News
These Ancient Millipedes Paved the Way for Terrestrial Life
5+ hour, 3+ min ago (193+ words) They preceded vertebrates on land by about 80 million years 12: 30 PM CDT on June 15, 2026 The land they conquered during the Ordovician period was an alien landscape compared to today. "There were no vertebrates, no trees, no leaves, no flowering plants, no…...
Newly Discovered Four-Winged Dinosaur Didn't Need to Fly to Hunt Birds
1+ week, 3+ day ago (392+ words) The discovery of Jian changmaensis solved a mystery 4: 00 PM CDT on June 5, 2026 What has four wings and can't fly? Jian changmaensis, a newly described species of feathered dinosaur recently discovered in China." But according to paleontologists, just because J. changmaensis wasn't…...
The Cephalopods Are Coming
1+ week, 5+ day ago (847+ words) Fossil records reveal Earth's mass extinctions are followed by a rise of ocean cephalopods. They're rising again. 7: 00 AM CDT on May 29, 2026 The fossils beneath the village represent the end of the Triassic geological period. Around 200 million years ago, great gouts…...
Ancient DNA Illuminates the Uniqueness of the Extinct Cave Lion
1+ week, 5+ day ago (270+ words) Although it had a habit of interbreeding with modern lions 10: 00 AM CDT on June 3, 2026 Toward the end of the Pleistocene, 11, 700 years ago, temperatures surged, ice melted, sea levels rose, and many large mammals became extinct. One of those was the…...
What Happened When the First Animals Started to Move
2+ week, 2+ hour ago (130+ words) Life on Earth wasn't always mobile 3: 00 PM CDT on June 1, 2026 Put simply, they were the first organisms to actually catch even the haziest of glimpses of our planet." It also paved the way for the Cambrian explosion, which birthed a…...
Nightmarish Heron-like Dinosaur Unearthed in Patagonia
2+ week, 3+ day ago (482+ words) Pretty tough to be a fish 70 million years ago 1: 00 PM CDT on May 29, 2026 Southern Argentina during the Late Cretaceous didn't have the cool, arid climate it does today. Instead it was temperate, muggy, and teeming with prehistoric life. Snails, fish,…...
This "Feathered Dragon" Shook Its Tail Feathers in the Time of Dinosaurs
2+ week, 4+ day ago (185+ words) Some things never go out of style 7: 00 AM CDT on May 28, 2026 Paleontologist Alex Clark from Chicago's Field Museum discovered the eye-catching specimen while sifting through fossils at China's Shandong Tianyu Museum. The bird was a member of the enantiornithines, the…...
This Toothless, Beaked Crocodile Ancestor Walked on Two Legs
3+ week, 3+ day ago (148+ words) It came on the scene during a time of evolutionary experimentation 7: 00 AM CDT on May 26, 2026 "We see a lot of the successful strategies for modern animals and non-avian dinosaurs first arise in the Triassic, and shuvosaurs are a great example…...
There's a New T. Rex in Town'and It Swims
3+ week, 3+ day ago (112+ words) 9: 18 AM CDT on May 22, 2026 One feature that sets T. rex apart is its size. The species measured 43 feet long from snout to tail, cementing its spot as apex predator of the shallow sea. "Everything is bigger in Texas and that includes…...
We Finally Have the Answer for T. Rex's Tiny Arms
3+ week, 6+ day ago (360+ words) They have their massive heads to blame 6: 05 PM CDT on May 19, 2026 Tyrannosaurus rex may have been a fearsome predator, but there's no getting around how ridiculous its tiny arms looked. Research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B…...