How we came to be: Scientists get first look at the evolution of early complex animals
Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatures that took over th...
Fossil site in China reveals bevy of complex creatures lived prior to the Cambrian explosion, including a 'Dune'-like sandworm
A site in southwestern China holds a wide array of strange life-forms that emerged prior to the Cambrian explosion, and it pushes back the origin of complex life by millions of years.
Engineering the bite of ancient marine predators
An international team of researchers, led by paleontologists of the University of Liège, has investigated the biting capabilities of extinct predatory marine reptiles, revealing how these formidable p...
Ancient bees found nesting inside fossil bones in rare cave discovery
Thousands of years ago in a cave on Hispaniola, an unusual chain of events left behind a rare scientific treasure: bees nesting inside fossilized bones. After giant barn owls repeatedly brought prey l...
Strange “elephant skin” rocks reveal ancient life in the dark ocean
A puzzling wrinkled rock formation in Morocco has led scientists to rethink where ancient microbes could live. Instead of shallow, sunlit waters, these microbes may have thrived deep in the ocean, fue...
This tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the origin of spiders
What started as routine fossil cleaning turned into a major scientific surprise when researchers uncovered a tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old specimen where no claw should exist. That detail reveal...
Homo habilis is the earliest named human. But is it even human?
Between 2 million and 3 million years ago, humans appeared in Africa — but identifying them in the fossil record is turning out to be surprisingly difficult.
Surprise fossil discoveries push back the evolution of complex animals
A fossil bed in China containing animals up to 554 million years old suggests that we may have to reconsider the idea that life suddenly diversified during the Cambrian explosion
Scientists Just Rewrote the Timeline of Complex Life on Earth
Scientists have discovered fossils showing that complex animals existed millions of years before the Cambrian explosion, reshaping the timeline of life on Earth. The finds reveal a strange, diverse ec...
Teenager’s Fossil Find Leads to Discovery of Shark Teeth in 5 Million-Year-Old Whale Skull
Shark teeth found in 5-million-year-old whale skulls provide direct evidence of ancient feeding behavior and predator-prey relationships in the North Sea. Researchers studying two fossilized whale sku...
500-million-year-old fossil sheds light on origins of spiders and scorpions
Bristling, multilegged ocean swimmer shows early emergence of claws
A 500-Million-Year-Old Surprise Is Forcing Scientists to Rethink Spider Evolution
A tiny claw in a 500-million-year-old fossil just rewrote the origin story of spiders. After a full day of teaching, Rudy Lerosey-Aubril turned to a task he found especially rewarding: preparing a Cam...
Scientists found a baby dinosaur hidden in rock and it is surprisingly cute
Scientists uncovered a rare baby dinosaur in South Korea and named it Doolysaurus after a famous cartoon character. Using cutting-edge CT scans, they discovered hidden bones—including a skull—inside r...
A chelicera-bearing arthropod reveals the Cambrian origin of chelicerates
Pincer movement: fossil pushes origins of chelicerate arthropods back to the Cambrian period
'It blew my mind': Long-lost ice-age ecosystem, including fossils of lion-size armadillo and giant ground sloth, discovered in Texas 'water cave'
Two researchers snorkeling in a subterranean stream in Texas discovered fossils from the Late Pleistocene epoch, revealing new details about what lived in this ancient ecosystem.
Some dinosaurs could rise up like giants — until they grew too big
Certain smaller sauropods could stand on their hind legs with surprising ease, giving them access to higher food and a defensive edge. Computer simulations show their bones handled stress better than ...
100 million years ago, an 'evolutionary fuse' was lit in the deep ocean, sparking squid diversification
From color-changing skin to jet-propelled motion, squid and cuttlefish have long fascinated scientists. To understand the origins of their unique characteristics, many attempts have been made to defin...
Embryo-like fossils from Southern China offer new clues about ancient life
Some of the most ancient fossils collected to date were traced back to the Ediacaran period. This is the time interval ranging from around 635 to 541 million years ago, shortly before the time when sc...
Extraordinary Fossil Reveals Fatal Duel Between Ocean Titans 80 Million Years Ago
A fossil discovery from Alabama reveals a rare and dramatic glimpse into the dangers of Cretaceous oceans, where even top predators were vulnerable. The oceans covering North America during the Cretac...