Paleontology

  1. Paleontology

    Older Ancestors: Primate origins age in new analysis

    A controversial new statistical model concludes that the common ancestor of primates lived 81.5 million years ago, about 16 million years earlier than many paleontologists have estimated.

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  2. Paleontology

    Old Frilly Face: Triceratops’ relative fills fossil-record gap

    Fossils of a creature the size of a Texas jackrabbit cast new light on the early evolution of a group of horned dinosaurs that include the 8-meter-long Triceratops.

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  3. Paleontology

    Early hunters are guilty as charged

    Scientists find that hunting is the likely cause of New Zealand's prehistoric bird extinctions rather than habitat destruction or pest introduction.

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  4. Paleontology

    Did Mammals Spread from Asia? Carbon blip gives clue to animals’ Eden

    A new dating of Chinese fossils buttresses the idea than an Asian Eden gave rise to at least one of the groups of mammal species that appeared in North America some 55 million years ago.

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  5. Paleontology

    Duck-faced croc had a gap-toothed grin

    Paleontologists have unearthed fossils of a tiny crocodile that boasted a smile like no other: The animal had no teeth across the entire front of its mouth.

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  6. Paleontology

    No Olympian: Analysis hints T. rex ran slowly, if at all

    Tyrannosaurus rex, a bipedal meat eater considered by many to be the most fearsome dinosaur of its day, may not have been the swift Jeep-chaser portrayed by Hollywood.

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  7. Paleontology

    Dinosaur tracks show walking and running

    A single trail of dinosaur footprints found in a British limestone quarry preserves a record of two different walking styles in the same animal, a tantalizing clue that some types of lumbering, bipedal dinosaurs could also run if the need arose.

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  8. Paleontology

    Turn Your Head and Roar

    The analysis of fossils that preserve evidence of diseases that appear to be similar or identical to afflictions that strike modern animals, including humans, could help scientists better grasp the causes and courses of today's ailments.

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  9. Paleontology

    New fossils threaten an extinction theory

    Recent discoveries of long-dead marine invertebrates call into question the occurrence of a catastrophic global extinction during the Late Devonian period, between 385 and 375 million years ago.

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  10. Paleontology

    Fossils Indicate. . .Wow, What a Croc!

    Newly discovered fossils of an ancient cousin of modern crocodiles suggest that adults of the species may have been dinosaur-munching behemoths that grew to the length of a school bus and weighed as much as 8 metric tons.

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  11. Paleontology

    Even flossing wouldn’t have helped

    Small particles trapped in minuscule cracks or pits in the teeth of plant-eating dinosaurs could give scientists a way to identify the types of greenery the ancient herbivores were munching.

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  12. Paleontology

    CT scan unscrambles rare, ancient egg

    A tangled heap of bones and bone fragments in the bottom of an unhatched elephant bird egg may soon be reassembled into a model of the long-dead embryo, thanks to high technology—and scientists won't even have to crack open the egg to do it.

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