Oceans
Evolution didn’t wait long after the dinosaurs died
New plankton arrived just a few millennia — maybe even decades — after the Chicxulub asteroid, forcing a rethink of evolution's catastrophe response speed.
Paleontology
More Stories in Paleontology
- Paleontology
These fossil finds shed new light on the past in 2025
The year's top paleontological wonders ranged from a 540-million-year-old penis worm to a decades-old rodent impression.
- Anthropology
Big Neandertal noses weren’t made for cold
Tiny cameras threaded inside a Neandertal skull provide evidence that their big noses were not an adaptation to cold climates.
- Paleontology
Nanotyrannus is still not a teenage T. rex
Nanotyrannus wasn’t a juvenile T. rex but a petite adult of a separate species, a new study of fossil hyoid bones finds, bolstering a recent report.
- Paleontology
This bright orange life-form could point to new dino discoveries
Colorful lichen living on dinosaur bones reflect infrared light that can be detected by drones, which might lead to finds in remote areas.
- Animals
40,000-year-old woolly mammoth RNA offers a peek into its last moments
Ancient RNA from Yuka, a 40,000-year-old woolly mammoth preserved in permafrost, can offer new biological insights into the Ice Age animal’s life.
- Materials Science
What causes the rainbow shimmer of ammolite gems?
Ammolite gems’ fabulous colors arise from delicate assemblies of crystal plates.
- Paleontology
Nanotyrannus was not a teenaged T. rex
A new Nanotyrannus fossil suggests the diminutive dino lived alongside T. rex in the late Cretaceous Period.
- Paleontology
Dinosaurs were thriving before the asteroid hit, new analysis suggests
New dating of New Mexico rocks suggest diverse dinosaurs thrived there just before the impact, countering the idea dinos were already on their way out.
- Humans
An ancient bone recasts how Indigenous Australians treated megafauna
A new look at cuts on a giant kangaroo bone reveal First Peoples as fossil collectors, not hunters who helped drive species extinct, some scientists argue.
