An old technique to explore the inside of fossils unfortunately ended up destroying some unique specimens. New technology has been used to reconstruct one such fossil.
The first flower grown on the International Space Station.
NASA
Another look at a skull unearthed in Malaysian Borneo 60 years ago can shed light on the mystery of how early humans moved throughout Southeast Asia thousands of years ago.
An anaconda peers above and below the water. Did snakes evolve on land or underwater?
Michael Lee (Flinders University & South Australian Museum)
One of the enduring controversies in evolution is why snakes evolved their long, limbless bodies. A new study suggests snakes may have lost their legs at sea, before crawling ashore.
We don’t know much about dinosaurs from the east coast of the USA. But the discovery of a new sheep-sized dinosaur helps shed light on their mysterious evolution.
Oviraptor Nesting.
Doyle Trankina and Gerald Grellet-Tinner
Being big – larger than a dog – increases the risk of being wiped out in a mass extinction.
A prehistoric scene showing ancient penguins, elephant seals and giant marsupials. A rich diversity of both marine and land creatures once lived at Beaumaris, Melbourne, about 7 million years ago.
Peter Trusler, Monash University
Palaeontologists say it’s rare to find a rich fossil site in an urban area. That’s why they’re worried such a site near Melbourne could be threatened by proposed development.
Snake ancestor was crawly as well as creepy.
Dave Martill, University of Portsmouth
New evidence shows marked similarities between two fossils – one from Brazil, the other South Africa. This confirms compelling geological findings that continents were once one giant land mass.
We used to think of sharks as primitive fish because the had cartilage instead of bones. Turns out there was a good reason why and it makes them anything but primitive.
Scientists get their teeth into A. deyiremeda fossils.
Credit: Laura Dempsey
Jason E. Lewis, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York) and Sonia Harmand, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Stone tools excavated in Kenya date back 3.3 million years – making them about a million years older than the oldest known fossils from our own hominid genus Homo. Who made and used these tools?