News
Fossils reveal the earliest animal with a head was also the oldest known 'righty"
6+ hour, 8+ min ago (856+ words) SYDNEY "If you happen to be right-handed, you may be able to trace the origins of that trait to a wormlike animal that lived about 550 million years ago and had a tendency to bend to the right. Spriggina floundersi appeared…...
Fossil reveals bizarre gliding creature that hunted birds 120 million years ago
1+ mon, 6+ day ago (633+ words) BEIJING " A 120 million-year-old fossil found in what's now northwestern China is changing how scientists think about an unusual group of predatory dinosaurs known as microraptors. The location where the fossil was unearthed adds to the known geographical range of the…...
Why did T. rex have tiny arms? A new study may finally have the answer
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (717+ words) Scientists may have finally solved the riddle of Tyrannosaurus rex's small arms, which have always stood out as the oddest feature in the mightiest of dinosaurs, prompting jokes and a century-plus debate on their purpose and evolutionary history. At about…...
Fossils from China show complex life evolved millions of years earlier than once thought
3+ mon, 5+ day ago (784+ words) CHINA " Goblet-shaped sea jelly relatives with miniature "arms." A plump, legless creature resembling a sausage. Long, wormlike animals tipped with flat "holdfast" discs for anchoring to the seafloor. Newfound fossils from a site in southwestern China, preserved in exquisite detail,…...
Baby long-necked dinosaurs were a 'perfect snack' for predators
5+ mon, 1+ week ago (497+ words) WASHINGTON " It may have been suicidal for a predator to go after a healthy adult Brachiosaurus, a behemoth weighing perhaps 60 tons that was a member of the long-necked group "of dinosaurs called sauropods that included the largest land animals ever…...
Unearth the prehistoric past at the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (791+ words) Nestled in the scenic Big Horn Basin of Wyoming, the Wyoming Dinosaur Center in Thermopolis offers something very few places in the world can: Experiencing the thrill of a real dinosaur dig. The Wyoming Dinosaur Center blends world-class paleontology with…...
Fossils of a new species of huge dinosaur Spinosaurus unearthed in Niger
4+ mon, 2+ week ago (742+ words) NIAMEY, Niger " At a remote and barren Sahara desert site in Niger, scientists have unearthed fossils of a new species of Spinosaurus, among the biggest of the meat-eating dinosaurs, notable for its large blade-shaped head crest "and jaws bearing interlocking…...
New dinosaur fossils excavated at Dinosaur National Monument
5+ mon, 3+ week ago (188+ words) DINOSAUR, Colo. " Paleontologists removed new dinosaur fossils from a parking lot construction site at Utah's Dinosaur National Monument on Friday. The National Park Service reported that the fossils were identified on Sept. 16, 2025, when construction crews removed a portion of the…...
DNA from a tiny but mighty insect could help reveal the timeline for prehistoric humans
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (1013+ words) ATLANTA " Mosquitoes haven't always had a taste for human blood " partly because the tiny yet dangerous insects have been around a lot longer than humans. Pinpointing when mosquitoes shifted their preference to human blood could provide a novel window into…...
Jeffrey Epstein's interest in dinosaurs has led to a reckoning in the paleontology community
4+ mon, 3+ week ago (1014+ words) BIRMINGHAM, England " A British dinosaur convention is banning some paleontologists named in the Jeffrey Epstein files from attending Dino Con " as the global scientific community becomes the latest to grapple with the convicted sex offender's connections to prominent people in…...