Paleontology
- 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.
- Paleontology
These ancient bumblebees were found with their pollen source
Insects have long pollinated plants, but evidence of ancient pairing is rare. Fossils now show bees and linden trees goes back 24 million years.
- Animals
The viral Chicago ‘Rat Hole’ almost certainly wasn’t made by a rat
Researchers used methods from paleontology to analyze the quirky local landmark, created when a rodent of a certain size fell into wet concrete.
- Animals
What the longest woolly rhino horn tells us about the beasts’ biology
A nearly 20,000-year-old woolly rhino horn reveals the extinct herbivores lived as long as modern-day rhinos, despite harsher Ice Age conditions.
- Paleontology
What may be one of Earth’s earliest animals has a punk rock vibe
Squiggly markings like a punk rock hairdo led researchers to identify the remains as spongelike animals that may have lived around 560 million years ago.
- Paleontology
An ancient reptile’s fossilized skin reveals how it swam like a seal
A reptile fossil is the first of its kind with skin and partially webbed feet, possibly showing how later species like plesiosaurs adapted to water.
- Paleontology
Crystallized dino eggs provide a peek into the tumultuous Late Cretaceous
Definitively dating the age of a clutch of fossil dinosaur eggs at a famous site in China may let scientists link eggshell features to environmental shifts at the time.
