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Stories from Alex Fox

The stomach of a 15-foot fossil ichthyosaur excavated in China contained this massive chunk of another large marine reptile. The ichthyosaur swallowed its prey shortly before it died and was fossilized.

This 15-Foot Ichthyosaur Died With a 13-Foot Meal in Its Stomach

The shocking size of the marine predator’s quarry may force paleontologists to rethink the marine reptile’s role in the Triassic ecosystem

Dead Horse Bay gets its unsavory-sounding name from the numerous horse-rendering plants that operated along its marshy shoreline from the 1850s until the 1930s.

New York’s ‘Glass Bottle Beach’ Closed After Survey Finds Radioactive Waste

The Dead Horse Bay shoreline was a magnet for beachcombers and sightseers who came to peruse the eroding contents of 1950s landfill

In the first days, Mei Xiang kept the cub mostly hidden, but a new photograph and video recently revealed the new arrival—born at 6:35 on August 21, 2020.

Giant Panda Mama Gives Birth to Baby Cub at National Zoo

The pink, squeaking infant is about the size of a stick of butter and will be named in 100 days

A unique moss species thrives underneath translucent quartz rocks in the hot, dry Mojave Desert while its neighbors shrivel.

Desert Moss Beats Heat by Growing Under Quartz Crystals

Researchers find the translucent rocks keep the moss moist while letting just enough light pass through its milky interior

A small stone tablet featuring geometric art made by the Magdalenians, an Ice Age people that once inhabited Europe.

Engraved Stones Found to Be the Earliest Known Human Art in the British Isles

Ten flat tablets discovered on the island of Jersey contain markings from hunter-gatherers who lived up to 23,000 years ago

New research suggests painting eyes on cattle behinds can help protect them from predators.

Painting Eyes on Cow Butts Could Save Cattle and Lion Lives

The four-year study in Botswana found cattle with eye marks painted on their behinds were less likely to be killed by predators

Excavations at this site in Israel's Negev Desert yielded evidence of olive oil soap manufacturing dating back roughly 1,200 years.

Archaeologists Find 1,200-Year-Old Soap Factory in Israel

To create the cleaning concoction, ancient workers mixed olive oil with ashes from saltwort plants

Archaeologists discovered these fossilized fragments of grass deep inside South Africa's Border Cave.

200,000-Year-Old Bedding Found in South Africa May Be World’s Oldest

New study suggests ancient humans slept on layers of grass and ash, which was used to ward off insects

Death Valley National Park saw a record-breaking 130 degrees Fahrenheit on August 16. The measurement might be the hottest temperature recorded on Earth since at least 1913, according to the National Weather Service.

Coalition Calls for Naming Heat Waves Like Hurricanes

The group’s climate and health experts say naming and categorizing extreme heat events could save lives

The newly discovered banana cultivation site

Traces of 2,000-Year-Old Banana Farm Found in Australia

The discovery contradicts conceptions of early Indigenous peoples as exclusively hunter gatherers

Researchers collecting tears from Broad-snouted caiman.

Microscopically, Crocodile Tears Look Sort of Like Our Own

Humans are the only species known to cry in response to emotional turmoil, but a new study finds reptile and avian tears aren’t so different

The charred shoulder blade of a young adult who was cremated in northern Israel some 9,000 years ago. The bone contains the embedded point of a flint projectile.

Humans in the Near East Cremated Their Dead 9,000 Years Ago

Archaeologists found the charred bones of a young adult in the ancient Israeli village of Beisamoun

An illustration of the 30-foot-long, dinosaur eating crocodilian Deinosuchus.

30-Foot ‘Terror Crocodile’ Ambushed Dinosaurs at Water’s Edge

Study says the five-ton extinct reptiles had teeth the size of bananas

Potential human ancestor Homo heidelbergensis used this 480,000-year-old bone hammer to create flint tools.

Europe’s Oldest Bone Tools Hint at Early Hominin Sophistication

480,000 years ago, Homo heidelbergensis used hammers to fashion flint tools in what is now southern England

Hopefully the new repellents will smell better too!

The Secret Behind New Insect Repellent’s Potent Punch Is Found in Grapefruit

The EPA just approved nootkatone, a chemical found in grapefruit and cedars that kills and repels ticks, mosquitoes and other insects

A lifelike restoration using the remains of a baby woolly rhinoceros recovered from the Siberian permafrost. The specimen was nicknamed Sasha after the hunter who discovered it.

Climate Change, Not Hunting, May Have Doomed the Woolly Rhinoceros

Populations of the Ice Age icon were healthy right up until their extinction, suggesting they crashed precipitously as the planet warmed

The helmet has been on view at England's Preston Park Museum since 2012.

Millennia-Old Headgear Is One of Just Two (Almost) Intact Viking Helmets

A new study dates a piece of armor found in Britain in the 1950s to the tenth century A.D.

An artist's illustration of the Triassic reptile Tanystropheus hydroides hunting with its long neck.

Study Reveals This Mysterious, Super Long-Necked Triassic Reptile Was a Marine Hunter

The creature’s neck was stiff like a giraffe’s and was nearly three times the length of its torso

A bottle of whiskey, a diving helmet and bricks recovered from the wreck of the SS Politician, which sank off the coast of Scotland in 1941.

Whiskey Salvaged From 79-Year-Old Scottish Shipwreck Is Up for Sale

A commercial diver recovered the intact bottle of spirits—which is no longer safe for consumption—in 1987

A 99-million-year-old piece of amber trapped this worker hell ant grasping an ancient relative of modern cockroaches in its unique jaws, which swung upwards unlike all modern ants.

Amber Fossil Shows ‘Hell Ant’ Was Unlike Anything Alive Today

The 99-million-year-old ant had scythe-like jaws that swung upward to pin prey against a horn-like head appendage

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