Paleontology

Paleontology

How did Triceratops grow its horns?

Newly discovered fossil skulls of juvenile Triceratops may help reveal how the dinosaurs grew their three trademark horns.

Paleontology

Fossils found under tons of Kitty Litter

Excavations at North America's largest Kitter Litter mine have yielded fossils of ancient aquatic reptiles, as well as evidence of a tsunami generated by the extraterrestrial impact that killed off the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago.

Paleontology

Lemurs reveal clues to ancient Asian roots

A diminutive lemur species inhabited what is now central Pakistan about 30 million years ago, a new fossil find suggests.

Paleontology

Large shadows fell on Cretaceous landscape

Paleontologists have unearthed the remains of what they believe could be the largest flying creature yet discovered—a 12-meter-wingspan pterosaur.

Paleontology

New Fossils Resolve Whale’s Origin

The first discovery of early whale fossils with key ankle bones intact provides compelling paleontological evidence that whales are closely related to many living ungulates, a relationship already supported by molecular data.

Paleontology

New fossil sheds light on dinosaurs’ diet

Vestiges of soft tissue preserved in a 70-million-year-old Mongolian fossil suggest that some dinosaurs could have strained small bits of food from the water and mud of streams and ponds, just like some modern aquatic birds do.

Paleontology

Completing a titan by getting a head

When paleontologists unearthed the skeleton of a 70-million-year-old titanosaur in Madagascar in the late 1990s, they also recovered something that had been missing from previous such finds: a skull that matched the body.

Paleontology

That’s no footprint, it’s got no toes

The impressions near Isona, Spain, long thought to be fossilized dinosaur footprints may actually record the feeding behavior of stingrays.

Paleontology

A Ticklish Debate

Paleontologists engaged in a contentious debate about the origins of feathers often reach interpretations that are poles apart, and they defend their views with fervor.

Paleontology

Neandertals, humans may have grown apart

A controversial fossil analysis finds that the skulls of Neandertals and humans grew in markedly different ways.

Paleontology

Study picks new site for dinosaur nostrils

A new analysis of fossils and living animals suggests that most dinosaurs' nostrils occurred at locations toward the tip of their snout rather than farther up on their face, a concept that may change scientists' views of the animals' physiology and behavior.

Paleontology

For past climate clues, ask a stalag-mite

Mites fossilized in cave formations in the American Southwest show that at times during the past 3,200 years the climate there was much wetter and cooler.