Paleontology

A cast of Patagotitan mayorum's skull

This 122-Foot-Long Dinosaur Will Barely Fit in London's Natural History Museum

The replica titanosaur, based on fossils discovered in 2012, goes on view in March

Artist’s reconstruction of Janavis finalidens

How a 67-Million-Year-Old Fossil Turned the Theory of Bird Evolution Upside-Down

A skull bone suggests prehistoric birds could move their upper beaks, much like most modern birds

Natovenator likely swam to catch small prey.

World’s First Swimming Dinosaur Discovered in Mongolia

Natovenator was a streamlined hunter with jaws full of tiny teeth

A red-eyed treefrog hangs on to a leaf in Costa Rica.

Why Frogs Survived the Asteroid That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs

Not too big, not too small—they were just the right size to live through Earth’s worst day

Visitors look at Shen, displayed at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall in Singapore earlier this year.

Christie's Calls Off T. Rex Auction Expected to Fetch $25 Million

The auction house cited a need for "further study" after experts noted similarities to another T. rex skeleton

Paleontologists discovered the skull in the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota.

T. Rex Skull Named Maximus Could Sell for $20 Million

The bones belonged to a dinosaur that lived some 76 million years ago

A mouse lemur grasps onto a tree branch in Madagascar. Scientists looked to characteristics in such modern primates to form a hypothesis about how primates behaved after an asteroid wiped out non-avian dinosaurs.

Soon After Dinosaur Decimation, Our Primate Ancestors Began Pouncing on Prey

Nails helped them climb trees quietly, and forward-facing eyes helped with depth perception to aid in precise leaping

Yale cast (top) and Berlin cast (bottom)

Scientists Find Plaster Copies of Fossil Destroyed by Nazis

Two casts of the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton ever unearthed were hidden in museum collections in Berlin and Connecticut

An artistic rendering of a multituberculate mother with her litter of offspring.

Just Like Us, Jurassic Mammals Cared for Their Young

Clues from bones reveal multituberculates looked after their offspring for lengthy periods during the Age of Dinosaurs

Deinocheirus walks across a landscape dotted with ponds. Fossils found recently in eastern North America provide evidence that similar dinosaurs lived on our continent.

Giant Ostrich-Like Dinosaurs Once Roamed North America

Rare finds in Mississippi paint a picture of these creatures’ lost world

The skeleton of a 70-million-year-old hadrosaurus dinosaur, the same genus as the dinosaur specimen in the new study, at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada. 

Rare ‘Mummified Dinosaur’ Formed in an Unexpected Way

The prehistoric reptile's skin may have been preserved by scavengers, research suggests

An artist’s reconstruction of Scleromochlus taylori, an ancestor of pterosaurs

The Ancestors of Flying Pterosaurs Were Sleek Reptiles That Ran on the Ground

High definition scans of a fossil reveal the form of an early pterosaur relative

An artist’s reconstruction of Qianodus duplicis, the earliest known fish that had a mouth with teeth

Haul of Fossil Fish Pushes Back the Origin of Teeth and Jaws

The unexpected finds illustrate life during a critical and little-understood time period

An artist's renditon of the "alien goldfish." Scientists identified a toothy structure in the animal's gut, suggesting it was some kind of mollusk.

Mysterious ‘Alien Goldfish’ May Have Been a Mollusk

The bizarre creature’s anatomy had stumped scientists for decades

The newly discovered Opisthiamimus gregori preys on a now-extinct water bug.

Scientists Discover Bug-Eating Reptile That Lived Among Dinosaurs

Delicate fossil reveals a cousin of the modern tuatara

A Haast's eagle hunts moa.

How a Giant Eagle Once Came to Dominate New Zealand

Before the formidable bird went extinct, scientists say it likely hunted the flightless moa

Paleontologists uncovered vertebrae and ribs from an enormous sauropod in Portugal.

Portuguese Man Accidentally Finds 82-Foot-Long Dinosaur in His Backyard

Scientists say this could be the largest specimen ever discovered in Europe

Drought conditions caused Dinosaur Valley State Park's Paluxy River to dry up, revealing tracks not usually visible. 

Drought Exposes Dinosaur Tracks in Texas

The 113-million-year-old footprints were largely made by the carnivorous Acrocanthosaurus

At American Fossil Quarry, on privately owned land near Kemmerer, Wyoming, hammer- and chisel-wielding visitors pay $69 to $89 to spend up to four hours hunting for fossils. Finders, keepers.

Evotourism ®

The 50 Million-Year-Old Treasures of Fossil Lake

In a forbidding Wyoming desert, scientists and fortune hunters search for the surprisingly intact remains of horses and other creatures that lived long ago

Scientists scanned a fossil of the Jurassic cephalopod Vampyronassa, pictured here, and found clues that it was an active hunter.

What New Tech Is Revealing About Squishy, Prehistoric Cephalopods

Researchers have adopted innovative means, from cutting-edge scans to swimming robots, to reveal more about how the creatures lived

loading icon