Fossils

Animals

Analyze This: Bulky plesiosaurs may not have been bad swimmers after all

Long-necked plesiosaurs were thought to be slow swimmers. But new research suggests the animals’ large size helped them overcome water resistance.

Fossils

Ancient ‘ManBearPig’ mammal lived fast — and died young

Developing in the womb for a while — but being born ready to take on the world — may have helped post-dinosaur mammals rise to dominance.

Fossils

Warm feathers may have helped dinos survive mass Triassic die-off

Dinosaurs may have weathered freezing conditions about 202 million years ago, thanks to warm feathery coats.

Fossils

This big dino had tiny arms before T. rex made them cool

A predecessor to Tyrannosaurus rex, Meraxes gigas had a giant head. But the muscularity of its puny arms suggests those limbs served some purpose.

Fossils

Great white sharks may be partly to blame for the end of megalodons

Zinc levels in shark teeth hint that megalodons and great whites competed for food — and great whites won.

Fossils

Bright-colored feathers may have topped pterosaurs’ heads

Fossil remains of a flying reptile hint that their vibrant crests may have originated 250 million years ago in a common ancestor with dinosaurs.

Fossils

Cool Jobs: Bringing paleontology to the people

From museums to movies, these three paleontologists totally rock their connections with the public.

Tech

Smartphones can now bring Ice Age animals back to ‘life’

Scientists bring Ice Age creatures to life with augmented reality. You can view these creatures in your own world on a smartphone.

Fossils

One of the earliest meat-eating mammals was saber-toothed

Millions of years before the evolution of saber-toothed cats, a newly discovered "hypercarnivore" prowled the forests of what is now San Diego.

Animals

The end of the dinosaurs appears to have come in springtime

Fish fossils from North Dakota suggest when the Chicxulub asteroid devastated Earth, triggering the mass extinction of dinosaurs and other species.

Fossils

Dinos may have had the sniffles 150 million years ago

A respiratory infection that spread to air sacs in the vertebrae of a sauropod dinosaur likely led to the dino's now-fossilized bone lesions.

Archaeology

Our species may have reached Europe while Neandertals were there

Archaeological finds from an ancient French rock-shelter show periodic settlements by both populations, just not at the same time.