Paleontologists just found the peacock of the dinosaur era: « Dubbed the “Banko’s feather dragon,” the extinct bird’s tail feathers were twice the length of its entire body. »
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Tiny-armed alvarezsauroid dinosaurs might have been insect eaters, fossil scans suggest
Dinosaurs are estimated to have roamed Earth for over 165 million years, gradually evolving over time to survive in changing environments. Among the many fascinating groups of dinosaurs known to have ...
The Missing Notebooks That Solved a 25-Year-Old Paleontology Mystery
Field notebooks from the late Richard Köhler allowed researchers to finally catalog a remarkable fossil tarpon from Aotearoa New Zealand. Recently disclosed notebooks from a late paleontologist suppli...
Ancient Goose Fossil Challenges Long-Held Theories About New Zealand Birds
A newly described fossil goose shows that New Zealand’s bird history involved repeated arrivals, extinctions, and rapid island evolution. A rare fossil goose found in the remains of an ancient lake in...
This newly discovered raptor may have hunted like a giant heron
A newly discovered raptor-like dinosaur from Patagonia is changing how scientists think about ancient predators. Named Kank australis, the 70-million-year-old dinosaur appears to have hunted fish much...
This bizarre crocodile relative from the Triassic looked like an ostrich dinosaur
Scientists have discovered Labrujasuchus expectatus, a bizarre crocodile relative that looked more like an ostrich-like dinosaur than anything resembling a modern crocodile. It walked on two legs, had...
Heron-like, fish-eating dinosaur from 70 million years ago discovered in Argentina
A new raptor-like dinosaur from some 70 million years ago that ate fish and behaved like modern herons has been unearthed from southern Patagonia. The new species, which has been named Kank australis,...
Turtles finally have a place in the tree of life thanks to an X‑ray study of South African fossils
The origin of turtles has always been a bit of a puzzle for scientists who study the evolution of animals. To this day, where they fit in the tree of life remains a highly debated topic.
Forgotten museum fossil helps rewrite part of animal evolution
New research published in BMC Biology helps to fill in questions about the so-called "Furongian gap" from about 497 million to 485 million years ago, when paleontologists previously thought there were...
Some spinosaurs cried salty tears to thrive in brackish waters
Fossil evidence suggests some predatory dinosaurs could expel salt from their bloodstream like modern birds and crocodiles do
'Feathered dragon' has some of the longest tail feathers ever found on a fossil bird
Birds have all kinds of fancy decorations for attracting mates—male peacocks have a fan of feathers accented with shimmering blue eye-spots, birds of paradise do courtship dances that highlight their ...
New fossil salamander species related to the famous axolotl is discovered in Mexico
The Mexican axolotl (Ambystoma mexicanum) is famous because adults look like overgrown babies, or tadpoles, retaining juvenile features as adults and capable of remarkable regeneration of lost limbs o...
What a toothless, two-legged crocodile cousin reveals about life before dinosaurs dominated
In the Triassic, the modern animals we know were just beginning to diversify into a menagerie of forms and body plans that rhyme with the lifestyles of extinct and living animals better known to the p...
Scientists Discover 43-Foot Sea Reptile Twice the Size of a Great White Shark
A newly identified mosasaur from Texas suggests that some ancient marine predators were larger, more powerful, and possibly more aggressive than previously recognized. Bite marks, broken jaws, and a g...
Payre fossils from Europe's earliest Neanderthals reveal dynamic evolution shaped by climatic oscillations
The Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH) has led the international team behind a new study published in Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences exploring the complex...
Artists reconstruct extinct Sri Lankan megafauna
For animator and academic Dr. Jason Kennedy, palaeoart isn't just a hobby. Creating 3D images of prehistoric animals sits at the intersection of science and art, combining fossil analysis, comparisons...
Palynology of the Cerro de Las Cabras Formation (Middle Triassic) at Estancia La Obligación area, Cuyana Basin, Mendoza, Argentina: systematics, palynostratigraphy, and long‐distance correlations with the northern hemisphere
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 3, May/June 2026.
How did animals survive the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs?
It helped to have a number of features to aid survival following the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.
Tiny fossils found in 1.7-billion‑year‑old mud yield clues to the evolution of complex life
Stored in an open-air warehouse in tropical Darwin, Australia, are dozens of trays containing cylindrical cores of rock. They are from drill holes bored hundreds of meters below the surface by mineral...
Scientists discover giant sea predator Tylosaurus rex that terrorized ancient oceans
A colossal new sea predator named Tylosaurus rex has been identified from fossils found in Texas, revealing a brutal 43-foot-long hunter that ruled ancient oceans 80 million years ago. The discovery n...