20+ hour, 38+ min ago   (773+ words) Scientists from the University of Leicester and Yunnan University identified an ancient member of the chelicerate group. Beneath the rock surrounding a tiny fossil from southern China, two small limbs had remained hidden for 518 million years. When researchers finally looked…...

20+ hour, 47+ min ago   (1107+ words) Fragmentary bones from Brazil reveal a new Triassic reptile close to the lineage that preceded dinosaurs and crocodiles. Some 240 million years ago, long before dinosaurs dominated the land and modern crocodiles emerged, their distant relatives were undergoing a crucial stage…...

20+ hour, 47+ min ago   (998+ words) New DNA analysis and a reconstructed family tree could help protect it from poaching. On a museum shelf in London, a pangolin specimen collected nearly 190 years ago held genetic evidence that could change how conservationists track one of the world’s…...

4+ day, 20+ hour ago   (720+ words) New research suggests that the ancient animal Spriggina floundersi tended to bend to the right, making it the oldest known example of lateralized behavior. More than 550 million years ago, a small, flattened animal moved across the seafloor and repeatedly favored…...

1+ week, 22+ hour ago   (902+ words) ...

1+ week, 4+ day ago   (797+ words) The story of Earth’s first animals may need rewriting after ancient fossils revealed an earlier start to complex life. From butterflies to blue whales, corals, and worms, Earth is home to an incredible diversity of animals. How all of these…...

1+ week, 6+ day ago   (927+ words) A rare 450-million-year-old fossil with preserved soft tissue is revealing how some of Earth’s earliest reef animals lived and evolved. More than 450 million years ago, long before dinosaurs appeared or forests covered the continents, Earth’s shallow seas were already filled…...

2+ week, 5+ day ago   (330+ words) Ancient deep-sea organisms suggest movement, sexual reproduction, and complex animal life began earlier than previously thought. Every animal alive today, from jellyfish to humans, traces its ancestry back to a pivotal moment when complex life first emerged from a world…...

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (467+ words) Ancient microbes may have helped preserve a pterosaur fossil and its chemical clues for more than 100 million years. An international study led by Curtin University has shed new light on how a prehistoric flying reptile fossil remained exceptionally well preserved…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (610+ words) Tiny fossil teeth from Alaska are changing how scientists view mammal life and migration in the ancient Arctic. Today’s Arctic is one of the harshest and least biodiverse places on Earth, but during the age of dinosaurs it was home…...