News
These fossil finds shed new light on the past in 2025
9+ hour, 38+ min ago (332+ words) New details emerged about Earth's most ancient bird, a penis worm (yes, we went there) and more What did a teenage T. rex look like? Not like Nanotyrannus, a relatively diminutive and distinct species. That's just one of this year's fun…...
Huge relatives of white sharks lived earlier than thought
3+ week, 23+ hour ago (315+ words) Eight meter-long "megapredator" sharks patrolled Australian seas 115 million years ago Eight-meter-long sharks (illustrated here) patrolled the sea that later became Darwin, Australia. The predators shared their ecosystem with huge reptilian marine reptiles such as plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs. Some 115 million years…...
Big Neandertal noses weren't made for cold
3+ week, 4+ day ago (138+ words) The well-preserved nasal passages of a Neandertal skeleton are as narrow as our own The exceptionally well-preserved nasal cavity of this over 130,000 year old Neandertal skull wasn't specially adapted for cold and is similar to that of Homo sapiens, a…...
Nanotyrannus is still not a teenage T. rex
3+ week, 5+ day ago (404+ words) Fossil throat bones tip the scales in the long-running debate A full-grown Nanotyrannus lancensis (illustrated, left) competes for food with a juvenile, feathered Tyrannosaurus rex (right), while an adult T. rex watches in the background. Let the record show: In 2025, one…...
Ancient southern Africans took genetic evolution in a new direction
3+ week, 6+ day ago (314+ words) Their DNA is more varied than modern humans, including gene tweaks enhancing sun protection Ancient southern Africans, represented here by a skull dating to between about 82,000 and 170,000 years ago, evolved a unique set of gene variants over the past several…...
A foot fossil suggests a second early human relative lived alongside Lucy
1+ mon, 4+ day ago (678+ words) Bone fragments from Ethiopia show two human ancestors may have shared the same landscape A partial foot skeleton from 3.4 million years ago has been assigned to the early human relative'Australopithecus deyiremeda,'a species that was first named in 2015 and challenges…...
Cuddly koalas had a brutal, blade-toothed close cousin
1+ mon, 5+ day ago (713+ words) Collagen preserved in bones of extinct mammals is giving the marsupial family tree an update Thylacoleo carnifex, depicted here being harassed by a cockatoo parrot, was a marsupial predator with bladed teeth, powerful jaws and tearing claws. But it was…...
This bright orange life-form could point to new dino discoveries
1+ mon, 5+ day ago (384+ words) The reflected infrared light of bone-loving lichen can be detected by drones Orange lichen growing on dinosaur bones (one shown) in Dinosaur Provincial Park can be detected by drones, potentially facilitating new finds. By Taylor Mitchell Brown Tiny life-forms with…...
A new dinosaur doomsday exhibit showcases survival after destruction
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (417+ words) Impact: The End of the Age of the Dinosaurs" shows how an asteroid shaped life today An asteroid the size of Mount Everest slammed into Earth millions of years ago, wiping out Triceratops and other nonavian dinosaurs. A new exhibit…...
Nanotyrannus was not a teenaged T. rex
2+ mon, 6+ hour ago (877+ words) New fossil evidence suggests Nanotyrannus was a separate lineage that lived alongside T. rex A pack of Nanotyrannus'attacks a similarly sized juvenile'T. rex'in this artist's depiction of dinosaur diversity in what's now Hell Creek, Mont., in the Late Cretaceous Period. For…...