December 9, 2015
The Snowmastodon Project: Mammoths and mastodons lived the high life in Colorado
Snowmass Village, Colo., 270 kilometers west of Denver, is famous for being one of the premier ski destinations in the Rocky Mountains. But at …
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Paleo
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252 articles · Page 8 of 11
November 12, 2015
Down to Earth With: Paleobiologist Nigel Hughes
I first met Nigel Hughes, a paleobiologist at the University of California at Riverside (UCR), in 2010. He took me on a brisk walk through the …
November 12, 2015
Potentially venomous extinct mammals discovered in Zambia
Venomousness is rare among both living mammals and their extinct relatives, with only a handful of modern mammals, like the platypus and some …
November 12, 2015
Moroccan fossil formation reshapes timeline of Early Phanerozoic evolution
Many new life-forms emerged during both the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event, but a lack of fossils from the …
November 9, 2015
Bite marks offer best evidence yet of T. rex cannibalism
Tyrannosaurs were not the most discerning of carnivores. In addition to dining on other dinosaurs, like Triceratops and duck-billed hadrosaurs, …
November 2, 2015
Butchery or trampling? Controversy marks ancient animal bones
At some point in early human evolution, our ancestors began regularly hunting, butchering and consuming meat from large game, a protein- and …
October 27, 2015
Benchmarks: July 11, 1997: Neanderthal DNA unraveled
On July 11, 1997, six scientists announced they had sequenced DNA from a Neanderthal fossil. It was the first time anyone had analyzed the …
October 20, 2015
Triceratops relative 'Wendi' sported a fantastic frill
The discovery of a 79-million-year-old frilled and horned relative of Triceratops is shedding light on the early evolution of the ceratopsid’s …
October 6, 2015
Owl pellets bridge ancient and modern ecosystems
In Homestead Cave near Utah’s Great Salt Lake, owls have been regurgitating pellets containing the undigested bones and hair of prey — typically …
October 6, 2015
A Cambrian-like explosion of mammals in the Mid-Jurassic
Dinosaurs dominated the continents during the Mesozoic, and for a long time, paleontologists assumed our mammalian ancestors kept a low-profile …
September 21, 2015
Sauropod skull mystery
It is rare for sauropod skeletons to be found with the skull also preserved; it was only recently that the first complete North American …
September 21, 2015
Benchmarks: October 4, 1915: Dinosaur National Monument Founded
While moving across the country from California to Michigan two years ago, I stopped at Dinosaur National Monument, or “Dinosaur,” which today …
September 21, 2015
First fossilized bird of another feather found in Brazil
Delicate bird bones and feathers aren’t easily preserved as fossils, and most known examples of Cretaceous birds and feathers come from a few …
September 21, 2015
Dinosaurs used the same nests repeatedly
Fossil dinosaur eggs and nests offer clues about dinosaur development and behavior: Based on past work, for example, scientists have thought that …
September 2, 2015
Gender equity in dino bones
Modern birds like cardinals and peacocks offer some of the most dramatic examples of sexual dimorphism on Earth, with males and females varying …
August 24, 2015
Earliest stone tools pre-date Homo
Tool making is thought to be one of the defining characteristics of the transition from apes to early man. Now, the discovery of a set of stone …
August 21, 2015
Snake forebear had two back legs but no front legs
The more than 3,400 species of snakes alive today may have descended from one ancestor that lacked forelimbs, but which had small vestigial hind …
August 21, 2015
Oldest birds unearthed in China
The discovery of two well-preserved fossils in the Sichakou Basin of northeastern China has pushed back the known evolutionary record of birds by …
August 21, 2015
Ancient marine reptiles born alive and ready to hunt
Mosasaurs, giant marine reptiles found in all the world’s oceans during the Late Cretaceous, may have reached up to 18 meters in length, and they …
August 21, 2015
De-evolving the bird beak
The transition from dinosaurs with snouts to birds with beaks was a pivotal change in the evolution of dinosaurs into birds during the Late …
August 6, 2015
Closing a gap in the tetrapod fossil record
The story of how fish evolved into four-legged land animals called tetrapods has long been left incomplete by a 15-million-year gap in the fossil …
July 17, 2015
A terribly low voice for a new terror bird
A recently discovered fossil skeleton is giving paleontologists a nearly complete look at a new species in the family of big-beaked giants known …
July 16, 2015
From fearsome predator to filter feeder
Early in the Paleozoic, giant arthropods known as anomalocaridids were the largest predators in the sea. A collection of finely preserved …
July 16, 2015
Makeovers for two popular dinosaurs
Two of the most recognizable dinosaurs are getting image makeovers. According to recent research, tyrannosaurs weren’t only fearsome predators …