Paleontology

To be or not to be human? That's a question some scholars still feel is up for debate when it comes to Homo floresiensis.

Ten Years On, the Flores “Hobbit” Remains an Evolutionary Puzzle

Why was the 2004 unveiling of a small hominin dubbed <em>Homo floresiensis</em> such a big deal?

A carrion beetle fossil from the Cretaceous period.

Carrion Beetles Were the First Caring Parents

Flesh-eating beetles that lived 125 million years ago set the stage for modern parenting

A model of Spinosaurus, based on data published in Science today, gets rock star treatment at a National Geographic photo shoot. A feature story, including the image above, will appear in National Geographic's October issue.

Meet the Mighty Spinosaurus, the First Dinosaur Adapted for Swimming

A mysterious mustachioed man helped paleontologists piece together the life story of the long-lost, semi-aquatic “Egyptian spine lizard”

An artist's interpretation of what Hallucigenia sparsa looked like.

This Weird, 500 Million-Year-Old Spiky Worm With Legs Actually Has a Descendant

Modern-day velvet worms' jaws are repurposed former claws

An artist's rendering of Caiuajara dobruskii surrounded by its young in the ancient Brazilian desert.

New Desert-Dwelling Pterosaur Unearthed in Brazil

A massive bone bed is already yielding insights into the flying reptile's lifestyle

The Flores hobbit skull (left) compared to another H. sapiens skull recovered on the island that dates to around 4,000 years ago (right).

The Flores "Hobbit" Might Not Be a New Species at All

A long-standing debate on the original findings has been reignited

The original expedition to Wyoming's Natural Trap Cave, more than 30 years ago.

A Wyoming Cave Full Of Ice Age Animal Bones is Finally Being Opened To Scientists

After being closed for three decades, a remote sinkhole full of ancient bones will be opened to researchers

This is the first pterosaur egg ever found that had not been flattened, discovered by paleontologists at the Turpan-Hami Basin in northwestern China.

Found: 120-Million-Year-Old Colony of Fossilized Flying Reptiles, Plus Their Eggs

The eggs were unearthed in the midst of a boneyard of pterosaurs, lending insight into the behaviors of ancient flying reptiles

Diver Susan Bird works at the bottom of Hoyo Negro, a large dome-shaped underwater cave on Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula. She carefully brushes the human skull found at the site while her team members take detailed photographs.

DNA From 12,000-Year-Old Skeleton Helps Answer the Question: Who Were the First Americans?

In 2007, cave divers discovered remains that form the oldest, most complete and genetically intact human skeleton in the New World

The sperm cells were found in Riversleigh, a remote spot in northwestern Australia that was once a teeming rainforest.

Giant Sperm Cells Belonging to 17 Million Year Old Shrimp Are the Oldest Ever Found

The sperm were longer than the male shrimp's entire body

A hyper realistic reconstruction of an Australopithecus africanus based on cast of the skull STS5 (nicknamed "Mrs Ples") discovered in 1947 in Sterkfontein, South Africa. The fossil STS5 is between 2.1 and 2.7 million years old.

Paleoartist Brings Human Evolution to Life

For Elisabeth Daynès, sculpting ancient humans and their ancestors is both an art and a science

Cougars Survived the Pleistocene Extinction Because They’ll Eat Just About Anything Meaty

Eating everything that's in front of you is key to eking by when times are tough

A FedEx truck carrying the Wankel T. rex skeleton departed Bozeman, Montana, on Friday for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. A bronze cast of the 65-million-year-old skeleton outside the Museum of the Rockies looks on in the foreground.

Five Things We Don’t Know About Tyrannosaurus Rex

As the Smithsonian welcomes the arrival of its fossil rex, scientists reveal all that we have yet to learn about this magnificent creature

Dinosaur Trackways

Almost 65 Years After Its Pieces Were Dispersed, Scientists Reconstructed a Long-Lost Dinosaur Chase

A lost set of dinosaur footprints in Texas has been reconstructed from 70-year-old photographs

An illustration of the large, feathered Anzu wyliei depicts several striking anatomical features—its long tail, feathered arms, toothless beak and a tall crest on the top of its skull.

Scientists Discover a Large and Feathered Dinosaur that Once Roamed North America

The 'Anzu wyliei' species looks like a cross between a chicken and a lizard

Pithovirus sibericum, TKTK

The World's Largest Virus Was Just Resurrected From 34,000-Year-Old Permafrost

It's not a threat to humans, but does show that ancient viruses can persist for millennia and remain a potential health threat

Fossil whale skeletons, evidence of an ancient mass stranding of the animals, discovered during the building of the Pan-American Highway in the Atacama Region of Chile in 2011.

Scientists Solve the Mystery of a Nine-Million-Year-Old Mass Whale Die-Off

Ancient blooms of toxic algae appear to have killed dozens of whales at once

Some dinosaurs, such as the (Caudipteryx zoui) above, had brightly colored feathers. New research suggests that modern birds inherited their own color varieties from their feathered dinosaur ancestors.

Colorful Plumage Began With Feathered Dinosaurs

The pigment patterns scientists use to predict ancient animal colors started with feathered dinosaurs and led to vibrant color in birds

In addition to its limb-like front fins, Tiktaalik had large, mobile rear fins that it used to push itself around in the water.

Ancient Walking Fish May Have Walked on All Fours

A fossilized pelvis shows the fish had functioning rear “legs”

Dinosaur Poop Is Harder to Find Than It Should Be

Why don't archaeologists find fossilized poop all over the place? In a word: roaches

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