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Why humans have smaller faces than Neanderthals

The human face is strikingly distinct from our fossil cousins and ancestors—most notably, it is significantly smaller, and more gracile. However, the reasons behind this change remain largely unknown. A team of researchers ...

From dinosaurs to birds: The origins of feather formation

Feathers are among the most complex cutaneous appendages in the animal kingdom. While their evolutionary origin has been widely debated, paleontological discoveries and developmental biology studies suggest that feathers ...

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Ecology
New Zealand once home to southern elephant seals
Cell & Microbiology
Unusual desert rocks suggest unknown microorganism that uses marble and limestone as a habitat
Paleontology & Fossils
New report calls for return of human remains—but UK museums lack the resources to act
Paleontology & Fossils
Oldest cerapodan ornithischian dinosaur discovered in Morocco
Ecology
Discovery of a new species of fossil tree helps paint picture of ancient African forest
Paleontology & Fossils
Ancient seafloor creature grew like modern marine invertebrates, study suggests
Paleontology & Fossils
Vulture fossil discovery reveals how volcanic deposits can preserve the microscopic details of animal tissues
Paleontology & Fossils
A 15-million-year-old fossilized freshwater fish with preserved stomach contents is a newly discovered species
Evolution
How big brains and flexible skulls led to the evolution of modern birds
Paleontology & Fossils
Museums have tons of data, and AI could make it more accessible
Paleontology & Fossils
The first fossil thrips in Africa: this tiny insect pest met its end in a volcanic lake 90 million years ago
Paleontology & Fossils
Western Europe's oldest human face discovered in Spain
Paleontology & Fossils
Melanosome patterns in Mesozoic mammals suggest they had dark, uniformly dull fur coloring
Paleontology & Fossils
Rare aardvark trace fossils discovered in South Africa
Evolution
DNA and 90 million-year-old pollen fossils reveal new insights into evolution of Asian tropics
Paleontology & Fossils
Dinosaur tracks, made 140 million years ago, have been found for the first time in South Africa's Western Cape
Evolution
We modeled how early human ancestors ran—and found they were surprisingly slow
Paleontology & Fossils
Archaeologists uncover the oldest known partial face fossil of a human ancestor in western Europe
Paleontology & Fossils
Unnoticed for decades, dinosaur footprints at Australian school reveal ancient secrets
Paleontology & Fossils
Terrestrial 'life oasis' from end-Permian mass extinction period discovered in China

Other news

Other
Saturday Citations: Leaky continental plates, talking monkeys and a spectacular Einstein ring
Plants & Animals
Young plants' vulnerability linked to growth-energy trade-off
Cell & Microbiology
Artificial sweetener shows surprising power to overcome antibiotic resistance
General Physics
An exception to the laws of thermodynamics: Shape-recovering liquid defies textbooks
Biotechnology
Certain sunflower strains can be induced to form seeds without pollination
Cell & Microbiology
Scientists reveal new toxin that damages the gut
Earth Sciences
Ancient lakes and rivers unearthed in Arabia's vast desert
Mathematics
Mathematicians uncover the hidden patterns behind a $3.5 billion cryptocurrency collapse
Quantum Physics
Hot Schrödinger cat states created
Evolution
Battle of the sex chromosomes: How competition affects X vs. Y sperm fitness
Earth Sciences
Oxygen is running low in inland waters—and human activities are to blame
Earth Sciences
Scientists discover deep-sea microplastic hotspots driven by fast-moving underwater avalanches
Molecular & Computational biology
Beyond photorespiration: A systematic approach to unlocking enhanced plant productivity
Condensed Matter
Iron nitride's magnetoelastic properties show potential for flexible spintronics
Cell & Microbiology
Planarian worms can regenerate into a more youthful version of themselves
Biotechnology
Drone and camera combo offers affordable drought-tolerance selection for corn
Polymers
Polymers with flawed fillers boost heat transfer in plastics, study reveals
Astronomy
Astronomers discover doomed pair of spiraling stars on our cosmic doorstep
Bio & Medicine
Label-free fluorosensor detects enteroviral RNA with high selectivity and sensitivity
Planetary Sciences
Massive Jupiter storm churns ammonia deep into planet's atmosphere

Earliest evidence of cave lions in southern Europe discovered

Cave lions lived in what is now Italy around 660,000 to 610,000 years ago. This is confirmed by a metatarsal bone from the Notarchirico site near Venosa in the Basilicata region, which was discovered during a re-examination ...

New, small, ancient crocodile-like reptile described in Brazil

The discovery of a new, ancient, predatory reptile dubbed Parvosuchus aurelioi—part of a group of crocodile-like reptiles called pseudosuchians—in Brazil is described in a paper in Scientific Reports. The specimen, which ...

250-million-year-old fossil seen anew with modern technology

Details of an ancient cousin of modern-day mammals are being revealed for the first time. Hi-tech scanning of an ancient fossil, which was captured in sandstone around 252–254 million years ago, is giving experts valuable ...

You can help name LA's newest dinosaur fossil?

The Los Angeles County Natural History Museum is seeking the public's help in naming a 70-foot-long sauropod skeleton unearthed by the museum's paleontologists.

Paleontologists identify a new fossil fish genus

Gobies or Gobioidei are one of the most species-rich groups of marine and freshwater fish in Europe. Spending most of their lives on the bottom of shallow waterbodies, they make substantial contributions to the functioning ...

100-million-year-old bones reveal new species of pterosaur

New Curtin University-led research has identified 100-million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in western Queensland, Australia as belonging to a newly identified species of pterosaur, which was a formidable flying reptile ...