6+ hour, 47+ 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,…...

2+ day, 1+ hour ago  (436+ words) Learn more about the thousands of dinosaur tracks uncovered on the side of an Italian mountain, and what they tell us about how these dinosaurs moved. Next year, Northern Italy will host the 2026 Winter Olympics. But the region has made…...

2+ day, 5+ hour ago  (559+ words) Learn how researchers discovered what may be the oldest'Palaeoloxodon antiquus tracks in Europe. Straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) lived with wolves, deer, and weasel-like mammals in the coastal wildernesses of southern Spain during the Last Interglacial. This, combined with the tracks…...

6+ day, 23+ hour ago  (382+ words) Learn how rare fossil feathers preserved molting patterns, revealing new findings of dinosaur flight. Dinosaur feathers are usually described as evidence of flight. But when researchers recently examined fossils preserved with their feathers intact, and found patterns of feather molting,…...

1+ week, 4+ hour ago  (564+ words) Learn how a digitally reconstructed 1.5-million-year-old fossil from Ethiopia is reshaping ideas about what early human migrants out of Africa actually looked like. When researchers digitally reconstructed the face of a 1.6-million-year to 1.5-million-year-old hominin from Ethiopia, the result wasn't…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (632+ words) Learn how environmental constraints and a lack of soil led ancient bees to reuse fossil cavities in a Caribbean cave, leaving the first known evidence of this behavior. When paleontologists examined fossils from a cave on Hispaniola, they found more…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago  (265+ words) Learn how a new analysis challenges the traditional classifications for "Little Foot," a famous fossil hominin from South Africa. Australopithecus prometheus or Australopithecus africanus? Though the question might sound simple, it isn"t so straightforward for scientists, who have been…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago  (413+ words) Learn how chemical clues reveal a mosasaur was hunting in freshwater rivers as the Cretaceous seaway receded. For decades, mosasaurs have been understood as among the dominant predators of the Cretaceous seas " marine reptiles that could reach 11 meters in length…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago  (469+ words) Meet Salwasiren qatarensis, a small, ancient sea cow species whose fossils were found in Qatar, in one of the world's biggest marine mammal bonebeds. Thousands of dugongs swim through the Arabian Gulf today, transforming the seafloor as they search for…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago  (621+ words) Learn more about how researchers can take evidence from the past to better shape our idea of what Neanderthals looked like. Our popular culture view of what Neanderthals might have looked like hasn't changed for decades. They're shorter, stockier, and…...