By examining fossilized bone tissue, a new study finds rapid growth was an asset for survivors of the Great Dying 250 million years ago, Earth’s largest mass extinction event.
People have collected fossil horses throughout North America for centuries.
Florida Museum/Mary Warrick
Horse fossils are abundant and widespread across North America. Scientists often use their long history to illustrate how species evolve in response to a changing environment.
A replica fossil of the titanosaur Patagotitan, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered. It would have weighed about 70 tons (63.5 metric tons.)
Spencer Platt/Getty Images News via Getty Images
Some of these giant vegetarians were as tall as a 3-story building. Microscopic analysis of their teeth, bones and eggshells reveals how they grew, what they ate and even their body temperature.
Harajicadectes cruises through the ancient rivers of central Australia ~385 million years ago.
Brian Choo
For decades, the sandstone in central Australia yielded tantalising segments of some sort of fossil fish. Now, we have finally pieced together a complete picture of this remarkable species.
Birdlike dinosaur Eoneophron infernalis was about the size of an adult human.
Zubin Erik Dutta
Rather than a juvenile of a known species, several fossilized bones represent a new species – and shed light on the question of whether dinosaurs were already in decline before disaster struck.
Tim Flannery with a model set of jaws of a megalodon at the Australian Museum, and, on right, a megalodon tooth.
Photos: Text Publishing, Wikimedia Commons
Megalodons are having a cultural moment. What do we know about them? And might further scientific discoveries reveal more about the true shape and size of these creatures?
Pteranodon was a large-bodied pterosaur.
YuRi Photolife / Shutterstock
Reptiles don’t generally care for their offspring, but some pterosaurs may have bucked the trend.
The fossil deposits at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles have well-preserved remains of many prehistoric animals that got stuck in natural asphalt seeps over the past 60,000 years.
Cullen Townsend, courtesy of NHMLAC
Emily Lindsey, University of California, Los Angeles; Lisa N. Martinez, University of California, Los Angeles e Regan E. Dunn, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
New findings from the La Brea Tar Pits in southern California suggest human-caused wildfires in the region, along with a warming climate, led to the loss of most of the area’s large mammals.
The Jurassic Park franchise has spawned several movies, theme parks and spin-off products.
(Shutterstock)
Jurassic Park was a technological breakthrough for film because of its use of CGI. It also revived an interest in paleontology and raised ethical questions about DNA use.
The feet of a bird tell us a lot about its life. Newly described, the fossil feet of the ancestors of modern birds reveal how superbly adapted they were to their world.
Hammerhead sharks schooling near Costa Rica’s Cocos Island.
John Voo/Flickr
Despite causing hurt and offence, the legality of removing a whale fossil from the West Coast remains unclear. So what rules and laws govern amateur fossil hunting, and should they be strengthened?
Sotheby’s sold a 77 million-year-old Gorgosaurus skeleton for over $6 million in July 2022.
Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images
Derided as ‘toys for the rich,’ the specimens being bought and sold raise broader questions about the relationship between science and capitalism.
Artwork in the Djourab desert, Chad, gives a taste of how our oldest ancestors got around.
Sabine Riffaut, Guillaume Daver, Franck Guy / Palevoprim / CNRS – Université de Poitiers / MPFT