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Fossils

Lead author Judith Pardo-Pérez where the fossil, nicknamed Fiona, was discovered.

A Rare, Pregnant Ichthyosaur Fossil Discovered in Chile Is Revealing More Secrets About the Early Cretaceous World

The fossil helps scientists better understand not just the animal, but our planet’s geology

Fossilized remains of the giant beaver have been discovered in Minneapolis and Saint Paul, as well as in southern Minnesota.

Bear-Sized Giant Beavers Once Roamed North America, and They’re Now the Official State Fossil of Minnesota

The large, extinct creatures roamed the Twin Cities area more than 10,000 years ago and could grow to more than 200 pounds

An artist’s reconstruction of the fossilized landscape, plants and animals found preserved in a remote bonebed of Arizona’s Petrified Forest National Park

A Bone Bed From the Dawn of the Dinosaurs Has Revealed the Oldest Known Pterosaur Found in North America

Fossil surprises abound in new research that unearths the history of the Triassic Period

A 99-million-year-old fly encased in amber shows infection with a prehistoric zombifying fungus.

Rare Amber Fossils Capture ‘Zombie’ Fungus Infecting Insects During a Time When Dinosaurs Still Walked the Earth

An ant and fly from the Cretaceous period offer insights into the history of Ophiocordyceps, the fungal parasite made popular by HBO’s “The Last of Us”

E. mollyborthwickae is now on display at London's Natural History Museum.

‘Enigmatic’ Dog-Sized Dinosaur Reveals a New Species That Scampered Around Jurassic North America

The speedy, plant-eating creature lived in what is now Colorado roughly 150 million years ago, and its skeleton went on display in London this week

These skeletons of two hunter-gatherer individuals excavated at the Checua archaeological site north of Bogotá, Colombia, helped uncover the genetic details of a mysterious population.

Ancient DNA Reveals Mysterious New Group of Humans in Colombia With No Genetic Ties to People Today

The previously undocumented lineage of hunter-gatherers seems to have disappeared around 2,000 years ago

The Dragon Man skull, described as Homo longi in 2021, belongs to a Denisovan, according to new research.

Iconic ‘Dragon Man’ Skull Offers First Glimpse of What a Denisovan’s Face Looked Like, New Genetic Studies Suggest

The mysterious ancient humans were only known from fossil fragments. Now, two papers argue a skull uncovered in China belongs to this group, after examining preserved DNA and proteins

Bolg amondol raids an oviraptorosaur dinosaur nest in an artistic reconstruction of how the species may have looked and behaved.

A Jar of Fossil Bones Long Stored at a Museum Led Scientists to Discover a Goblin-Like Lizard From 76 Million Years Ago

Fossils described in a new study speak to a previously unknown large-bodied lizard diversity that existed alongside dinosaurs

Darla Zelenitsky (right) and Jared Voris (left) were part of the team that identified and named Khankhuuluu based on fossils found in Mongolia during the 1970s.

These ‘Dragon Prince’ Fossils Spent Decades in Museum Drawers. Now, They Could Rewrite the T. Rex Family Tree

Two partial skeletons housed in a Mongolia museum were reexamined by researchers and found to represent a previously unknown species

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Journey Into a Prehistoric Cave That Trapped and Entombed Animals for Millennia

The animals that plummeted 85 feet into Wyoming’s Natural Trap Cave provide a layered history of life dating back to the Pleistocene

In this artist's impression of Diamantinasaurus matildae, the animal feeds from a conifer tree.

First Fossil Evidence That Sauropods Were Herbivores Supports a Widespread Assumption About the Long-Necked Dinosaurs

A recent discovery of a dinosaur’s preserved gut contents offers the first direct proof that sauropods were plant-eaters

Studying foraminiferan fossils can help us understand how the climate may change in the future.

These Tiny, Beautiful Fossils Detail the History of the Ocean

Bountiful remains of foraminifera reveal how organisms responded to climate disturbances of the past

The new study suggests that 73 million years ago, birds and dinosaurs lived side by side in the Arctic.

Scientists Find the First Evidence of Birds Nesting in the Arctic Alongside Dinosaurs

The researchers analyzed rare fossils of hatchling birds found in northern Alaska, which offered the earliest evidence of the creatures reproducing in a polar region

Researchers revealed that differences in sloth habitats drove the wide variation in size seen in extinct species.

Giant Sloths the Size of Elephants Once Walked Along the Ground. Here’s How the Massive Animals Evolved and Declined

Researchers analyzed fossils and DNA to get a big-picture view of sloth evolution and determine what drove their immense size variation

An artistic rendering of an early vertebrate being attacked by a sea-scorpion in dark waters

Our Teeth May Descend From Sensitive Bumps on Prehistoric Fish Armor, New Research Finds

Hundreds of millions of years ago, fish had sensory features on their exoskeletons that contained dentine, the material that makes our teeth sensitive today

A tsunami might have occured some 115 million years ago, near where deposits of Cretaceous amber were found in Japan.

This Deposit of ‘Weird’ Cretaceous Amber Could Reveal Hints to Long-Forgotten Tsunamis in Japan

A new study highlights the potential of amber fossils to capture evidence of powerful, prehistoric ocean waves

Amateur fossil hunters discovered a trackway left by a creature that might have looked like the one in this illustration. The finding raises new questions about the evolution of the earliest reptiles.

Fossil Hunters Discover Earliest Known Footprints of a Reptile-Like Creature, Pushing Back the Timeline of Their Evolution

A new study suggests two fossil trackways found in Australia were made by an early amniote, a group that today includes reptiles, birds and mammals

The Chicago Archaeopteryx, seen under UV light, shows soft tissues alongside the skeleton.

The Famous, Feathered Dinosaur Archaeopteryx Could Fly, Suggests New Study of a ‘Beautifully Preserved’ Fossil

The Chicago Archaeopteryx features more soft tissue and delicate skeletal details than any known fossil of its kind, and paleontologists discovered it has a set of feathers key to flight in modern birds

A shaft of golden light from the cave’s mouth provides warmth as the expedition’s scientists enjoy lunch 80 feet below the opening of Natural Trap Cave.

Rooted in the American West: Food, History and Culture

A Trove of Ice Age Fossils Buried in a Wyoming Cave Is Rewriting Our Understanding of Prehistoric Animals

At a site known as Natural Trap Cave, a team of scientists are rappelling down to uncover the secrets of what the Earth was like during the Pleistocene

Argentine black and white tegus (Salvator merianae) were brought to the United States in the 1990s by exotic pet traders. They've since proliferated in the wild and been deemed an invasive species.

Mysterious Fossil Found in Museum Storage Turned Out to Be a New, Extinct Lizard Species

Today, tegus are considered invasive creatures in Florida, but a new paper suggests they’ve lived in the southeastern United States at least once before—millions of years ago

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