Fossils

Fossils

This bizarre ancient predator snagged soft prey

Scientists are rethinking how this extinct creature used the spiky limbs sticking out of its face to hunt.

Animals

Megalodons may have become megahunters by running hot

O. megalodon sharks were warm-blooded mega-predators. But when food sources dwindled, colder-blooded sharks may have had an evolutionary edge.

Fossils

T. rex may have hidden its teeth behind lips

Dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus have long been portrayed with their big teeth bared. But new research suggests this wasn’t so.

Fossils

This ancient bird rocked a head like a T. rex

This bird from 120 million years ago had a head like a dinosaur and a body more like today’s birds.

Fossils

Ancient jellyfish? Upside down this one looks like something else

A new look at an ancient sea animal called Essexella suggests it may have been a type of burrowing sea anemone, not a floating jelly.

Fossils

Ocean life may have bounced back after the ‘Great Dying’

Marine ecosystems may have been back in action just a million years after the most severe extinction event known.

Fossils

An ancient ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground

Some 230 million years ago, huge dolphin-like reptiles appear to have gathered to breed in safe waters, just as many whales do today.

Fossils

Armored dinos may have used tail clubs to bash each other

Broken spikes on a fossil dino’s sides are consistent with the armored beast having received a mighty blow from another ankylosaur’s tail club.

Fossils

Let’s learn about pterosaurs

These ancient flying reptiles were not dinosaurs, but they were close relatives.

Fossils

Sprinting reptiles may have been forerunners of soaring pterosaurs

A new analysis of an old fossil supports the idea that winged pterosaurs evolved from swift and tiny two-legged ancestors.

Fossils

Dinosaur ‘mummies’ may not be as rare as once thought

Bite marks found on a fossilized dino show that skin can be preserved even when a carcass is not immediately smothered by sediment.

Fossils

Bizarre ancient critter has spines but no anus 

The spiny discovery moves this minion lookalike off a distant limb on the human family tree.