Fossil feet may be misleading scientists about human evolution
Wild monkeys in West Africa can climb vertical tree trunks using foot flexibility scientists did not realize they possessed. The discovery challenges a key assumption about what the last common ancest...
Skull morphology of the extinct Tasmanian tiger suggests unique biting style
Origins of biodiversity in eastern Tibet revealed by Eocene mammals and fossil tree rings
Late Cambrian (Furongian, Stage 10) linguliform brachiopods from the western margin of Gondwana, Cordillera Oriental, Argentina
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 5, September/October 2026.
125-Million-Year-Old Crocodile Fossil Reveals Astonishing New Secrets
Ultraviolet imaging of a 125-million-year-old crocodylomorph fossil has revealed unexpectedly detailed traces of skin, sensory structures, and chest cartilage. More than a century after a tiny Early C...
Tracks and tooth marks reveal bone-crushing dogs at Nebraska supervolcano ashfall site
Thirty-five years on—well, 12 million, technically—Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park continues to offer important glimpses of prehistoric life in Nebraska.
The iconic Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia from the Central Urals
Papers in Palaeontology, Volume 12, Issue 5, September/October 2026.
Texas fossil reveals early insects kept aquatic limbs during move onto land
The formation of complex terrestrial ecosystems was a significant innovation in the evolutionary history of life on Earth. This event signified the expansion of life beyond marine environments and mar...
324-million-year-old fossil reveals how insects conquered land
Ancient fossils suggest insects conquered land through a long amphibious phase rather than making an abrupt jump from water to dry ground. A newly identified 324-million-year-old species still carried...
Two decades of fieldwork produce the first complete guide to the native reptiles of the Turks and Caicos Islands
A researcher from the University of North Carolina Asheville has published the first comprehensive checklist of the native terrestrial reptiles of the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), drawing on 20 yea...
We discovered rare dinosaur tracks from the Coniacian age near Tumbler Ridge, British Columbia
Imagine the Western Plains of North America, from Texas to Alaska, submerged under a broad, shallow seaway. To the west lay the ancestral Rocky Mountains. To the east were low-lying plains traversed b...
Australia's lizards and snakes disappearing faster than previously thought
Australia's lizards and snakes are facing a far more precarious future than previously understood, with a new review led by Monash University researchers revealing that around 127 species, or just ove...
Reconstructed Jurassic insect calls evoke a 165-million-year-old forest soundscape
The sights and sounds of the Jurassic era are long gone, and we will never know for sure what that ancient world looked and sounded like. Fossils can offer clues, and reconstructions can give us a sen...
The first insects had way more than six legs
Previously collected fossils prove a treasure trove for understanding the origin of insects
Amphibious stem-insect sheds light on colonization of land
Nature, Published online: 26 August 2026; doi:10.1038/s41586-026-10961-2 Restudy of a challenging fossil using cross-polarized light imaging and phylogenetic reconstruction identifies Chosha praecurso...
55-Million-Year-Old Penguin Fossils Preserve Clues to a Warmer Antarctica
A team of paleontologists studying penguin fossils from Seymour Island found that ancient bird bones can preserve chemical evidence of past climate change. Ancient penguin bones from Seymour Island, n...
Egypt's deserts were once home to a diverse shark community
During the Late Cretaceous period, parts of Egypt were covered in water. A new study, published in the journal Cretaceous Research, describes new evidence that this tropical sea was home to a diverse ...
Shell-crushing predators may have sparked early Cenozoic boom in marine snail evolution
A large-scale study of nearly 700 species reveals the evolutionary relationships and history of Neogastropoda, a diverse group of marine snails. The findings provide new evidence for their single orig...