fossils (Page 3)

Latest in fossils

Feathered Caudipteryx dinosaurs drinking from a sandy river among palm trees before the asteroid hit

June was probably a terrible month to be a dinosaur. Here’s how we know.

By Michael J. Benton / The Conversation

A fossil of a sawfly

Feast your eyes on exquisite fossils from an ancient rainforest (and more)

A crab with huge eyes on the front of its face swimming after a shrimp with a big head.

This 90-million-year-old crab had the eyes of a hunter

By Philip Kiefer

an illustration of a marine reptile

These ancient marine reptiles got very big, very fast

By Kate Baggaley

a large fossil of a segmented bug in gray rock

How big did ancient millipedes get? Bigger than you’d like.

One of the best-preserved dinosaur embryos ever found.

This fossilized dinosaur embryo is curled up just like a baby bird

By Kate Baggaley

a color illustration of a brown and white bird in a lush forest

This 120-million-year-old bird could stick out its tongue

By Kate Baggaley

A newfound South American dinosaur had a tail like a war club

A newfound South American dinosaur had a tail like a war club

By Kate Baggaley

This four-legged snake fossil was probably a skinny lizard

This four-legged snake fossil was probably a skinny lizard

By Kate Baggaley

An overlooked fossil turned out to be a new herbivorous dinosaur with an oddly shaped nose

An overlooked fossil turned out to be a new herbivorous dinosaur with an oddly shaped nose

By Philip Kiefer

ancient penis worm

Ancient penis worms used protection on the seabed

By Margo Milanowski

an illustration of two human ancestors in africa

Is it time to change the way we talk about human evolution?

By Kate Baggaley

Prosauropod Triassic dinosaur in a digital rendition

After 60 years, a mysterious Australian dinosaur just got downsized

By Margo Milanowski

Dinosaurs who stuck together, survived together

Dinosaurs who stuck together, survived together

By Kate Baggaley

Entombed in amber, this tiny crab hails from the age of dinosaurs

Entombed in amber, this tiny crab hails from the age of dinosaurs

By Kate Baggaley

fossilized tree fern trunk

Fossilized plants give us hints about what ice age forests may have looked like

By Kate Baggaley

Scientists discovered an extremely rare tardigrade fossil trapped in Dominican amber

Scientists discovered an extremely rare tardigrade fossil trapped in Dominican amber

Two large dinosaurs roam a dusky background.

The land-dwelling ‘hell heron’ was a 30-foot aquatic assassin

By Elana Spivack

This 120-million-year-old bird may have been one of the first to shake its tail feathers

This 120-million-year-old bird may have been one of the first to shake its tail feathers

By Kate Baggaley

An illustration of an extinct species of giant penguins. Two penguins stand upright and one huddles down on a rocky island.

Schoolkids in New Zealand discovered a new species of giant penguin

This ancient ‘mothership’ used probing ‘fingers’ to scrape the ocean floor for prey

This ancient ‘mothership’ used probing ‘fingers’ to scrape the ocean floor for prey

By Kate Baggaley

New fossil reveals a fearsome shark-toothed dinosaur

A bird-like brown dinosaur with a huge red crest on its head, in a jungle.

Smugglers almost made off with a near-complete fossil of a bizarre flying reptile

tetrapod fossil

Our four-legged ancestors evolved from sea to land astonishingly quickly

By Philip Kiefer

An illustration of a best of hatchling baby turtles.

A fossilized egg laid by an extinct, human-sized turtle holds a rare jackpot

an illustration of a melting planet earth covered in lush trees and leaves

An ancient era of global warming could hint at our scorching future

a colorful illustration of long-tailed gray rodents carrying assorted objects such as buttons, bones, bugs, and flowers

What’s in a packrat’s petrified pee? Just a few thousand years of secrets.

By Jason Bittel

How bird brains thrived during a mass extinction

How bird brains thrived during a mass extinction

By Kate Baggaley

These fossils could represent the oldest animals ever found

These fossils could represent the oldest animals ever found

By Kate Baggaley

This fossil isn’t a hummingbird-sized dinosaur, but an unusual lizard

This fossil isn’t a hummingbird-sized dinosaur, but an unusual lizard

Dinosaur bones in museum.

