The studied Psittacosaurus under natural (upper half) and UV light (lower half).
Zixiao Yang
Understanding more about feathers could change the way we think about dinosaurs.
The 155-million-year-old fossil
Gunter Schweigert
Starfish reproduce by splitting in two. A new fossil reveals how ancient this ability is.
Future geologists may wonder how this cow (native to Eurasia) found itself in a California wildfire.
BettyBop / Shutterstock
Such massive disruptions have in the past been caused by volcanoes or meteorites. Only humans have done this with full awareness of their actions.
These plant fronds created scratch circles as they blew in the wind. For scale, the camera case is 14 cm long.
Jack Carrigan
There appear to be two possible explanations for circular patterns with central depressions in Pleistocene deposits on the Cape coast.
The fossil skeleton in a secluded alcove of the cave.
Rob French/Museums Victoria
Finding and retrieving the bones of this extinct kangaroo relative – a ‘holy grail’ fossil – took hours of squeezing through narrow passages.
Artist’s impression of a washed-up Ichthyotitan severnensis carcass on the beach.
Sergey Krasovskiy
Ichthyosaurs were the last giant reptiles to rule our oceans.
An Egyptian slit-faced bat, Nycteris thebaica .
Mariëtte Pretorius
The scarcity of bat fossils is more than a palaeontological puzzle: it has implications for bat conservation strategies today.
Artist’s impression of the prehistoric landscape and creatures that Protemnodon would have walked among.
Peter Schouten
Some extinct kangaroos may barely have hopped at all.
Flowers may seem fragile but they are ancient.
Kichigin/Shutterstock
The origin date for flowers is a source of debate among scientists – but a new approach may help bring clarity to the question.
A dinosaur eggshell cross section, as imaged under fluorescence microscopy.
Evan Saitta
Calcite, the material making up fossilized eggshells, may preserve amino acids better than bone.
Eoraptor lunensis lived roughly 230 million years ago, at a time when dinosaurs were small and rare.
Jordan Harris courtesy of Kristi Curry Rogers
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 herd of the duckbill Minqaria bata wander along the shore of what is now Morocco.
Raul Martin
Oceanic dispersal of dinosaurs between Europe and Africa shows how low-probability, high-impact events drive evolution.
Archaeopteryx and Hesperornis should be on the lists of any dino bird watcher.
If you love learning about dinosaurs don’t let crowdpleasers like the T Rex distract you from the fascinating birdlife that once roamed the Earth.
Animals in polar regions are at particular risk.
Andrew Mobbs/Shutterstock
If the climate warms by more than 7 degrees, the likelihood of extinction for a species increases, regardless of its other traits.
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.
Details of a silicified fern fossil.
Geoff Thompson/Queensland Museum
Millions of years ago, widespread volcano eruptions in eastern Australia buried entire forests. Today, these time capsules reveal stunningly fossilised plants.
The Tridentinosaurus counterfeit
Valentina Rossi
A lizard fossil that was thought to be the best preserved ever has turned out to have fake skin.
Abelisaurs. Art by Andrey Atuchin.
Nicholas Longrich
Fossils suggest that as many as three abelisaurid species coexisted in Morocco around 66 million years ago.
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.