News
Rare Fossils in Amber Raise Questions About Secret Lives of Cretaceous Insects
3+ hour, 41+ min ago (617+ words) Insects play a critical role in ecosystems but, because they are so rarely preserved as fossils, it's hard to study their roles from habitats millions of years old. But fossilized tree resin can occasionally preserve an insect within its amber,…...
Early Human Ancestor Found in Morocco Dates Back 700,000 Years May Be Major Missing Link
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (595+ words) Remains of an early human ancestor from a critically important period in our evolutionary history have been found in Morocco. Dated back 700,000 years using precise geo-magnetic methods, the assemblage of jawbones and teeth may come from the epoch during which…...
Cave of Wonders: Where Prehistoric Bees Made Nests in the Bones of Animals Eaten by Colossal Owls
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (747+ words) Burrowing bees generally prefer to make their nests in the open, but some 20,000 years ago their ancestors lived in a cave where they used the bones of prey animals rather than soft soil. The groundbreaking discovery was made in a…...
Scientists Document Over 16,000 Footprints in the World’s Most Extensive Dinosaur Tracksite
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (380+ words) In Bolivia, the largest number of dinosaur footprints ever recorded in a single spot is yielding fascinating insight on how these prehistoric animals moved in a way that bones just can't. 16,600 footprints, forming dozens of "trackways," have been so far…...
Evidence of Rhino Living in Frigid Arctic Circle 23 Million Years Ago Found Inside New Fossil
3+ mon, 4+ week ago (513+ words) An extinct species of rhino that lived inside the Arctic Circle 23 million years ago has been discovered. The nearly complete fossilized skeleton was recovered from the fossil-rich lake deposits in Haughton Crater on Devon Island, in the Canadian High Arctic....
Peg–Legged Lizards Lead a Pirate's Life On Caribbean Islands
4+ mon, 3+ day ago (461+ words) The Bahamas were once crawling with pirates, but have always been crawling with lizards. Do the two have anything in common? Well, much like the old trope of pirates missing legs and hands, many of the lizards of the Bahamas…...
A Plant-Eating Croc? Newly Identified Species Demonstrates Crocodilian Versatility
4+ mon, 2+ week ago (697+ words) Measuring no more than 2 feet long from nose to tail, a newly-described crocodilian nicknamed "Elton" likely lived its entire life on land where it lounged in the Cretaceous Montana sunshine, eating plants and insects. Elton was about the size of…...
Tiny Prehistoric Fish Fossil Rewrites Evolution With Clues for Mysterious Origins of Catfish and Carp
4+ mon, 3+ week ago (568+ words) The fossil of a tiny fish found in southwestern Alberta, Canada, provides new insight into the origin and evolution of otophysans, the supergroup of fish that includes catfish, carp and tetras'which account for two-thirds of all freshwater species today. The…...
Staggering Finds Show Early Humans Lived Alongside the Very Apes They Evolved from
6+ mon, 1+ week ago (526+ words) From Ethiopia comes an incredible discovery'early humans seem to have potentially lived alongside the very apes they evolved from. The discovery centers around teeth: that of a member of the genus'Homo, of which we are a part, found next to…...
Scientists Identify a New Manta Ray Species, Just the Third Known in the World
6+ mon, 2+ week ago (536+ words) Usually when scientists announce the discovery of a new species, it's some small brown frog, a gnarly spider in a rainforest you'll never visit, or a new sea-something. But Earth still has some curveballs to throw at us'like a new…...