News
When Scientists Are Dinosaurs
6+ hour, 49+ min ago (330+ words) At the paleontology conference, her new theory was shouted down I wasn't fazed one bit as the tequila hit the table for the third time in an hour. You see, while I wore the name tag Matt Kaplan, Science Correspondent…...
This Football-Shaped Creature Was an Early Terrestrial Plant-Eater
3+ week, 8+ hour ago (255+ words) The newly discovered specimen shows how early herbivory evolved Pantylids were among the early pioneers in land colonization. Known as "stem amniotes" they were closely related to the first vertebrates that developed eggs capable of surviving on land without drying…...
The Monstrous Appetite of Japanese Giant Salamanders
3+ week, 4+ day ago (198+ words) Body size pushes these river monsters to become apex predators There are monsters lurking in the rivers of southern Japan'giant salamanders that can grow up to five feet long. Second only to their Chinese cousins, these wet-skinned leviathans are some…...
Inside the Mouth of Earth’s Oldest Bird
3+ week, 5+ day ago (472+ words) A new look at an Archaeopteryx skull reveals some familiar and fascinating structures If you've ever had the misfortune of staring down the gullet of a screaming goose, you know it contains the stuff of nightmares'a thick, barbed tongue surrounded…...
Baby Sauropods Were the Potato Chips of the Jurassic Era
1+ mon, 1+ day ago (241+ words) Life was cheap in this ecosystem" The closest thing we have to a real-life Jurassic Park is the Morrison Formation, a sprawling deposit of fossil-rich sedimentary rock dating back to the Jurassic Period spanning several Southwestern states. While the dinosaurs…...
How Giant Kangaroos Moved Across Ancient Australia
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (180+ words) Structure of fossil foot and ankle bones was robust enough for occasional hopping The full Nautilus archive " eBooks & Special Editions " Ad-free reading After all, Pleistocene giant kangaroos faced hyper-carnivore predators like "marsupial lions(Thylacoleo carnifex), whose tooth marks have been…...
Tyrannosaurids Took Their Time Growing to 17,000 Pounds
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (383+ words) Science at the Ballot Box Women in Science & Engineering Forty-year growth periods may have given them a leg up in dominating their ecosystems The full Nautilus archive " eBooks & Special Editions " Ad-free reading How long did it take for a Tyrannosaurus…...
The Secrets of an Ancient Hunk of Woolly Rhinoceros Meat
1+ mon, 2+ week ago (366+ words) Science at the Ballot Box Women in Science & Engineering It helps decipher what exactly happened to its species about 14,000 years ago The full Nautilus archive " eBooks & Special Editions " Ad-free reading The stomach of a preserved wolf puppy from the Siberian…...
Did This Spiral Sea Creature Outlive the Dinosaurs?
1+ mon, 3+ week ago (293+ words) Science at the Ballot Box Women in Science & Engineering An ancient marine murder mystery that remains unsolved The full Nautilus archive " eBooks & Special Editions " Ad-free reading Around 66 million years ago, tragedy struck the dinosaurs when a massive space rock barrelled…...
This Walking Ape Might Be the Earliest Human Ancestor
2+ mon, 1+ day ago (484+ words) Science at the Ballot Box Women in Science & Engineering The limbs of Sahelanthropus tchadensis may settle a decades-long evolutionary debate The full Nautilus archive " eBooks & Special Editions " Ad-free reading Whenever you take a stroll, you take advantage of a key…...