The T. rex ‘dynasty’ reigned for more than 125,000 generations

The fossilized skull of the newly discovered L. aliocranianus dinosaur.

This newly discovered dinosaur is called ‘the one who causes fear’ for a reason

illustration of hatchling lamprey

These fossilized lamprey hatchlings disprove an age-old evolutionary theory

By Philip Kiefer

A reimagined prehistoric bird chasing a dragonfly over plants

Were rocks on the menu for these ancient birds?

By Erin Fennessy

This ancient fish-crocodile mashup snared its prey using a key adaptation

By Kate Baggaley

Psittacosaurus reconstruction

This fossilized butthole gives us a rare window into dinosaur sex

By Ellie Shechet

assasin bug preserved fossil

Feast your eyes on this 50-million-year-old assassin bug and its exquisite genitalia

By Kate Baggaley

Fossilized lizard

How fossil preservation and public health are intertwined

By Colella & McLean/The Conversation

Artist reconstruction of Wilamaya Patjxa vicuña hunt.

A female hunter’s remains hint at more fluid gender roles in the early Americas

By Kate Baggaley

An artist's rendering of Filikomys primaevus

These prehistoric rodents were social butterflies

A reconstruction of Ambopteryx in a glide.

Dinosaurs may have evolved into birds, but early flights didn’t go so well

By Kate Baggaley

Paleontologist Jingmai O'Connor birding with her mother in China

Birds are dinosaurs, and this fossil detective has rooms full of bones to prove it

By Science Friday

Could an ancient megashark still lurk in the deep seas?

south island new zealand

Mummified leaves offer a glimpse of Earth’s ancient climate—and our future

By Kate Baggaley

artist representation of Tanystropheus

This ancient reptile had a super long neck to sneak up on unsuspecting fish

By Kate Baggaley

Kongonaphon kely

This pocket-sized shaggy reptile hopped around a pre-dino world

By Kate Baggaley

Insects from the mid-Cretaceous period preserved in amber were found in present-day northern Myanmar.

These insects preserved in amber are still glowing 99 million years later

ancient ancestor of the modern crocodile, which walked on two feet.

Crocodiles’ ancient ancestors may have walked on two legs

By Kate Baggaley

artistic rendition of a dinosaur

Mummified ankylosaur offers a rare glimpse of a dinosaur’s last meal

By Kate Baggaley

dinosaur illustration

Dinosaur cannibalism was real, and Colorado paleontologists have the bones to prove it

By Kate Baggaley

Reconstruction of Spinosaurus in life

Most dinosaurs didn’t swim—but this ‘dino equivalent of Jaws’ sure did

By Sara Kiley Watson

ancient human tools

Anthropologists have identified the earliest evidence of Homo sapiens in Europe

By Kate Baggaley

a homemade fossil footprint

Stay-at-home science project: Leave some “fossil” footprints

By John Kennedy

An abelisaur, a short-snouted predatory dinosaur, rests while several pterosaurs fight over leftovers from a carcass.

The Sahara Desert was once flooded with history’s most vicious dinosaurs

By Kate Baggaley

How do we know what dinosaurs looked like?

By Sara Chodosh

the newly discovered dinosaur: Dineobellator notohesperus

These newly discovered raptors were like feather-covered cheetahs

By Kate Baggaley

Ancient forests that power the modern world

Photograph of Parasaurolophus fossil mount at the Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, Illinois, 2017

Duck-billed dinosaurs had the same bone tumors as people

By Kate Baggaley

Mongolian woman milking an animal

The answer to lactose intolerance might be in Mongolia

By Andrew Curry

Homo erectus skull

The ‘granddaddy’ of all early hominins walked on Earth a lot longer than we thought

By Sara Kiley Watson

a dinosaur skull

This bone-eating dinosaur was constantly losing its teeth

These ancient trilobites are forever frozen in a conga line

These ancient trilobites are forever frozen in a conga line

This 25-foot-long dino discovery suggests raptors roamed farther than we realized

This 25-foot-long dino discovery suggests raptors roamed farther than we realized

By Sara Kiley Watson

Why are humans good at endurance running? The answer is murky.

Fitness & Exercise

Why are humans good at endurance running? The answer is murky.

By Timothy F. Kirn/Undark