7+ hour, 3+ min ago  (548+ words) Tiny droplets of water and microscopic bubbles of gas trapped in crystals provide a perfect record of Earth's atmosphere for 1.4 billion years. Over a billion years ago, a shallow subtropical lake in what is now Canada slowly vanished under a…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago  (532+ words) Mosasaurs, the iconic giant marine reptiles thought exclusively to be masters of the ancient oceans, actually adapted to live in freshwater rivers. Some 66 million years ago, a city bus-sized terrifying predator prowled a prehistoric river in what is now North…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago  (507+ words) A new species of pumpkin toadlet, almost the size of a pencil tip, has been discovered within the damp, shadowy leaf litter of Brazil's Atlantic Forest." The dazzlingly bright orange creature has been named Brachycephalus lulai in honor of Brazilian…...

2+ week, 2+ day ago  (548+ words) The fossil remains of a bird that lived approximately 120 million years ago have revealed how it died. Paleontologists at Chicago's Field Museum have concluded that a cluster of stones lodged in the ancient bird's throat likely caused it to choke…...

2+ week, 4+ day ago  (542+ words) Researchers have found that a 75-million-year-old fossil classified as a different dinosaur is a duck-billed... Researchers have found that a 75-million-year-old fossil classified as a different dinosaur is a duck-billed species. The team named the newly identified species Ahshiselsaurus wimani…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago  (553+ words) A study of anaconda fossils shows that these snakes reached their maximum size 12.4 million years ago and then stopped growing." As some of the planet's largest snakes, anacondas commonly measure 4 to 5 metres, but some can reach 7 metres. In this new…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago  (473+ words) ASU researchers identified two distinct hominid species who co-existed with different ways of walking. In a groundbreaking discovery in early human evolution, scientists revealed that, using the "Burtele Foot" and the "Lucy fossil," they identified two hominin species that coexisted…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago  (755+ words) One "mummy" fossil preserved skin and its last meal. Over the past decade, paleontology has entered a new era of rapid discovery and scientific transformation. Breakthrough fossils unearthed across Asia, South America, North America, and Europe have dramatically expanded our…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago  (505+ words) Fossil evidence reveals the development of the brain structures that enabled pterosaurs, the earliest flying vertebrates, to achieve powered flight. Ohio University researchers found that these dinosaur-era flying reptiles developed an evolutionary pathway independent of that observed in birds. The…...

3+ week, 6+ day ago  (598+ words) These needle-shaped magnetic fragments were found in ancient seafloor sediments. New research from Cambridge and the Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin has decoded the mystery of magnetic fossils left by an ancient organism. These microscopic, spearhead- or needle-shaped magnetic fragments were found in…...