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Paleontology

The trunk, ears and tail of this baby woolly mammoth, named Nun cho ga, are almost perfectly preserved.

Cool Finds

Well-Preserved, 30,000-Year-Old Baby Woolly Mammoth Emerges From Yukon Permafrost

The mummified creature is helping to heal the rift between the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people and the miners and scientists who came to their lands

A Gorgosaurus skeleton measuring 10 feet tall is unveiled at Sothebys in New York, on July 05, 2022.

A Gorgosaurus Skeleton Will Be Privately Auctioned Off for the First Time

The specimen is expected to sell for $5 million to $8 million

Meraxes had a large skull and short arms, in the same proportions as Tarbosaurus, a relative of T. rex.

Paleontologists Uncover New Dinosaur With Tiny Arms Like T. Rex

The predator is among the most complete of its kind ever found

An 1897 painting by Charles R. Knight depicting two dinosaurs called “Laelaps” in an energetic fight, suggesting they may have been warm-blooded.

Paleontologists Are Still Puzzling Over Why Dinosaurs Ran Hot

New evidence reveals details about the physiology of animals that have been extinct for over 66 million years

A skeleton of the giant Triassic ichthyosaur Shonisaurus popularis hangs in the Nevada State Museum.

Whale-Sized Marine Reptiles Once Ruled the Seas

Paleontologists are beginning to learn how and why ichthyosaurs evolved into giants

A fossilized Modocia typicalis trilobite from Utah

Five Places to See Trilobites in the United States

In a new book, fossil collector Andy Secher takes readers on a worldwide trek of trilobite hotspots

Giraffes may have evolved such long necks, in part, because of sexual competition.

An Extinct, Head-Butting Animal May Help Explain Giraffes’ Long Necks

The giraffe’s ancestor used its sturdy head and neck to fight for mates

Paleontologists are just beginning to uncover the evolutionary backstory of armored dinosaurs like the ankylosaur Euoplocephalus.

New Fossil Finds Track When Armored Dinosaurs Spread Around the World

Discoveries in Asia and Africa are rewriting the backstory of dinosaurs like Stegosaurus

Thanatosdrakon amaru flew around the planet for 20 million years before the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event wiped out the dinosaurs.

Paleontologists Find Biggest Pterosaur Species Ever Unearthed in South America

The ancient fossils with wingspans the size of school buses are estimated to be 86 million years old

The tooth from Laos thought to belong to a Denisovan girl

Ancient Molar Found in Laos Could Help Fill in a Gap in Human History

Researchers believe the tooth belongs to a Denisovan girl, making it the first fossil evidence of these hominins in Southeast Asia

At least one species of saber-tooth cat likely kept its long canines inside its mouth, not outside, suggests new research.

Why Some Saber-Toothed Cats May Not Have Been as Menacing as Previously Imagined

New research suggests that at least one species kept its dagger-shaped teeth inside, not outside, its closed mouth

Hector the Deinonychus skeleton

Should the Skeleton of a Dinosaur That Helped Inspire ‘Jurassic Park’ Be Sold to the Highest Bidder?

The rare fossil could sell for $6 million at auction

An Edmontosaurus herd grazes in a forest.

The Last Day of a Doomed Dinosaur

The young, eighteen-foot-long Edmontosaurus had no idea about his fate as he grazed in a forest

A Spinosaurs hunts a Onchopristis underwater. Dense bones helped the predator swim at depth.

Heavy Bones Helped Some Spinosaurs Swim

The crock-snouted dinosaurs were just as capable in the water as on land

A fossil of a Diegoaelurus jawbone was recovered from a construction site in Oceanside, California.

Paleontologists Uncover the Oldest Sabertoothed Predator

Fossil jaw shows earliest evidence of a specialized carnivore with scimitar-shaped fangs

Researchers excavated fossils from a site in Turkey that helped them fill in some of the history of a previously unknown continent called Balkanatolia. 

Fossils Help Scientists Identify a ‘Lost’ Continent

Millions of years ago, a giant island called Balkanatolia shifted and connected Asia to Europe, allowing animals to migrate

Authors of the new study say SUE the T. rex is actually a T. imperator, or tyrant lizard emperor. 

Why a New T. Rex Study Is Riling Up the Paleontology World

Established scientists are casting serious doubts on new research suggesting that the infamous, ferocious dinosaur is actually three different species

An artist’s impression of two Dearc sgiathanach, the newly-discovered species that is a close cousin of dinosaurs

Largest Jurassic Pterosaur on Record Unearthed in Scotland

The giant flying reptile had an eight-foot wingspan and lived around 170 million years ago

Reconstruction of debris surging into the Tanis River as impact spherules rain down from the sky. A dinosaur tries to get away from the disaster.

Asteroid That Decimated the Dinosaurs Struck in Spring

Clues from fossil fish help scientists pinpoint the season when Earth’s fifth mass extinction began

Nick Pyenson, the Smithsonian Institution’s curator of fossil marine mammals, compares the skeletons of ancient whales to the life-sized model of a North Atlantic right whale displayed at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Whales have been evolving for more than 50 million years, and long before becoming ocean-dwelling giants, the earliest cetaceans walked on land. 

This Cliff Face Is Packed With Fossilized Whale Remains

An exposed prehistoric seafloor is a hotspot for relics, and now an international team is helping unravel their mysteries

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