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Fossils

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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

Crocodile-like sebecids were known to roam South America after dinosaurs went extinct. Recently found fossils suggest they inhabited the Caribbean as well—and thrived there long after they disappeared on the continent.

Fossils Reveal Enormous, Crocodile-Like Reptiles Survived for Millions of Years Longer Than Previously Thought

New discoveries in the Dominican Republic suggest sebecids roamed the Caribbean as recently as 4.5 million years ago, long after they vanished from South America

A Haast’s eagle attacks a moa pair.

Why Have Birds Never Gotten as Big as T. Rex?

Even the most massive birds have never reached the sizes of their dinosaur relatives

New research suggests that land-based echidnas descended from semi-aquatic mammals. 

A Single Prehistoric Bone Might Rewrite the History of the World’s Strangest Mammals

Analysis of the fossil suggests that the only two egg-laying mammals, platypuses and land-based echidnas, both descended from a semi-aquatic creature

The mosasaur vertebra measured more than seven inches wide.

Geologists Stumble Upon Remains of Giant ‘Sea Monster’ in Mississippi, Likely the Largest Mosasaur Ever Identified in the State

Researchers uncovered one vertebra, and based on its size, they estimate the massive creature was at least 30 feet long when it roamed the shallow seas that covered the region roughly 66 million years ago

The 113-million-year-old fossil of Vulcanidris cratensis is the first known hell ant preserved in rock rather than amber.

Scientists Discover the Oldest Known Ant Fossil, a 113-Million-Year-Old ‘Hell Ant’ Preserved in Rock in Brazil

The odd-looking specimen with scythe-like jaws indicates that early ants were spread widely across the globe while dinosaurs still roamed

Researchers took a closer look at fossilized footprints—including these cat-like tracks—found at John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in Oregon.

50-Million-Year-Old Footprints Open a ‘Rare Window’ Into the Behaviors of Extinct Animals That Once Roamed in Oregon

Scientists revisited tracks made by a shorebird, a lizard, a cat-like predator and some sort of large herbivore at what is now John Day Fossil Beds National Monument

An artist's impression of the Late Cretaceous crocodilian Deinosuchus riograndensis and a much smaller, early alligator relative.

The Ancient ‘Terror Crocodiles’ of North America Weren’t Alligators After All, DNA and Fossils Suggest

A new study indicates the giant reptile Deinosuchus is not a close relative of modern alligators, as scientists previously thought, and it might have thrived by tolerating saltwater

Fossils indicate a variety of marine reptiles swam through ancient seas.

From Massive Eyes to Shark-Like Tails, Seven Amazing Adaptations That Helped Prehistoric Reptiles Thrive at Sea

The creatures cruised the world’s oceans with features we often associate with marine mammals, such as coats of blubber and the ability to birth live young

Researchers extracted ancient proteins from the bone and tooth enamel.

Mysterious Jawbone Found at an Antique Shop in Taiwan Belonged to a Male Denisovan, Scientists Say

The fossil, called Penghu 1, is one of the few known pieces of physical evidence from the Denisovans, extinct relatives of modern humans. It suggests the species lived in diverse environments

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