Scientists believe birds’ skulls hold clues to inner lives of long-extinct dinosaurs
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Blood vessels found in T. rex bones are rewriting dinosaur science
Dinosaur DNA may still be out of reach, but scientists are uncovering something almost as exciting—ancient blood vessels hidden inside fossilized bones. In a massive Tyrannosaurus rex nicknamed Scotty...
Before dinosaurs vanished, a hamster-sized mammal was already shaping what survived next on the Pacific Coast
Mammals and dinosaurs coexisted on Earth until a catastrophic event 66 million years ago killed 75% of life on the planet. Despite the devastation, some animals survived, including rodent-like mammals...
Scientists just discovered Africa is closer to breaking apart than we thought
Beneath East Africa’s Turkana Rift, scientists have found the crust is thinning to a critical point, suggesting the continent is gradually breaking apart. This “necking” process marks an advanced stag...
Giant octopuses may have ruled the oceans 100 million years ago
Giant, fearsome octopuses may have once ruled the ancient seas, according to new research that flips the script on their evolutionary past. By uncovering exquisitely preserved fossil jaws hidden insid...
This battered Jurassic sea giant held on against the odds, and its fossil hints at an unexpected survival strategy
A fossil discovery in Mistelgau, Northern Bavaria, Germany, reveals that the last representatives of the giant ichthyosaurs of the genus Temnodontosaurus survived longer in the Southwest German Basin ...
Scientists find perfect fossils in rust beneath Australian farmland
Beneath the dry farmland of New South Wales lies a hidden window into a lost rainforest teeming with life from 11-16 million years ago. At McGraths Flat, scientists have uncovered fossils preserved in...
Stunning 132 million-year-old dinosaur tracks are rewriting history
A long-standing mystery in southern Africa’s fossil record is beginning to unravel. After massive lava flows 182 million years ago seemed to erase evidence of dinosaurs in the region, scientists have ...
This 100 million-year-old snake had hind legs and a lost bone that changes evolution
Nearly 100 million years ago, snakes weren’t the sleek, limbless creatures we know today—they still had hind legs and even a cheekbone that has almost vanished in modern species. A remarkably preserve...
Did kraken-like octopuses rule Cretaceous seas? Massive jaw fossils offer clues
Largest-ever octopus was great white shark of invertebrate predators
During the Cretaceous, 19-metre-long predatory octopuses swam the seas, and evidence from their fossilised remains suggest they may have been highly intelligent hunters
Earliest octopuses were giant top predators in Cretaceous oceans. They were up to 19 meters (62 feet) long. Wear patterns on their jaws suggest they fed on marine reptiles like Mosasaurs and Plesiosaurs.
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Octopus ‘krakens’ as large as semi-trucks stalked ancient seas
Giant cephalopods may have rivaled marine reptiles as apex predators during the age of the dinosaurs
'Kraken' octopus that lived at the time of the dinosaurs was a 62-foot-long apex predator of the ocean
A close inspection of 27 fossil jaws from finned octopuses challenge the longstanding belief that the apex oceanic predators of the Cretaceous were all vertebrates.
In Eastern Africa, the cradle of humankind is tearing apart
Eastern Africa's Turkana Rift is both a hotbed for fossil discoveries of our earliest ancestors and a literal hotbed of volcanic activity caused by shifting tectonic plates. Now researchers have found...
This ancient crocodile relative grew up on four legs then walked on two
A bizarre crocodile relative from the age of dinosaurs is rewriting what scientists thought they knew about ancient reptiles. This poodle-sized creature, called Sonselasuchus cedrus, appears to have s...
Ostracod fauna from the Lower Cretaceous Cangxi Formation of the Sichuan Basin, southwestern China: taxonomy, biostratigraphy and palaeobiogeography
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 2, March/April 2026.
Breathing new life into an ancient mystery: Unlocking the trilobite's respiratory secrets
For more than 270 million years, trilobites were among the most successful and diverse creatures on Earth, with over 22,000 known species spanning the Paleozoic Era. Yet, despite their abundance in th...
Strange 65-Foot Dinosaur Discovered in Argentina
Bicharracosaurus dionidei, a newly discovered sauropod from Argentina, shows a mix of brachiosaurid and diplodocid traits, offering new insights into dinosaur evolution in the Southern Hemisphere. Lon...
These tiny dinosaur fossils fooled scientists for 20 years
Tiny dinosaur fossils that puzzled scientists for over 20 years have finally revealed their true identity. Rather than belonging to a miniature species, they are actually baby ankylosaurs—some less th...