Paleontology

  1. An illustration of Microraptor, which looks like a small dark bird with a dinosaur-esque head, swooping on an unsuspecting lizard that's walking along a branch
    Paleontology

    This dinosaur might have used its feet to snag prey in midair like modern hawks

    Fossilized toe pads suggest a hawklike hunting style in Microraptor, a dinosaur that some scientists think could hunt while flying.

    By Derek Smith
  2. An illustration of a large, predatory fish known as coelacanths and eel-like conodonts swimming in the ocean.
    Paleontology

    In the wake of history’s deadliest mass extinction, ocean life may have flourished

    Ocean life may have recovered in just a million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, fossils from South China suggest.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  3. A wide photo of a valley on Ellesmere Island in Canada with mountains in the background.
    Life

    Fossils suggest early primates lived in a once-swampy Arctic

    Teeth and jawbones found on Ellesmere Island, Canada, suggest that two early primate species migrated there 52 million years ago.

    By Freda Kreier
  4. Illustration of a Cratonavis bird from 120 million years ago as it catches prey. We see into the bird's wings as if it were an x-ray.
    Paleontology

    A bird with a T. rex head may help reveal how dinosaurs became birds

    The 120-million-year-old Cratonavis zhui, newly discovered in China, had a head like a theropod and body like a modern bird.

    By Aaron Tremper
  5. An illustration of Shonisaurus popularis, ancient dolphinlike reptiles, swimming in water
    Paleontology

    Mysterious ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground

    Some 230 million years ago, massive dolphinlike reptiles gathered to breed in safe waters — just like many modern whales do, a study finds.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  6. A close up photo of a fossilized male katydid
    Paleontology

    Katydids had the earliest known insect ears 160 million years ago

    Fossils from the Jurassic Period show katydid ears looked identical to those of modern katydids and could pick up short-range calls.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús
  7. Two heavily armored dinosaurs swing long tail clubs at one another, crossing against the sunset on a strangely barren landscape
    Paleontology

    Armored dinos may have used their tail clubs to bludgeon each other

    Broken and healed spikes on Zuul's flanks are consistent with the armored beast receiving a mighty blow from the tail club of another ankylosaur.

    By Jake Buehler
  8. A blonde woman points at a tooth on T. rex skull dubbed Maximus
    Paleontology

    Why the sale of a T. rex fossil could be a big loss for science

    At least half of the roughly 120 known T. rex fossils are owned privately and not available to the public. “Maximus” may join them.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  9. An illustration of a Natovenator polydontus sitting on top of a body of water with its feet visible below the water line
    Paleontology

    This dinosaur may have had a body like a duck’s

    Natovenator polydontus may have been adapted for life in the water, challenging the popular idea that all dinos were landlubbers.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  10. Computer artwork of extinct woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius) in a snow-covered field. A bison stands in the distance.
    Paleontology

    Mammoths may have gone extinct much earlier than DNA suggests

    Ancient DNA in sediments may be leading paleontologists astray in attempts to figure out when woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos died out, a new study argues.

    By Bas den Hond
  11. An illustration of the ancient armored worm Wufengella, with knobby spikes on its top and clumps of bristles on its side
    Life

    This ancient worm might be an important evolutionary missing link

    A roughly 520-million-year-old fossil may be the common ancestor of a diverse collection of marine invertebrates.

    By Allison Gasparini
  12. Illustration of Dakota, a 12-meter-long duck-billed dinosaur and the fossilized scaly skin from its foot.
    Paleontology

    Dinosaur ‘mummies’ may not be rare flukes after all

    Bite marks on a fossilized dinosaur upend the idea that exquisite skin preservation must result from a carcass's immediate smothering under sediment.

    By Jake Buehler