Earth’s earliest animals may have thrived too easily to evolve

Fossils from some of Earth’s earliest animals suggest cloning dominated Ediacaran seas, slowing evolution until environmental stress triggered a burst of biodiversity. Image credit: C.G. Kenchington.

Imagine if dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct. Here's what scientists think may have happened next

If the asteroid had missed Earth 66 million years ago, dinosaurs may have continued evolving and dominating the planet to this day. Image credit: Colin Anderson Productions

Fossil discovery in Patagonia reveals new species of horned turtle

Paleontologists have identified a new species of meiolaniform turtle from northern Patagonia, Argentina, that lived during the Maastrichtian age, just before the asteroid-triggered mass extinction that wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs. Image credit: Nawel Vazquez

120,000-year-old European fallow deer—tracing the loss of genetic diversity

120,000-year-old fossils reveal that European fallow deer have lost much of their genetic diversity since the last interglacial period. Image credit: Juraj Lipták

A lack of sex held back life's diversity for millions of years, fossil study finds

The way that Earth's first animals reproduced held back life's diversity for millions of years, fossil study finds. Image credit: Hugo Salais

The dinosaurs who survived the asteroid – podcast

Palaeontologist Prof Steve Brusatte joins science correspondent Nicola Davis to trace the evolution of our feathered friends from their dinosaur origins. Image credit: Pascal Goetgheluck/ESRF/PA

Fossil discovery fills in missing information about modern fish evolution

A University of Michigan graduate student helped uncover the earliest known fossils of six modern fish groups that emerged after the asteroid impact 66 million years ago. Image credit: Hesham Sallam.

Some pterosaurs may have boasted bold iridescence

A new analysis of a 120-million-year-old fossil suggests at least one pterosaur species shimmered in iridescent greens and magentas. Image credit: Zhao Chuang

Ancient oceans began losing oxygen millions of years before the end-Triassic mass extinction

Chemical traces preserved in ancient rocks indicate that marine environments were deteriorating long before the catastrophe that wiped out vast numbers of species at the end of the Triassic period, around 201 million years ago. Image credit: Peter Sawyer

Epigenetic changes can be inherited without changing DNA in animals

New evidence suggests animals can pass down inherited traits through epigenetic changes rather than DNA mutations. Image credit: Karmannye Chaudhary

Ancient cave lion genomes reveal a distinct lineage

A new study on multiple genomes from the extinct cave lion has discovered that it represented a highly distinct evolutionary lineage, which separated from modern lions more than a million years ago. Image credit: Love Dalén.

How Jupiter may have redirected life's ingredients toward Earth 4.5 billion years ago

NASA-supported scientists have provided new information about how the early Earth may have acquired some elements necessary for the planet to become habitable. Image credit: NASA

Extraordinary fossils solve a 500-million-year mystery: Bryozoans were there at the dawn of animal life

Fossil evidence from approximately 520-million-year-old rocks in China finally places bryozoans where they belong, at the heart of the Cambrian explosion. Image credit: Baopeng Song

Scientists find signs of active life in Ötzi the Iceman

Even after 5,300 years in the ice, Ötzi the Iceman may still host active microbes, with some cold-loving species apparently surviving—and possibly reproducing—on his mummified body. image credit: South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology/Eurac Research/Marion Lafogler

"Imagine a scorpion that was the same size as a house cat." 10 gigantic, deadly, prehistoric insects that are the most terrifying to have ever lived | Discover Wildlife

Prehistoric bugs were monstrous and some were efficient predators - discover the most vicious and find out what they preyed upon. Image credit: Prehistorica CM, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

The oldest hominin footprints ever found are at risk of destruction, researchers warn

The oldest-known hominin footprints are in danger of being destroyed by state-backed tourism and other economic activity, a new investigation claims.

Fossils reveal how ancient cattle roamed Earth 4 million years ago

Ancestors of today's cattle were roaming the grasslands of Europe over four million years ago, reveals new research. Image credit: Mauricio Antón via SWNS