Menu Close

Articles on Fossils

Displaying 61 - 80 of 380 articles

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

Breakthrough shows humans were already standing on their own two feet 7 million years ago

New research shows our oldest ancestors were able to walk as well as evolve in trees.
A rare find — a fossil of Stanleycaris hirpex with the nervous system preserved. (Jean Bernard Caron/Royal Ontario Museum)

Three-eyed Cambrian fossils shed new light on arthropod head evolution

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

Why do hammerhead sharks have hammer-shaped heads?

The first hammerhead shark was likely the result of a genetic deformity. A biologist explains how shark DNA reveals hammerheads’ history.
Megalodon would have dwarfed today’s great white sharks. Christina Spence Morgan

Megalodon sharks ruled the oceans millions of years ago – new analyses of giant fossilized teeth are helping scientists unravel the mystery of their extinction

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

Mystery solved: when mammals’ ancestors became warm-blooded

Warm-bloodedness is the key to what makes mammals what they are today. That’s why working out when it emerged in mammal ancestors matters.

Top contributors

More