News
Cave burials were actually common in prehistoric US, not rare as once believed
1+ day, 24+ min ago (886+ words) A new study has found that prehistoric cave burials, once treated as unique to one western Nevada basin, were far more widespread across the Great Basin in the U.S. than previously believed. That finding recasts these caves as part of a…...
Misidentified Triassic fossil turns out to be its own species
17+ hour, 23+ min ago (857+ words) Scientists have confirmed that a tiny Triassic fossil long mistaken for another animal is actually its own species. That shift turns a long-standing misidentification into evidence of a much older lineage that survived a mass extinction. A small skull discovered…...
230-million-year-old beetle has unique features that don't those of its known relatives
3+ day, 28+ min ago (800+ words) Scientists have identified a 230-million-year-old beetle in northern China whose body plan does not match its known Triassic relatives. That mismatch opens an unexpected branch in early beetle history and sharpens a poorly preserved chapter of life after Earth's greatest…...
Scientists have sequenced the mitochondrial genome of a 3,000-year-old porcupine mummy
3+ day, 31+ min ago (786+ words) The finding extends direct evidence of porcupines into the far northwest and shows that frozen ground can preserve younger animals, not only ice age species. Inside a dried slab of skin roughly 12 by 8 inches, coarse hairs and flesh preserved a…...
500-million-year-old clawed predator is the oldest spider relative found so far
3+ day, 16+ hour ago (882+ words) A chelicera fossil that went unnoticed for decades is now changing what scientists thought they knew about the very first spider relatives and early life on Earth. After a closer look, researchers realized it held important clues about how spiders…...
How a strange crocodile relative learned to walk on two legs
6+ day, 23+ hour ago (685+ words) A strange crocodile relative once grew up in a very surprising way. As a young animal, it walked on four legs. As it became an adult, it stood on two legs like a bird. This discovery shows that ancient animals…...
Ancient ape fossil from Egypt may rewrite the human origin story
1+ week, 1+ day ago (727+ words) Scientists have spent years searching for the origins of modern apes in specific regions, but a new fossil from Egypt is now changing that direction. This discovery is not just another addition to the fossil record " it is making researchers…...
Ancient fish may have used lungs to hear underwater
1+ week, 2+ day ago (982+ words) Coelacanths already feel like they belong in a different era. They're the famously "rediscovered" fish that people like to call living fossils, and they sit closer to land vertebrates than to most other fish. But a new study suggests ancient…...
Ice Age animals unexpectedly found by divers in a Texas cave
1+ week, 3+ day ago (781+ words) A hidden underground stream in Texas has revealed a surprising collection of Ice Age fossils. These remains include animals never before documented in Central Texas. The discovery was made by a paleontologist from the University of Texas at Austin (UT)…...
Archaeologists find the oldest evidence of early human relatives living in East Asia
1+ week, 4+ day ago (880+ words) A new analysis dates three Homo erectus skulls from central China to about 1.77 million years ago, making them the oldest securely dated hominin fossils in eastern Asia. That older age shifts the arrival of early humans in the region back…...