Paleontology
The Skeletons of Shanidar Cave
A rare cache of hominid fossils from the Kurdistan area of northern Iraq offers a window on Neanderthal culture
March 2010 |
By Owen Edwards
The Human Family's Earliest Ancestors
Studies of hominid fossils, like 4.4-million-year-old "Ardi," are changing ideas about human origins
March 2010 |
By Ann Gibbons
A Closer Look at Evolutionary Faces
John Gurche, a “paleo-artist,” has recreated strikingly realistic heads of our earliest human ancestors for a new exhibit
February 25, 2010 |
By Abigail Tucker
A Dinosaur Graveyard in the Smithsonian's Backyard
At a new dinosaur park in Maryland, children and paleontologists alike have found fossils for a new Smithsonian exhibit
February 2010 |
By Abby Callard
The Burgess Shale: Evolution's Big Bang
A storied trove of fossils from a Canadian paleontological site is yielding new clues to an explosion of life on earth
August 2009 |
By Siobhan Roberts
Hominids’ African Origins, 50 Years Later
Before Mary Leakey’s discovery of hominid fossils in East Africa, many experts thought that human ancestors evolved in Asia
July 23, 2009 |
By Laura Helmuth
Burgess Shale's Weird Wonders
The fossils found in the Burgess Shale include the 500-million-year-old ancestors of most modern animals
July 16, 2009 |
By Smithsonian.com
The World's Largest Fossil Wilderness
An Illinois coal mine holds a snapshot of life on earth 300 million years ago, when a massive earthquake "froze" a swamp in time
July 2009 |
By Guy Gugliotta
Discovering the Titanoboa
As part of a multi-organizational team, Smithsonian scientist Carlos Jaramillo uncovered the fossils of a gigantic snake
April 20, 2009 |
By Bruce Hathaway
The Dinosaur Fossil Wars
Across the American West, legal battles over dinosaur fossils are on the rise as amateur prospectors make major finds
April 2009 |
By Donovan Webster
Dinosaur Tracking: How Did the Siberian Dinosaurs Die?
New research from a Russian site suggests that some dinosaurs were able to thrive in very cold temperatures
January 09, 2009 |
By Maura McCarthy
Dinosaur Dispatch: Day 1
Michelle Coffey moves from biology class to the Bighorn Basin and prepares for her first dinosaur dig
July 03, 2008 |
By Michelle Coffey
Dinosaur Dispatch: Days 3 and 4
The paleontology team is finally in place. After setting up camp, the dig begins. Fossils are found and dinosaur tracks investigated
July 03, 2008 |
By Michelle Coffey
Dinosaur Dispatch: Days 6, 7 and 8
The team survives the Death March dig and makes an essential stop in Thermopolis
July 03, 2008 |
By Michelle Coffey
Dinosaur Dispatch: Days 9, 10 and 11
A new site and more digging yields a dinosaur discovery
July 03, 2008 |
By Michelle Coffey
Dinosaur Dispatch: Day 14
The paleontology team bids a fond farewell to Wyoming’s Big Basin
July 03, 2008 |
By Michelle Coffey
The Great Human Migration
Why humans left their African homeland 80,000 years ago to colonize the world
July 2008 |
By Guy Gugliotta
Showing Their Age
Dating the Fossils and Artifacts that Mark the Great Human Migration
July 2008 |
By Sarah Zielinski
Where Dinosaurs Roamed
Footprints at one of the nation's oldest—and most fought over—fossil beds offer new clues to how the behemoths lived
May 2008 |
By Genevieve Rajewski
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