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Paleontology & Fossils news
The extinct American 'cheetah' was not a cheetah after all
With their slender bodies and long front legs, Miracinonyx trumani—often nicknamed the "American cheetah"—was long thought to be a North American analog of the African big cat. But in a new study published in the journal ...
Evolution
Sep 6, 2026
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Not a cheetah: Ancient DNA reveals the surprising Arctic life of extinct North American cat
A new study led by researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, has overturned decades of assumptions about Miracinonyx trumani, the extinct predator popularly known as the American cheetah. By analyzing nuclear ...
Evolution
Sep 4, 2026
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Tiny fossils reveal big insights about ant ancestors
Two tiny ant fossils recovered in southern Saskatchewan are helping scientists better understand the evolutionary history of modern ants. Ant fossils dating from 72–56 million years ago are rare. What happened to insects ...
Evolution
Sep 3, 2026
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Early mammals weren't all loners—some may have lived in pairs alongside the dinosaurs
About 200 million years ago, furry, little egg-laying creatures evolved the ability to feed their offspring with a secretion from special glands: milk. Their evolutionary journey continued, and by about 160 million years ...
Evolution
Sep 3, 2026
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Neutron bone imaging brings T. rex to life
A broken rib from Scotty, the largest T. rex skeleton discovered, is helping scientists uncover new information about life on Earth 66 million years ago. Scotty's rib preserves something rarely seen in the fossil record: ...
Biotechnology
Sep 3, 2026
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Ancient fossil from China reveals animal‑microbe partnerships dating back 550 million years
We often think of microbes as organisms that live around us, like the Salmonella bacteria and flu viruses that cause illness. But some of our most intimate relationships are with the microbes living inside us.
Evolution
Sep 2, 2026
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Animal-bone records reveal how cattle and sheep fueled medieval England's changing economy
As populations expanded in medieval England, key changes occurred in the uses of cattle and sheep to produce food and materials, according to a study published Sept. 2, 2026, in the journal PLOS One by Matilda Holmes of the ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Sep 2, 2026
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Iguanodon shinbone growth may be first evidence of an infected skin ulcer in a dinosaur
Fossilized bones can reveal a wealth of details about animals, including their size, appearance, what they ate and any injuries they may have suffered. In a paper published in the journal Royal Society Open Science, researchers ...
Q&A: What dinosaur teeth reveal about diet and evolution
What did dinosaurs eat? Teeth provide important clues to understanding the ecology of dinosaurs, which became extinct approximately 66 million years ago. Their shape, structure and patterns of wear can help scientists reconstruct ...
Evolution
Aug 31, 2026
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A Permian fossil may reveal the oldest known flowering-plant structure
Despite the importance and dominance of angiosperms ("flowering plants") in the current ecosystem, it is rather surprising that we know so little about their origin and early evolution. Paleobotanists have been making efforts ...
Not tiger, not wolf: Australian thylacine skull reveals a far different hunting style
A new study led by Flinders University has flipped the historical narrative about Australia's thylacine, finding the native apex predator known as the "Tasmanian tiger" was significantly different from the wolves and wild ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 31, 2026
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Tracks and tooth marks reveal bone-crushing dogs at Nebraska supervolcano ashfall site
Thirty-five years on—well, 12 million, technically—Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park continues to offer important glimpses of prehistoric life in Nebraska.
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 28, 2026
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Texas fossil reveals early insects kept aquatic limbs during move onto land
The formation of complex terrestrial ecosystems was a significant innovation in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. This event signified the expansion of life beyond marine environments and marked the beginning of ...
Evolution
Aug 27, 2026
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Degraded DNA reveals two extinct Galapagos giant tortoise lineages
Using a new combination of computational tools to analyze ancient DNA, Yale researchers have discovered two ancient, extinct giant tortoise lineages that once lived on the Galapagos Islands.
Evolution
Aug 27, 2026
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We discovered rare dinosaur tracks from the Coniacian age near Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia
Imagine the Western Plains of North America, from Texas to Alaska, submerged under a broad, shallow seaway. To the west lay the ancestral Rocky Mountains. To the east were low-lying plains traversed by large, sluggish rivers.
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 26, 2026
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Reconstructed Jurassic insect calls evoke a 165-million-year-old forest soundscape
The sights and sounds of the Jurassic era are long gone, and we will never know for sure what that ancient world looked and sounded like. Fossils can offer clues, and reconstructions can give us a sense of the noises some ...
Egypt's deserts were once home to a diverse shark community
During the Late Cretaceous period, parts of Egypt were covered in water. A new study, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, describes new evidence that this tropical sea was home to a diverse community of sharks. ...
Twenty years and 7,500 fossils reveal what blurs Earth's marine fossil record
In productive marine environments, a square meter (10.8 square feet) of seafloor can be perforated by hundreds to thousands of isolated and interconnected tunnels through which crawl and writhe a cornucopia of clams, shrimp, ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Aug 21, 2026
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Scarce emergence of new species drove the decline of African megaherbivores, study suggests
A study by the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC), the National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH) and the University of Alcalá offers a new explanation for the decline of African megaherbivores. These ...
Ecology
Aug 20, 2026
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Neanderthal hips challenge long-standing hypothesis of a trade-off between childbirth and bipedal walking
The most prominent difference between human male and female skeletons is the pelvis, which anthropologists often use to determine the sex of ancient remains. Scientists have long believed the human pelvis evolved mainly as ...
More news
Were Denisovans tall compared to other ancient humans? We should be skeptical
Crocodiles can't fly. Birds can. Scientists have finally figured out why
Arctic fossil abandoned in 1948 proves to be record-size Triassic hunter
Dodos probably weren't as stupid as historians made them out to be: new research
Small dinosaur fossil suggests Fukushima coast hosted iguanodontians of different sizes
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Superfluid qubit could help scale up quantum computers
One of the world's only two complete dodo skulls reveals new clues about the extinct bird
