1+ hour, 39+ min ago   (649+ words) Africa’s giant herbivores did not simply vanish in a wave of extinctions. Their evolutionary family tree was slowly running out of new branches. A new study suggests that the long decline of animals such as elephants, hippopotamuses, and their extinct…...

5+ day, 13+ hour ago   (736+ words) How quickly sediment accumulates on the seafloor appears to be the key factor determining whether fossils from different time periods become mixed together. A single layer of marine fossils can look like a snapshot of one ancient community even when…...

1+ week, 1+ day ago   (557+ words) Microlithic projectile points from Uzbekistan may link Central Asia to a revised story of Homo sapiens’ early expansion into Europe. Researchers have identified tiny triangular projectile points at the Obi Rakhmat site in Uzbekistan by studying the marks left when…...

1+ week, 2+ day ago   (173+ words) Ultraviolet imaging of a 125-million-year-old crocodylomorph fossil has revealed unexpectedly detailed traces of skin, sensory structures, and chest cartilage....

1+ week, 3+ day ago   (703+ words) A study shows that monkeys use their feet to climb trees as skillfully as chimpanzees. The way a primate climbs a tree can offer clues about how our own ancestors once moved. New research suggests that whatever scientists eventually determine…...

1+ week, 5+ day ago   (327+ words) A team of paleontologists studying penguin fossils from Seymour Island found that ancient bird bones can preserve chemical evidence of past climate change. Because the fossils are rare, the researchers needed a way to examine them without causing damage. They…...

2+ week, 16+ hour ago   (578+ words) Archaeopteryx may have taken off by using two or three powerful leaps to reach the speed needed for sustained flight. With wings that could not lift high above its back and no keeled breastbone to power a modern-style launch, Archaeopteryx…...

2+ week, 18+ hour ago   (484+ words) An unusual growth mark in an ancient bone may help resolve a longstanding mystery surrounding the origins of mammalian reproduction. A microscopic growth mark preserved inside a 236 million-year-old fossil may help answer a longstanding question about how the ancestors of…...

2+ week, 6+ day ago   (174+ words) High in the forests of western Thailand, scientists have discovered a tiny new lizard whose striking appearance and unique biology earned it a name worthy of a fantasy dragon....

3+ week, 1+ day ago   (405+ words) An international research team examined a unique fossil from China that, for the first time, preserves the digestive system of a marine reptile with a long neck that lived in the oceans 245 million years ago. Inside an almost complete fossil…...