Search results for Fossils

Tiny fossils found in 1.7-billion‑year‑old mud yield clues to the evolution of complex life

Stored in an open-air warehouse in tropical Darwin, Australia, are dozens of trays containing cylindrical cores of rock. They are from drill holes bored hundreds of meters below th...

Scientists find perfect fossils in rust beneath Australian farmland

Beneath the dry farmland of New South Wales lies a hidden window into a lost rainforest teeming with life from 11-16 million years ago. At McGraths Flat, scientists have uncovered...

These bizarre fossils represent some of the earliest moving, sexually reproducing life ever discovered

New trove of fossils reveals that ancestral animals likely emerged in the deep sea

Mammal ancestors laid eggs—and this 250-million-year-old fossil proves it

A remarkable new discovery is shedding light on one of the greatest survival stories in Earth's history, and answering a decades-old scientific mystery. Lystrosaurus, a hardy, plan...

Paleontology rocked by discovery of organic molecules in 66-million-year-old dinosaur bones

Scientists have uncovered compelling evidence that dinosaur fossils may still contain traces of their original proteins, overturning a long-standing belief that fossilization destr...

Hidden fossils reveal secrets of oceans before major mass extinction

A handful of plankton fossils buried in a small chunk of rock show that the oceans were teeming with life before the Late Ordovician mass extinction, the second most severe on reco...

Stunning fossil discovery challenges the origins of animal life

Scientists revisiting mysterious 540-million-year-old microfossils from Brazil have overturned a major idea about early animal life. What were once thought to be trails left behind...

Tiny fossils found in 1.7 billion-year-old mud yield clues to the evolution of complex life

The companies that drilled these cores decades ago couldn’t have known the scientific treasures inside.

Scientists Baffled by Bizarre “Living Fossil” From 275 Million Years Ago

Tanyka amnicola is a newly identified ancient tetrapod known from unusual twisted jawbones adapted for grinding plants. This rare herbivorous “living fossil” helps scientists bette...

Mammal ancestors laid eggs, and this 250-million-year-old fossil finally proves it

In the aftermath of Earth’s most catastrophic extinction event, one unlikely survivor rose to dominate a shattered world: Lystrosaurus. Now, a stunning fossil discovery—an ancient...

Study Claims 540-Million-Year-Old ‘Animal’ Fossils Are Something Else Entirely

Advances in imaging techniques reportedly debunks a purported "animal" fossil from long before the Cambrian explosion.

Stunning fossil discovery in Ethiopia rewrites human origins

A stunning fossil discovery in Ethiopia shows that early Homo and a previously unknown Australopithecus species lived together around 2.6 to 2.8 million years ago. The find overtur...

‘Jaw-dropping’ fossils reset the clock on when complex animals evolved

A treasure trove of fossils from China shows that the Cambrian explosion may have been less explosive than scientists once believed

Mysterious fossils discovered across the US provides more prove of Noah’s flood

According to a report from the Daily Mail, fossilized trees standing vertically through thick layers of sedimentary rock at sites across the United States are fueling fresh discuss...

Scientists just solved a 160-million-year fossil mystery “I’ve never seen anything like it”

A rare fossil discovery is shedding light on the “missing years” of early sponge evolution. Scientists found a 550-million-year-old sponge that likely lacked hard skeletal parts, e...

500-million-year-old fossil helps fill a strange gap in our record of life on Earth

The fossil is a reminder of how incomplete our understanding of Earth’s history remains.

Museum drawer fossil reveals 200-million-year-old crocodile relative with a powerful bite

The fossil record has given us another new prehistoric species, named Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa (from the Greek personification of the morning star—the planet Venus), a member of th...

Forgotten museum fossil helps rewrite part of animal evolution

New research published in BMC Biology helps to fill in questions about the so-called "Furongian gap" from about 497 million to 485 million years ago, when paleontologists previousl...

Newly discovered fossils give scientists first look at the evolution of early complex animals

Newly discovered fossils have given scientists their first real glimpse of when Earth made a crucial transition from plants and unrecognizably simple animals to the complex creatur...

New fossil deposits show complex animal groups predating the Cambrian

Collection of fossils includes Ediacaran, Cambrian species, suggesting a transition.

540-Million-Year-Old Fossils Reveal a Huge Surprise About Early Life on Earth

Scientists discovered that some of Earth’s supposed earliest animal fossils were actually giant ancient microbes. Ancient microfossils discovered in Brazil are changing scientists’...

Fossils from China show complex life evolved millions of years earlier than once thought

By Mindy Weisberger, CNN (CNN) — Goblet-shaped sea jelly relatives with miniature “arms.” A plump, legless creature resembling a sausage. Long, wormlike animals tipped with flat “h...

Tourist finds rare chunk of oldest sea crocodile

The Thalattosuchian's jawbone was a chance find on a guided fossil walk run by a museum.

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