The discovery of a fossil over 500 million years old reveals new information. Its brain and nervous system are remarkably preserved, filling in some gaps in what we know about arthropod evolution.
A great hammerhead shark’s two eyes can be 3 feet apart on opposite sides of its skull.
Ken Kiefer 2/Image Source via Getty Images
Emma Kast, University of Cambridge; Jeremy McCormack, Goethe University Frankfurt am Main, and Sora Kim, University of California, Merced
Megalodon, the world’s largest known shark species, swam the oceans long before humans existed. Its teeth are all that’s left, and they tell a story of an apex predator that vanished.
Tritylodon, a therapsid, reconstructed as a night dwelling warm blooded animal. Note the steam coming out of its lungs.
Illustrated by Luzia Soares
The newly discovered species – Qikiqtania – highlights evolution’s twisty, tangled path.
Tomlinsonus inhabited a shallow sea with abundant sea lilies. It probably used its stilt-like legs to move across the seafloor while looking for prey or carcasses.
(ROM/Christian McCall)
The discovery shakes up what scientists thought they knew about salamander evolution.
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
Collectively, the evidence studied by ichnologists helps to paint a picture of long-gone landscapes and the creatures and plants that populated those spaces.
Reconstruction of the prehistoric Yorkicystis haefneri adapted from fossil evidence, created by Hugo Salais (Metazoa Studio).
Samuel Zamora
There is something near-miraculous in the concept of tiny creatures, weighing just grams, making tracks and traces so long ago, that are now evident in rock.
A life reconstruction of one of the largest penguins that ever lived, Kumimanu biceae.
Illustration by Mark Witton (used with permission, all other rights reserved)
Two newly discovered species of quokka-sized kangaroos, which lived 18 million years ago in the Queensland rainforest, show evolution in the act of giving kangaroos a taste for leaves.