News
Triassic fossil reveals a beaked, bipedal reptile that looked like an ostrich dinosaur
4+ hour, 20+ min ago (912+ words) Reconstruction of Labrujasuchus expectatus, a new species of Shuvosauridae from Late Triassic rocks of Ghost Ranch, New Mexico. (CREDIT: Art by Jorge Gonzalez, copyright NHMLAC Dinosaur Institute) The Late Triassic was full of animals that look almost familiar, right up…...
Fossil study finds dinosaur parents fed their young special diets
6+ day, 15+ hour ago (1198+ words) A new fossil study suggests baby duck-billed dinosaurs ate softer, richer foods than adults, hinting at bird-like parenting. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4. 0) Maiasaura dinosaur teeth carry a quiet clue: babies were not eating what adults ate. Tiny wear marks suggest…...
Ancient fossils suggest complex life got its start on an oxygenated seafloor
1+ week, 1+ day ago (972+ words) Fossils from ancient Australian seas suggest early eukaryotes depended on oxygen and lived mainly on the seafloor. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4. 0) Early eukaryotes, the lineage that later gave rise to animals, plants and fungi, may have depended on oxygen from…...
Why flowering plants survived Earth's greatest extinction while dinosaurs did not
1+ week, 1+ day ago (1203+ words) Ancient genome duplications may have helped flowering plants survive asteroid strikes, warming and cooling across Earth's history. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4. 0) Flowering plants survived Earth's worst disasters, including the asteroid strike that ended the dinosaurs, while many others vanished. A…...
Meet Nagatitan: Largest dinosaur ever discovered in Southeast Asia
2+ week, 1+ day ago (1179+ words) Stylized life reconstruction of Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis gen. et. sp. nov. within the arid floodplains of late Early Cretaceous Aptian'Albian Thailand illustrated by Patchanop Boonsai. (CREDIT: Scientific Reports) A front leg bone nearly as tall as a person lay buried beside…...
The surprising reason why T. rex had short arms
2+ week, 2+ day ago (1075+ words) A new study argues T. rex evolved short arms to avoid serious injuries during violent group feeding on carcasses. (CREDIT: Shutterstock) For more than a century, Tyrannosaurus rex has carried one of paleontology's most stubborn visual jokes: a giant body, a…...
Brazilian dinosaur discovery points to an ancient route from Europe to South America
3+ week, 1+ day ago (1016+ words) Artistic reconstruction of the new dinosaur from Maranh'o state. It was 20 meters long and had a European relative. (CREDIT: Jorge Blanco) A giant dinosaur lay buried about eight meters below a construction site in northeastern Brazil, hidden in sediments so…...
Spider and horseshoe crab relatives emerged 20 million years earlier than scientists thought
3+ week, 6+ day ago (1236+ words) Artistic reconstructions by M. Hattori illustrating oblique views of the dorsal (top) and ventral (bottom) morphologies. The sanctacaridid-like morphology of the posteriormost body region is speculative. (CREDIT: Nature) It looked, at first, like the sort of fossil Rudy Lerosey-Aubril knew well....
Tyrannosaurus rex walked like a bird on its tiptoes
1+ mon, 9+ hour ago (593+ words) New research suggests T. rex moved on tiptoes, using a bird-like gait that may have boosted speed and stability. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4. 0) Powerful jaws and bone-crushing bites have long shaped the popular image of Tyrannosaurus rex. Its feet, not so…...
Ancient teeth unlock million-year-old secrets of where early humans evolved
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (846+ words) Chemicals in your tooth enamel record evidence of your diet that can last millions of years. (CREDIT: Zelalem Bedaso) Written By: Zelalem Bedaso / Edited By: Joseph Shavit Teeth are like tiny'biological time capsules. They tell stories about ancient diets and…...