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...
Scientists say we’ve been looking in the wrong place for human origins
A fossil ape discovered in northern Egypt is reshaping the story of human evolution. The species, Masripithecus, lived about 17 to 18 million years ago and may sit very close to the ancestor of all mo...
Tyrannosaurus Tooth Found Embedded in Dinosaur Skull Reveals Brutal Prehistoric Attack
A fossil skull with a Tyrannosaurus tooth embedded shows evidence of a forceful attack, helping scientists better understand how the predator hunted or fed. A rare fossil at Montana State University’s...
First New Dinosaur Species Found in Korea in 15 Years Surprises Scientists
Scientists discovered Doolysaurus, a baby dinosaur from Korea revealed through CT scanning. The fossil shows a small, likely fuzzy omnivore and suggests more hidden dinosaur remains in the region. In ...
Fossils discovered in Egypt may be the closest ancestor of all apes
Pieces of jawbone and teeth found in Egypt have been identified as a new early ape species named Masripithecus moghraensis, which lived about 17 million years ago
This Ancient Ape Fossil Could Change Where Humans Came From
A fossil from Egypt hints we’ve been searching for humanity’s ape ancestors in the wrong place. Researchers say a newly uncovered fossil ape from northern Egypt is changing how scientists think about ...
18 million-year-old fossils of ape found in Africa, but in an unexpected place
The ancestor of apes was long thought to come from East Africa, but newly discovered fossils in Egypt may prompt a rethink.
Oldest Cretaceous latimeriid elucidates cranial evolution in derived and extant coelacanths (Actinistia, Latimeriidae)
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 2, March/April 2026.