It’s “an important reminder that evolutionary paths can be unpredictable.”
The amber fossils preserve an impressive array of ancient bugs and plants that scientists are using to piece together a previously unknown Cretaceous ecosystem.
A revisit to a pterosaur-abundant fossil site uncovered how two baby pterosaurs met an unusually chilling death 150 million years ago.
“Evolution sometimes seems to favor the extravagant over the practical.”
The Romans may have treasured the trilobite fossil for its presumed magical or protective powers.
A handful of bite marks on a fossil tens of millions of years old speaks to an ancient tussle between two terrifying apex predators.
By revisiting a fossil unearthed decades ago, paleontologists identified a new type of modified skin jutting out from the reptile’s back like a fan.
The brain of an ancient sea creature bears an uncanny resemblance to those of modern spiders, challenging the conventional notion of where spiders originated.
Fossilized footprints from Australia are forcing paleontologists to rethink the tetrapod family tree.
CT scans, UV light, and careful prep work uncovered feathers that may have given the ancient dinosaur liftoff.
A newly described species from the Burgess Shale had three eyes, clawed limbs, and a tail full of gills—plus internal organs preserved in stunning detail.
The paleontological treasure sat in a fossil collection in Brazil, unnoticed.
More than half of the world's scientifically useful T. rexes are in the hands of private or commercial owners, and not accessible to scientists, according to research.
A digital investigation reveals how AI can latch on to technical terminology, despite it being complete nonsense.
Scientists have debated where Prototaxites belong in the tree of life for over a century, but now a new study suggests it might represent a whole new branch.
A 30,000-year-old vulture feather from Central Italy was preserved down to the microscopic level by volcanic rock.
The tusk may have belonged to a Columbian mammoth, an Ice Age species that disappeared over 11,000 years ago.
Researchers refined their size estimates of the prehistoric shark by studying the bodily proportions of 165 other shark species.
More than 500 exceptionally preserved fossils are offering new clues about the evolution of Florida's animals and landscape.
