Paleontology
- Paleontology
This spiky fossil shows what early mollusks looked like
The fossil, plus 17 others from more than 500 million years ago, reveal that early mollusks were slug-like creatures with prickly armor.
- Paleontology
The asteroid that may have killed the dinosaurs came from beyond Jupiter
The Chicxulub crater, left behind by the impact, contains elemental traces that suggest the origins of the notorious projectile.
- Animals
Komodo dragon teeth get their strength from an iron coat
Studying the reptile’s ironclad teeth in more detail could help solve a dinosaur dental mystery.
- Genetics
Freeze-drying turned a woolly mammoth’s DNA into 3-D ‘chromoglass’
A new technique for probing the 3-D structure of ancient DNA may help scientists learn how extinct animals functioned, not just what they looked like.
- Paleontology
Stunning trilobite fossils include soft tissues never seen before
Well-preserved fossils from Morocco help paleontologists understand the weird way trilobites ate and perhaps why these iconic animals went extinct.
- Paleontology
The last woolly mammoths offer new clues to why the species went extinct
The last population of woolly mammoths did not go extinct 4,000 years ago from inbreeding, a new analysis shows.
- Paleontology
Meet Lokiceratops, a newly discovered species of horned dinosaur
Found in Montana’s badlands, Lokiceratops had two large, bladelike horns jutting forward and out from between its eyes.
- Paleontology
Early ants may have had complex social lives, fossil data suggests
The earliest ants may have been primed for a highly social life — 100 million years ago, the insects had antennae tuned to key communication functions.
- Paleontology
‘Echidnapus’ hints at a lost age of egg-laying mammals
The fossil discoveries double the number of known monotreme species during the Cretaceous Period.
- Neuroscience
How smart was T. rex?
A debate over how to count neurons in dinosaurs is raising questions about how to understand extinct animals’ behavior.
- Paleontology
How did an ancient shark parasite end up fossilized in tree resin?
A worm preserved in 99-million-year-old amber resembles modern flatworms in shark intestines. The rare finding has scientists stumped.
- Paleontology
An extinct sofa-sized turtle may have lived alongside humans
Peltocephalus maturin was one of the biggest turtles ever, but unlike similarly sized prehistoric freshwater turtles, it lived thousands of years ago.
