Paleontology

Paleontology

Africa’s east coast netted ancient humans

Excavations of an exposed reef on Africa's Red Sea coast indicate that humans lived there 125,000 years ago, pushing back the date for the earliest seaside settlement by at least 10,000 years.

Paleontology

Dear Mummy: Rare fossil reveals common dinosaur’s soft tissue

A mummified dinosaur unearthed in Montana a year ago is giving scientists a rare peek at what the creature's muscles and other soft tissues may have looked like.

Paleontology

Telltale Dino Heart Hints at Warm Blood

A recently discovered fossil dinosaur heart is more like the heart of birds and mammals than that of crocodiles, providing further evidence that dinosaurs may have been warm-blooded.

Paleontology

Trilobites to Go

Extinct even before dinosaurs existed on Earth but extensively preserved in the fossil record, the eight orders of trilobites (more than 15,000 species) live on via this large, informative Web site, created by zoologist and amateur trilobite enthusiast Sam Gon III. The site provides a gallery of images, a glossary of terms, and much more. […]

Paleontology

Dinosaurs, party of six, meat eating

The bones of six carnivorous dinosaurs discovered in a fossil bed in Patagonia may indicate that big, meat-eating dinosaurs were social creatures.

Paleontology

Fossil gets a leg up on snake family tree

A 95-million-year-old fossil snake with legs may be an advanced big-mouthed snake, not a primitive ancestor.

Paleontology

Salvaged DNA adds to Neandertals’ mystique

Researchers who isolated a sample of Neandertal mitochondrial DNA say that it provides no evidence that Neandertals contributed to modern human evolution.

Paleontology

Veggie Bites: Fossil suggests carnivorous dinosaurs begat vegetarian kin

Chinese rocks have yielded fossil remains of a creature that had rodentlike incisors and a hefty overbite, providing the first distinct dental evidence for plant-eating habits among theropod dinosaurs.

Paleontology

Sea Dragons

About 235 million years ago, as the earliest dinosaurs stomped about on land, some of their reptilian relatives slipped back into the surf, took on an aquatic lifestyle, and became ichthyosaurs—Greek for fish lizards.

Paleontology

Bone Crushers: Teeth reveal changing times in the Pleistocene

Tooth-fracture incidence among dire wolves in the fossil record can indicate how much bone the carnivores crunched and, therefore, something about the ecology of their time.

Paleontology

Unknown creature made birdlike tracks

Paleontologists have found a multitude of birdlike footprints left by a yet undiscovered creature in rocks more than 60 million years older than Archaeopteryx, the first bird to have left fossils of its body parts.

Paleontology

Skimming the Surface: Flying reptile may have scooped its meals

Fossils unearthed in Brazil strengthen the idea that some species of ancient flying reptiles snatched their meals on the fly, snapping up fish as they swooped low over the water's surface.