News
Metabolites preserved in fossil bones reveal ancient diets, diseases, and habitats
11+ hour, 46+ min ago Antelope bone fragment in rock from the 3-million-year-old early human site, Makapansgaat (South Africa). (CREDIT: Timothy Bromage and Bin Hu, NYU Dentistry) Metabolism quietly governs every living body. It shapes how organisms grow, reproduce, heal, and age. Because metabolism links…...
Mosasaur tooth fossil reveals giant sea reptiles lived in freshwater rivers
1+ week, 23+ hour ago A single tooth found among dinosaur bones in North Dakota reveals that some of the largest sea reptiles also ruled ancient rivers. (CREDIT: Christopher DiPiazza) All of these assumptions were thrown into confusion when, in 2022, the discovery was made in…...
Severe drought pushed the 'hobbits' of Flores toward extinction 61,000 years ago
1+ week, 4+ day ago Climate records from cave stone and elephant teeth reveal how severe drought pushed Homo floresiensis toward extinction. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0) "The ecosystem around Liang Bua became dramatically drier around the time Homo floresiensis vanished," said UOW Honorary Professor Dr....
New study confirms Nanotyrannus was a grown dinosaur, not a baby T. rex
1+ week, 6+ day ago Poust uses a Keyence VHX-7000 microscope in his lab to examine a histological slide of the fossil bone tissue of a theropod dinosaur. (CREDIT: Jordan Opp | University Communication and Marketing) That changed this month with a study published in Science....
Two ancient cousins of Lucy walked on two legs in different ways
2+ week, 23+ hour ago New fossils from Ethiopia reveal that Lucy's species was not alone. A lesser-known cousin, Australopithecus deyiremeda, walked on two legs, kept a grasping foot for climbing and followed a more forest-based diet. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0) On the ancient plains…...
Fossil tracks in Italy record a turtle stampede from 80 million years ago
2+ week, 1+ day ago Climbers found ancient footprints on Italy's cliffs. Scientists say they show a panicked turtle rush during an earthquake, preserved for 80 million years. (CREDIT: Cretaceous Research) In the spring of 2019, free climbers scaling the risky cliffs of Monte C'nero on Italy's…...
Ancient DNA reveals southern Africa’s hidden role in the rise of modern humans
2+ week, 3+ day ago Ancient DNA from 28 people shows southern Africa hosted a long-isolated branch of humans for hundreds of thousands of years. (CREDIT: Mikael Wallerstedt) Researchers sequenced genomes from bones and teeth, then dated them with radiocarbon tests and traced diets with chemical…...
Anacondas became giants long before humans walked the Earth
2+ week, 4+ day ago Fossils from Venezuela reveal anacondas grew huge 12 million years ago and never shrank, surviving climate shifts that erased other giants. (CREDIT: Andres Alfonso-Rojas) Snakes come in all sizes today, from tiny thread snakes no longer than a pencil to green…...
Pterosaurs prove big brains are not needed to fly — in contrast to modern bird ancestors
3+ week, 1+ day ago New fossil scans reveal pterosaurs flew with smaller, reptile-like brains. (CREDIT: AI-generated image / The Brighter Side of News) For more than a hundred years, scientists believed flying reptiles called pterosaurs took to the air with birdlike brains. Old fossils seemed…...
Dinosaur eggshells are accurate timekeepers of fossil age, study finds
3+ week, 3+ day ago An international team has shown that fossil dinosaur eggshell can be dated with uranium lead methods, delivering precise ages for rock layers that lack volcanic ash and opening a new window on when dinosaurs and their ecosystems really lived. (CREDIT:…...