While crocodiles are not native to Canada, fossil traces have been found in northern British Columbia that indicate that during the Cretaceous Period, giant crocodiles roamed.
How can researchers tell if male and female dinosaurs, like the stegosaur, were different?
Susannah Maidment et al. & Natural History Museum, London
The lack of large numbers of fossils makes it hard to study sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs. But a new statistical approach offers insight into this question and others across science.
Michael Hannah, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
While current extinction rates remain lower than during previous mass extinction events, the number of species under threat of dying out is growing, reflecting the true scale of loss.
The bodies of comb jellies like Mertensia ovum are soft, meaning they rarely fossilize.
(Alexander Semenov)
Fossilized comb jellies, or ctenophores, are rare because the creatures are almost completely soft-bodied. Rare fossil finds are helping us learn more about ancient animals and evolution.
Tom Womack, Te Herenga Waka — Victoria University of Wellington
New Zealand’s conservation needs to consider the long-term impact of climate change and focus not only on protecting native species but on preserving ecological richness.
There are no body fossils of elephants from this time period, so the available information of how these gigantic animals moved through the ancient landscapes depends entirely on the track record.
The updated methods are providing a clearer picture of how Earth and its inhabitants evolved over the past 60,000 years - and thus, providing new insight into its future.
The skull of Oculudentavis, found encased in amber, provides new clues into the transition from dinosaurs to birds and may be smallest of either ever found.
Reconstruction of the ancient environment at the Highlands trace fossil site about 183 million years ago.
Artwork by Akhil Rampersadh. Heterodontosaurid silhouette is courtesy of Viktor Radermacher.
Populations of plankton are in decline. If we push this critical foundation of the marine food chain to extinction, we could cripple ecosystems for millions of years.
When is bigger better?
Willyam Bradberry/Shutterstock.com
Pedro L. Godoy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)
Paleontologists created an evolutionary map of how croc body size changed over the last 200 million years – with some interesting implications for today’s species.
A fossil of the giant new trilobite species Redlichia rex.
James Holmes
A series of new studies sheds light on the population crash and extinction of the giant birds, lemurs and more that roamed the island until around A.D. 700-1000.
Dinosaurs had some bad luck, but sooner or later extinction comes for all of us.
rawpixel/Unsplash.com
Death is inevitable for individuals and also for species. With help from the fossil record, paleontologists are piecing together what might make one creature more vulnerable than another.
Pro Vice-Chancellor of Research at the University of Technology Sydney and Chief Investigator of ARC Centre for Excellence in Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of Technology Sydney