Paleontology

More Stories in Paleontology

  1. A photo of a fossil with two dark brown pieces attached to the shell.
    Paleontology

    520-million-year-old animal fossils might not be animals after all

    Newly described fossils of Protomelission gatehousei suggest that the species, once thought to be the oldest example of bryozoans, is actually a type of colony-forming algae.

    By Sid Perkins
  2. An illustration of a Tillyardembia sitting on a plant.
    Paleontology

    The oldest known pollen-carrying insects lived about 280 million years ago

    Pollen stuck to fossils of earwig-like Tillyardembia pushes back the earliest record of potential insect pollinators by about 120 million years.

    By Sid Perkins
  3. A fossilized leaf of the extinct plant Gigantonoclea guizhouensis, with holes in pairs along the center
    Paleontology

    Insect bites in plant fossils reveal leaves could fold shut millions of years ago

    The 252-million-year-old fossil leaves have symmetrical holes, which suggest an insect bit through the leaves when they were folded.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  4. An illustration of Microraptor, which looks like a small dark bird with a dinosaur-esque head, swooping on an unsuspecting lizard that's walking along a branch
    Paleontology

    This dinosaur might have used its feet to snag prey in midair like modern hawks

    Fossilized toe pads suggest a hawklike hunting style in Microraptor, a dinosaur that some scientists think could hunt while flying.

    By Derek Smith
  5. An illustration of a large, predatory fish known as coelacanths and eel-like conodonts swimming in the ocean.
    Paleontology

    In the wake of history’s deadliest mass extinction, ocean life may have flourished

    Ocean life may have recovered in just a million years after the Permian-Triassic mass extinction, fossils from South China suggest.

    By Nikk Ogasa
  6. A wide photo of a valley on Ellesmere Island in Canada with mountains in the background.
    Life

    Fossils suggest early primates lived in a once-swampy Arctic

    Teeth and jawbones found on Ellesmere Island, Canada, suggest that two early primate species migrated there 52 million years ago.

    By Freda Kreier
  7. Illustration of a Cratonavis bird from 120 million years ago as it catches prey. We see into the bird's wings as if it were an x-ray.
    Paleontology

    A bird with a T. rex head may help reveal how dinosaurs became birds

    The 120-million-year-old Cratonavis zhui, newly discovered in China, had a head like a theropod and body like a modern bird.

    By Aaron Tremper
  8. An illustration of Shonisaurus popularis, ancient dolphinlike reptiles, swimming in water
    Paleontology

    Mysterious ichthyosaur graveyard may have been a breeding ground

    Some 230 million years ago, massive dolphinlike reptiles gathered to breed in safe waters — just like many modern whales do, a study finds.

    By Carolyn Gramling
  9. A close up photo of a fossilized male katydid
    Paleontology

    Katydids had the earliest known insect ears 160 million years ago

    Fossils from the Jurassic Period show katydid ears looked identical to those of modern katydids and could pick up short-range calls.

    By Erin Garcia de Jesús