https://www.smithsonianmag.com/rss/tag/paleontology/RSS feed for PaleontologyenTue, 14 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-t-rex-fossil-could-fetch-the-largest-sum-of-any-dinosaur-ever-auctioned-scientists-worry-theyll-lose-the-chance-to-study-it-180989114/Bids on "Gus" will start at $19 million, a steep price for public institutions. Specimens in private collections can be harder for researchers to examine, and they're practically impossible to include in studies in top-tier scientific journalsMon, 13 Jul 2026 20:13:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-t-rex-fossil-could-fetch-the-largest-sum-of-any-dinosaur-ever-auctioned-scientists-worry-theyll-lose-the-chance-to-study-it-180989114/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-the-first-right-handed-animal-a-worm-like-creature-that-lived-about-550-million-years-ago-180989107/During the Ediacaran period, the critter wriggled around on the ocean floor of what’s now South Australia and preferred to turn right, a fossil analysis suggestsTue, 14 Jul 2026 14:00:00 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/meet-the-first-right-handed-animal-a-worm-like-creature-that-lived-about-550-million-years-ago-180989107/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-decades-of-debate-scientists-say-these-fossils-belong-to-the-largest-known-scorpion-which-lived-415-million-years-ago-180989022/Researchers have wondered whether Praearcturus gigas was a giant crustacean called an isopod or some other creature. A new analysis of museum specimens suggests that it was a scorpion that stretched more than three feet longWed, 01 Jul 2026 18:55:43 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/after-decades-of-debate-scientists-say-these-fossils-belong-to-the-largest-known-scorpion-which-lived-415-million-years-ago-180989022/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-strange-featured-dinosaur-may-have-glided-between-trees-like-a-flying-squirrel-to-hunt-birds-120-million-years-ago-180989011/A fossil of the creature provides the first evidence that microraptors lived in what is now northwestern China. Its discovery might also solve an ancient murder mysteryThu, 25 Jun 2026 16:04:52 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/this-strange-featured-dinosaur-may-have-glided-between-trees-like-a-flying-squirrel-to-hunt-birds-120-million-years-ago-180989011/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-vietnam-veteran-collected-fossils-for-66-years-one-mislabeled-baby-lamprey-made-paleontologists-reconsider-how-vertebrates-moved-from-water-to-land-180988981/The fossil turned out to be a hatchling of a crocodile-like creature, and it suggests, according to a new study, that early animals did not use metamorphosis to evolve to dwell on landThu, 18 Jun 2026 18:15:32 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/a-vietnam-veteran-collected-fossils-for-66-years-one-mislabeled-baby-lamprey-made-paleontologists-reconsider-how-vertebrates-moved-from-water-to-land-180988981/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-investigated-ancient-squirrel-poop-frozen-in-permafrost-and-found-enlightening-details-about-the-animals-ecosystem-180988934/Up to 700,000 years ago, ground squirrels in modern-day Canada collected tons of helpful genetic information on their bygone environment through their dietWed, 10 Jun 2026 18:47:05 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/researchers-investigated-ancient-squirrel-poop-frozen-in-permafrost-and-found-enlightening-details-about-the-animals-ecosystem-180988934/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tyrannosaurus-rex-and-other-terrifying-predatory-dinosaurs-had-itty-bitty-arms-scientists-may-have-finally-figured-out-why-180988803/A new study suggests that certain theropods—two-legged, mostly meat-eating dinosaurs—had shrunken forelimbs as an evolutionary trade-off for their strong skullsFri, 29 May 2026 15:53:48 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/tyrannosaurus-rex-and-other-terrifying-predatory-dinosaurs-had-itty-bitty-arms-scientists-may-have-finally-figured-out-why-180988803/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-was-the-biggest-dinosaur-fragmentary-fossils-make-it-hard-to-tell-180988840/Pinning down the most titanic of the large sauropod dinosaurs is not an easy task, since the odds were generally against the biggest ones being buried and preservedThu, 28 May 2026 14:58:30 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-was-the-biggest-dinosaur-fragmentary-fossils-make-it-hard-to-tell-180988840/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/paleontologists-discover-an-ancient-marine-reptile-theyve-dubbed-the-t-rex-of-the-sea-crowning-another-king-of-the-cretaceous-180988792/Scientists figured out that the predators were lumped in with a previously named mosasaur species. The new one, called Tylosaurus rex, could grow to 43 feet long, about the length of a school busFri, 22 May 2026 21:00:26 +0000https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/paleontologists-discover-an-ancient-marine-reptile-theyve-dubbed-the-t-rex-of-the-sea-crowning-another-king-of-the-cretaceous-180988792/