Reconstruction of Haikouichthys ercaicunensis based on fossil evidence.
Talifero/Wikimedia Commons
A biologist explains how researchers nail down the age of ancient fossils thanks to a physical process called radioactive decay.
Roaming the ancient seas eons ago, the megalodon shark eviscerated its prey with jaws that were 10 feet wide.
Warpaintcobra/iStock via Getty Images Plus
A terrifying sight in ancient waters, the megalodon shark was once the most feared creature in the sea.
Trilobites similar to those above have been found in 505 million-year-old rocks in New Zealand.
Shutterstock
Australia has them, so why doesn’t New Zealand have national or regional fossil emblems? A campaign to change that kicks off today.
A skeleton of an Allosaurus on display at Drouot auction house in Paris, in October 2020. It sold for three million euros, double the asking price.
(AP Photo/Thibault Camus)
The sale of fossils at auction houses reflects a problematic trend of privileging profit over knowledge and education.
Reconstruction of the prehistoric Yorkicystis haefneri adapted from fossil evidence, created by Hugo Salais (Metazoa Studio).
Samuel Zamora
The discovery of a unique 510 million-year-old fossil in a Pennsylvania churchyard offers new clues into how early life evolved on Earth.
David Attenborough presents the BBC’s groundbreaking documentary, Dinosaurs: The Final Day.
BBC Studios / Ali Pares / Sam Barker / Chris Lavington-Woods / Lola Post Production
A recent BBC documentary examined fossils thought to have been made when an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs.
Kostiantyn Ivanyshen/shutterstock
Thanks to our new technique using fossilised tracks, we have been able to learn more about the locomotion of the largest creatures ever to have roamed this planet.
Kizu, one of the Koshima macaques
Andrew J. J. MacIntosh
Macaque tooth wear was identical to our ancestors, throwing into question the long held belief that tool use caused the markings on hominin tooth fossils.
Herschel Hoffmeyer/Shutterstock
A recent study provides additional evidence that the dinosaurs died in June.
Atiger/shutterstock
We studied 8,000 primate teeth and finally confirmed that humans are not the only living primate to suffer from cavities. But there are interesting differences.
Homo bodoensis was named after a skull discovered almost 50 years ago in Ethiopia.
(Ettore Mazza)
If scientific research is to take decolonization seriously, names for species should reflect this approach and consider the political, social and emotional implications.
The twin buttes that give Bears Ears National Monument in Utah its name are sacred places to many Indigenous Tribes and Pueblos.
T. Schofield, iStock via Getty Images
The Biden administration is restoring full protection to three national monuments that President Trump sought to cut down drastically.
Tyrannosaurus rex was a relentless predator who lived during the Cretaceous Period more than 65 million years ago.
Roger Harris/Science Photo Library via Getty Images
Ever since moviegoers saw the first ‘Jurassic Park,’ millions have wondered if scientists could make a dinosaur in the lab.
Sharks’ teeth carry clues about the oceans they swam in.
Christina Spence Morgan
These giant predators are helping solve the mystery of Earth’s cooling shift some 50 million years ago.
An Anglo-Saxon burial mound in Taplow Court, England.
(Shutterstock)
New analysis of Anglo-Saxon skulls suggests that being an Anglo-Saxon was a matter of language and culture, and not genetics.
With the evidence uncovered by paleontologists, an artist sketched El Bosque Petrificado Piedra Chamana as it might have looked long before humans.
Mariah Slovacek/NPS-GIP
Using remnants of fossilized trees, scientists and an artist figured out what the forest looked like long before humans existed.
Fossils of Shuvuuia deserti depict a small predatory creature with exceptional night vision and hearing.
Mick Ellison/American Natural History Museum
By looking at the eye bones and ear canals of extinct dinosaurs, researchers show that a small ancient predator likely hunted at night and had senses as good as a modern barn owl.
Tyrannosaurus rex spanned all of ancient North America, and about 20,000 lived at once.
Roger Harris/Science Photo Library vie Getty Images
Using the incredible wealth of fossil data and a modern ecological theory, researchers estimated population density for the extinct apex predator.
Kulindadromeus: more evidence is emerging of feathered dinosaurs.
Nobu Tamura via Wikimedia Commons
Plus, what Israel’s latest election could mean for its foreign policy. Listen to episode 11 of The Conversation Weekly podcast.
Bob Nicholls Paleocreations
A reconstruction of a dinosaur’s back passage reveals it may have been used for visual communication.