News
This odd-looking new Spinosaurus is reviving an age-old debate
10+ hour, 25+ min ago (1485+ words) Could Spinosaurus swim? A new fossil with a scimitar-like head crest provides new evidence on the unsettled question. "It was amazing," recalls Vidal, of the University of Chicago. "It was like a unicorn." Back in 2022, when he stumbled upon the…...
Researchers recover a woolly rhino genome from inside a frozen wolf's stomach
1+ mon, 5+ day ago (557+ words) The work marks the first time an Ice Age animal's complete genome has been recovered from tissue preserved inside another ancient animal. In 2011, mammoth ivory hunters in northeastern Siberia discovered a mummified wolf puppy that had lain frozen for 14,400 years....
This ancient human may be the root of the Homo sapiens family tree
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (329+ words) New fossils unearthed in Morocco could help solve the mystery of how Homo sapiens diverged from other ancient humans like Neanderthals. Around 770,000 years ago, a small windswept cave overlooked grassy plains and trees in what today is southwest Casablanca in…...
Inside the bone-crushing mating rituals of dinosaurs
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (512+ words) A handful of unique fossils are spilling the secrets of dinosaur courtship and reproduction." Bertozzo's Olorotitan discovery revived the notion. The broken bones could be the long-sought evidence of how dinosaurs mated. Paleontologists have never doubted that dinosaurs copulated just…...
How dinosaur vomit has solved these prehistoric mysteries
2+ mon, 1+ week ago (409+ words) A new pterosaur species was recently discovered in the vomit of a dino. But that's just the start of revelations from prehistoric excretions. "This was not just a fossil concretion containing a new species of a rare type of pterosaur,…...
The 30-foot sea cow quickly hunted to extinction because of its tasty meat
2+ mon, 3+ week ago (1024+ words) Few complete skeletons remain of this gentle behemoth, who was destroyed by explorers and fur traders in the Arctic. The 30-foot sea cow quickly hunted to extinction because of its tasty meat Few complete skeletons remain of this gentle behemoth,…...
Fossilized eggs reveal new way to date the Age of the Dinosaurs
3+ mon, 1+ week ago (230+ words) Radioactive minerals in eggshells can help scientists pinpoint a fossil's age with stunning accuracy. Eggs laid by dinosaurs have provided paleontologists with a new way to tell prehistoric time. By looking to radioactive minerals taken up by eggshells in the…...
How to see thousands of dinosaur footprints in the Jura Mountains—the real Jurassic park
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (790+ words) In Switzerland's Jura Mountains, ancient limestone holds thousands of dinosaur footprints. A gravel route traces their path across ridges, valleys, and 150 million years of history. We spot the first cliff early in the morning. The summer sun rises slowly, its…...
New evidence reveals dinosaurs were thriving right up to the moment the asteroid hit
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (1042+ words) Newly dated fossils from New Mexico challenge the idea that dinosaurs were in decline'and suggest instead they had formed flourishing communities. Around 66 million years ago, during the Northern Hemisphere's spring, a six-mile-wide asteroid struck what is now the Yucat'n Peninsula....
Here's how dinosaur ‘mummies’ are helping scientists solve fossil mysteries
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (302+ words) A new study sheds light on how these reptiles become "mummies" and paints a picture of what these ancient animals looked like. The findings add to previous research that has revealed Edmontosaurus had a fleshy comb on their heads, front…...