Palaeontology
Giant Sand Worm Discovery Proves Truth is Stranger Than Fiction
Simon Fraser University researchers have found evidence that large ambush-predatory worms--some as long as two metres--roamed the ocean floor near Taiwan over 20 million years ago.
Palaeontology
New Starfish-Like Fossil Reveals Evolution in Action
Researchers from the University of Cambridge have discovered a fossil of the earliest starfish-like animal, which helps us understand the origins of the nimble-armed creature.
Palaeontology
50 Million-Year-Old Fossil Assassin Bug Has Unusually Well-Preserved Genitalia
The fossilized insect is tiny and its genital capsule, called a pygophore, is roughly the length of a grain of rice.
Palaeontology
Dinosaur-Era Sea Lizard Had Teeth Like a Shark
New study identifies a bizarre new species suggesting that giant marine lizards thrived before the asteroid wiped them out 66 million years ago.
Palaeontology
Cretaceous Amber Fossil Sheds Light on Bioluminescence in Beetles
Bioluminescence has fascinated people since time immemorial. The majority of organisms able to produce their own light are beetles, specifically fireflies, glow-worm beetles, and their relatives.
Palaeontology
New Discovery Sheds Light on Sabre-toothed Tiger
New research indicates adolescent offspring of the menacing sabre-toothed predator, Smilodon fatalis, were more momma's cubs than independent warriors.
Natural History
Research Explains Why Crocodiles Changed so Little Since Age of Dinosaurs
New research by scientists at the University of Bristol explains how a 'stop-start' pattern of evolution, governed by environmental change, could explain why crocodiles have changed so little since the age of the dinosaurs.
Palaeontology
Leaf Fossils Show Severe End-Cretaceous Plant Extinction
The asteroid impact 66 million years ago that ushered in a mass extinction and ended the dinosaurs also killed off many of the plants that they relied on for food.
Palaeontology
Early Mammal With Remarkably Precise Bite
Palaeontologists at the University of Bonn (Germany) have succeeded in reconstructing the chewing motion of an early mammal that lived almost 150 million years ago.
Palaeontology
The ‘Crazy Beast’ That Lived Among the Dinosaurs
New research published today in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology describes a bizarre 66 million-year-old mammal that provides profound new insights into the evolutionary history of mammals from the southern supercontinent Gondwana - recognized today as Africa, South America, Australia, Antarctica, the Indian subcontinent, and the Arabian Peninsula.
Palaeontology
First-Known Fossil Iguana Burrow Found in The Bahamas
The discovery of the first known fossil iguana nesting burrow, on an outer island of the Bahamas, fills in a gap of scientific knowledge for a prehistoric behavior of an iconic lizard.
Palaeontology
Archaeopteryx Fossil Provides Insights Into The Origins of Flight
Flying birds moult their feathers when they are old and worn because they inhibit flight performance, and the moult strategy is typically a sequential molt.