February 13, 2019
Frogs fill in post-Gondwana picture
The positions of landmasses after the breakup of Gondwana during the late Mesozoic and early Paleogene are highly debated, especially the …
The EARTH archive
Paleo
Explore the archive by subject.
252 articles · Page 1 of 11
February 13, 2019
Neanderthals and humans suffered similar levels of head injuries
Paleolithic Neanderthals have traditionally been depicted as more aggressive than Homo sapiens, and reliant on inferior hunting techniques with …
February 13, 2019
Hard-knock hominid skeletons tell harsh tales
The Pleistocene was a hard time for hominids. Homo fossils from this period, when humans evolved and expanded from Africa and across Eurasia, are …
February 13, 2019
Dinosaur soft tissues preserved as polymers
Since 2005, several samples of ostensibly soft tissue, such as blood vessels and bits of organic bone material, have been gleaned from dinosaur …
February 13, 2019
Down to Earth With: Paleoanthropologist and underground astronaut Lindsay Hunter
In 2013, Lindsay Hunter found herself at a personal and professional crossroads. She had gone through a divorce, left the paleoanthropology …
February 4, 2019
"Cradle of Humankind" fossils can now be dated
Robyn Pickering was taught as an undergraduate about a collection of limestone caves in northern South Africa known collectively as the Cradle of …
January 17, 2019
Earliest bird-like lungs found in China
Before birds took to the air, a number of anatomical features evolved that allowed them to get off the ground. While many of these features were …
January 17, 2019
Free swimmers came back first after Great Dying
About 252 million years ago, at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods, the vast majority of marine and terrestrial life died out …
January 15, 2019
Benchmarks: February 17, 2017: Arkansas Gets a State Dinosaur
In 1972, the first dinosaur remains ever found in Arkansas — a fossilized foot — were pulled out of a gravel and sand pit near the Sevier County …
December 21, 2018
Mesosaurs may have spent time on land
Mesosaurs are famous for being the earliest-known fully aquatic reptiles. With their whip-like tails, webbed feet and nostrils on top of their …
December 21, 2018
Earliest art found in South Africa
Blombos Cave, located along the South African coast about 300 kilometers east of Cape Town, has been excavated since 1991, revealing materials …
December 21, 2018
Early mammal reproduced like a reptile
A mother found fossilized alongside 38 of her young is offering a rare glimpse into early mammalian reproductive strategies. Unearthed in …
November 29, 2018
Climate cooling a driver of Neanderthals' extinction
Neanderthals disappeared from Europe roughly 40,000 years ago, and scientists are still trying to figure out why. Did disease, climate change or …
November 8, 2018
Two new species fill gap in dinosaur family tree
Cretaceous rocks in northwestern China have yielded two new dinosaur species that help fill a 70-million-year gap in dinosaur phylogeny. The new …
October 16, 2018
Spiky new American ankylosaurid originated in Asia
A new genus and species of ankylosaurid discovered in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah reveal new information about …
October 16, 2018
Marine animals have been migrating for millions of years
Scientists have suspected that ancient animals migrated in response to changing global temperatures, but until now, there was no documentation of …
September 10, 2018
Extinct gibbon found in Chinese tomb
About 2,200 years ago, a Chinese noblewoman was buried in a tomb with a menagerie of animals, including 12 horses, a leopard, a lynx and a …
September 10, 2018
First Antarctic tetrapods
Tetrapods include all those animals with four limbs. Humans are tetrapods, as are dogs and dinosaurs and salamanders. The earliest tetrapods …
September 10, 2018
Earth's first footprints
As far as we know, life originated on Earth about 3.5 billion years ago, and for roughly the first 3 billion years of that history all life was …
August 3, 2018
Grazing gave elephant ancestors an edge
The poor dental hygiene of some ancient elephant-like beasts has proven a boon to future scientists. In a new study, researchers used grass …
August 3, 2018
An asteroid redirected bird evolution
When an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, it helped wipe out all the dinosaur lineages save one: the birds. But birds didn’t completely …
August 3, 2018
Geomedia: Books: Informative and inspiring: "Why Dinosaurs Matter"
“Why should we care about dinosaurs? They’re all dead!” It’s a question paleontologists get all the time. There are many people who don’t see the …
July 3, 2018
Island-dwelling mammal had small brain, keen senses
A host of fossils has been discovered near the Romanian town of Haţeg, including 15 species of Late Cretaceous dinosaurs — some of them dwarf …
July 3, 2018
Mineral clue to finding perfectly preserved fossils?
The exquisitely preserved fossils found in the 500-million-year-old Burgess Shale in Canada are famous for the detailed anatomy they display. …