in another. Over millions of years, species can become specialized for one way of living rather than being equally good at everything. ...
80‑million‑year‑old snake fossil sheds light on why lizards lost their limbs and started slithering
Snakes are everywhere in our legends and mythology. Yet for most of us, our blood runs cold whenever we encounter these strangely undulating, scaly tubes of muscle slithering through the leaf litter.
Evolution
Jul 23, 2026
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Portugal's ancient giant bears shrank over thousands of years and humans may be to blame
About 22,000 years ago, a giant brown bear lumbered across what is now Portugal. The creature weighed around 385 kg (about 850 pounds), making it one of the largest of its kind ever found, towering over the Iberian brown ...
Marine animals first colonized empty seashells about 470 million years ago
An international study led by researchers from the University of Tartu shows that approximately 470 million years ago, a significant ecological change took place in the world's oceans: For the first time, the interiors of ...
Ecology
Jul 22, 2026
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Storms that built a graveyard: Ancient monsoons created a spectacular dinosaur fossil site
Around 80 million years ago, a stretch of tropical coastline in what is now northeastern Italy was lashed by monsoon rains and tropical cyclones. Those storms swept dinosaur carcasses, crocodiles, plants and river mud onto ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 22, 2026
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Danish fish fossil cliffs set to gain UNESCO status
Two Danish coastal cliffs where paleontologists have uncovered 55-million-year-old fossils of prehistoric wildlife are likely to gain World Heritage status as UNESCO's committee meets in South Korea.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 22, 2026
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2,000 volunteers join a painstaking effort to restore massive skeleton of prehistoric predator
Volunteers armed with chisels, brushes and protective goggles chip away at rock encasing the bones of a massive prehistoric amphibian in a glass-walled laboratory on the ground floor of Warsaw's Copernicus Science Centre.
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 22, 2026
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Jurassic sea monster was smaller than once thought, but no less formidable
For more than 25 years, Liopleurodon has been one of the world's most recognizable prehistoric marine predators. Immortalized in the BBC's landmark Walking with Dinosaurs series as a colossal 25-meter (82-foot) marine hunter, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 21, 2026
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New web tool maps fossil locations across ancient continents in seconds
Calculating a fossil's position throughout geological history is a complex process. In paleontology and other disciplines, determining a location in the past is a challenge that requires refined computational tools to process ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 20, 2026
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Japan's first mosasaur premaxilla fossil hints at a new species
A research team from Okayama University of Science, Tokyo City University, the Natural History Museum, Kishiwada City (Osaka Prefecture), and other institutions has identified four previously unrecognized fossil bones from ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 20, 2026
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On the hunt for Earth's first complex life
How life started on our own planet may not seem as interesting as finding evidence of life on Mars or the icy moons Europa or Enceladus. But the search for the first eukaryotes on Earth remains as important to astrobiology ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jul 20, 2026
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Researchers identify class of 'oddball' meteorite that killed the dinosaurs
A rare CO chondrite meteorite was the probable impacter that struck Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out 75% of Earth's species, including nonavian dinosaurs. These findings are published in Science Advances. Researchers ...
Biotechnology
Jul 17, 2026
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Reptile fossil found in Brazil helps shed light on the common origins of dinosaurs and crocodiles
Long before dinosaurs ruled the continents and modern crocodiles first appeared, their ancestors were already going through a decisive phase in their evolutionary history. It was in this ancient world, shortly after the greatest ...
Evolution
Jul 17, 2026
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Australia's most diverse marsupial predators have been hiding their origins for millions of years
When you think of carnivorous marsupials, you probably picture the Tasmanian devil or perhaps a spotted-tailed quoll. But these famous predators are only the largest members of a remarkable family of marsupials called dasyurids.
Evolution
Jul 17, 2026
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Living alligators expose why juvenile fossils can fool classification methods
Fossil finds are exciting moments that sometimes introduce the world to an ancient mammal or dinosaur that existed millions of years ago. But a longstanding problem in paleontology is that fossils are often incomplete, and ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 16, 2026
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More news
T. rex babies were born ready to run and feed themselves
Ultraviolet light uncovers the first known juveniles of a mysterious Jurassic fish family
Scientists recover sub-Saharan Africa's oldest ancient animal DNA
T. rex was likely responsible for some tooth marks on fossil bones from Cretaceous era
Bone 'fingerprints' unlock hidden stories of underwater caves
What science loses when T. rex becomes a trophy
Mystery bidder buys T. rex nicknamed 'Gus' for a record $50 million
Famous puzzle-solving chimps lost 20 years of life after harsh Berlin winters
New Jurassic dinosaur species identified in Thailand from a single bone
Giant kangaroos survived until 6,500 years ago on the New Guinea coast
Fossils found decades ago reveal extinct 3.5 million-year-old giant salamander species
Ancient hobbit-like humans may have survived on meat left behind by Komodo dragons
Rare 309-million-year-old fossils suggest early tetrapods developed without tadpole phase
A rare dinosaur fossil from Antarctica is found tucked away in a drawer
'Gus' the T. rex presented in New York ahead of auction
Scientists uncover two new ways doxycycline disables bacterial ribosomes
Nanomace catalyst boosts greenhouse gas breakdown up to 14.4-fold
Tropical insects may be running out of room as temperatures rise
'Rivers in the sky' influence marine heat waves
