Paleontology

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.

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.

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.