Search fossil research and resources
Built by domain specialists
4Paleontology is a focused search engine and resource hub for anyone working with or interested in paleontology. We combine multiple indexes, institutional catalogs, curated vendor lists, and AI tools to surface literature, specimen records, field guides, and news that general search engines often miss. Use the site to search research papers, museum collections, field methods, fossil sellers with provenance data, and educational resources. Our team includes search architects, experienced users, and paleontology specialists who help tune relevance for scientific and field needs. Part of the 4SEARCH network of topic specific search engines.
250-million-year-old mammal ancestor could hear sounds long before modern mammals evolved
6+ hour, 19+ min ago (933+ words) 3D models of the jaw and associated middle ear bones of the Triassic mammal ancestor "Thrinaxodon" show that the switch to mammal-like hearing with an eardrum evolved much earlier than previously thought. (CREDIT: Alex Boersma/PNAS) You are looking at one…...
Butterfly Brains Could Reveal Secrets of Magnetic Navigation
9+ hour, 43+ min ago (417+ words) Monarch butterflies may hold the key to one of biology's biggest unsolved puzzles: how animals tap into Earth's magnetic field to find their way. In Texas, neurobiologist Robin Grob is performing microsurgery on monarchs, sliding hair-thin electrodes into their brains,…...
What an Ancient Sea Anemone Reveals About the Origins of Animal Complexity
11+ hour, 26+ min ago (510+ words) Learn how mapping gene-control switches in an ancient sea anemone reveals how identical DNA can produce many different cell types. Every cell in an animal's body carries the same DNA. Yet that single genetic blueprint somehow produces neurons that fire,…...
The world’s largest dinosaur footprint site is located in the Bolivian desert and contains more than 16,000 footprints of these incredible animals
11+ hour, 32+ min ago (424+ words) Home - Science - The world's largest dinosaur footprint site is located in the Bolivian desert and contains more than 16,000 footprints of these incredible animals On a bare rock plateau in central Bolivia, the ground looks like it has been stamped again…...
'Little Foot' fossil might be a completely new human species - Earth.com
12+ hour, 11+ min ago (940+ words) In paleoanthropology, a rare, nearly-complete skeleton can rewrite entire chapters of the human origin story. The "Little Foot," fossil an exquisitely preserved hominin found in South Africa's Sterkfontein Caves in 1998, has long been treated as a marquee member of the…...
Famous fish that survived the dinosaurs had much older relatives - Earth.com
13+ hour, 7+ min ago (792+ words) Modern sightings of living coelacanths in the 20th century surprised the world, but this fish species" story goes back a long way. Although coelacanth remains are well known from Paleozoic and Cretaceous rocks in Britain, very little is known about their…...
Geologists find fossils of unexpected creatures in Grand Canyon rocks
13+ hour, 58+ min ago (1079+ words) For more than a century, the Cambrian rocks of the Grand Canyon were considered old news, having been carefully mapped, named, and neatly slotted into geology textbooks. But a closer look at those same rocks has uncovered tiny fossil animals…...
We now know much more about how our ancestor 'Lucy' lived — and died
14+ hour, 26+ min ago (1709+ words) Fifty years after a fossil skeleton of Australopithecus afarensis was unearthed in Ethiopia, we know so much more about how this iconic species lived and died. From a distance, it might have looked like a small child was wending her…...
Meet the Goblin Shark, a Deep-Sea Predator With the Fastest Bite Ever Recorded and a Hidden Ambush Weapon
14+ hour, 58+ min ago (726+ words) Hidden deep beneath the ocean's surface, a bizarre shark species has just shattered scientific records with a jaw-dropping feeding strike unlike anything ever seen. The goblin shark (Mitsukurina owstoni) is among the most unusual and least understood predators in the…...
Megalodon: Why This Giant Shark May Still Lurk in the Deep
16+ hour, 28+ min ago (1287+ words) Chris is the co-founder of 'Animals Around The Globe' and a fervent wildlife enthusiast with extensive travels across diverse ecosystems worldwide. From exploring the marine wonders in the Azores and witnessing the vast savannas of Kenya, to delving deep into…...