Humans and our closest relatives, living apes, display a remarkable diversity of types of locomotion—from walking upright on two legs to climbing in trees and walking using all four limbs.
Evolution
Jan 29, 2024
0
667
The largest-ever flying animal acted like a giant heron, plucking prey from the water and launching itself into the air.
Paleontology & Fossils
Dec 23, 2021
1
2089
Modern birds capable of flight all have a specialized wing structure called the propatagium without which they could not fly. The evolutionary origin of this structure has remained a mystery, but new research suggests it ...
Evolution
Feb 24, 2023
2
1140
Today, being "birdbrained" means forgetting where you left your keys or wallet. But 66 million years ago, it may have meant the difference between life and death—and may help explain why birds are the only dinosaurs left ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Jul 30, 2021
1
2916
A wide variety of animals have tusks, from elephants and walruses to five-pound, guinea pig-looking critters called hyraxes. But one thing tusked animals have in common is that they're all mammals—there are no known fish, ...
Evolution
Oct 26, 2021
1
450
Uncovering the evolution of any set of living creatures is a complex and highly detailed task for scientists, and theories and approaches that may differ over time may indeed change the fossil record. But paleoanthropologist ...
Evolution
Jul 11, 2022
0
714
Geologists have been baffled by perforations in an Australian quartzite (rock), identical in shape to burrows made in sands by crustaceans; the original sandy sediment is a billion years older than the oldest known animals. ...
Paleontology & Fossils
Sep 27, 2021
1
679
The discovery of a spectacular fossil site in Argentina is helping shed new light on life at the end of the Cretaceous, the time period just before the non-avian dinosaurs went extinct.
Paleontology & Fossils
Oct 13, 2023
0
260
About 250 million years ago, the Permian-Triassic mass extinction killed over 80% of the planet's species. In the aftermath, scientists believe that life on Earth was dominated by simple species for up to 10 million years ...
Ecology
Feb 9, 2023
1
337
Fossils found deep in a South African cave formed part of a hominid child's skull, apparently left on an alcove by fellow members of her species 250,000 years ago, scientists said on Thursday.
Paleontology & Fossils
Nov 4, 2021
0
1758
