Paleontology

  1. Paleontology

    Soft tissue in fossils still mysterious

    New research suggests modern biofilms could contaminate ancient fossils.

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  2. Paleontology

    A wandering eye

    New look at fossils of primitive flatfish reveals how these fish evolved eyes on one side of their head

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  3. Paleontology

    Fossils, now available in color

    Fossilized feathers of an early bird or dinosaur may retain evidence of pigment, offering a chance to animal colors of the Cretaceous.

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  4. Life

    Fossil helps document shift from sea to land

    New fossils of an ancient, four-limbed creature help fill in the blanks of the evolutionary transition between fish and the first land-adapted vertebrates.

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  5. Paleontology

    Ancient burrows

    Triassic-era sediments unearthed in Antarctica reveal the well-preserved lair of a four-legged, mammal-like reptile.

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  6. Paleontology

    A mammoth divide

    Woolly mammoths roamed Siberia in two distinct clans, and the split between the groups, scientists say, is surprisingly deep, occurring more than 1 million years ago.

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  7. Paleontology

    Walking tall

    Some types of the largest flying reptiles ever known were well adapted to life on the ground.

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  8. Life

    Reviving extinct DNA

    For the first time, scientists have resurrected a piece of DNA from an extinct animal — the Tasmanian tiger. The researchers engineered mice with a piece of the long-gone marsupial's DNA that turns on a collagen gene in cartilage-producing cells.

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  9. Paleontology

    China was an ancient-ape paradise

    Fossil dig uncovers the oldest known remains of ancestral gibbons

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  10. Paleontology

    Salty Old Cellulose: Tiny fibers found in ancient halite deposits

    Researchers have recovered microscopic bits of cellulose from 253-million-year-old salt deposits deep underground.

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  11. Paleontology

    Twice upon a Time

    New fossil finds suggest that the complex features of mammals originated earlier than previously thought and might even have evolved independently in different mammalian lineages.

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  12. Paleontology

    From China, the tiniest pterodactyl

    Researchers excavating the fossil-rich rocks of northeastern China have discovered yet another paleontological marvel: a flying reptile the size of a sparrow.

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