Chinese scientists discover new feathered dinosaur species

Chinese scientists have identified a new feathered dinosaur species dating back approximately 120 million years.

Fossils from Chinese Cave Fill Crucial Gap in History of Gigantopithecus blacki

Deep inside a limestone cave in southern China, paleontologists have uncovered an assemblage of thirteen fossilized teeth belonging to Gigantopithecus blacki, the largest primate species ever known to have lived. Image credit: Garcia / Joannes-Boyau.

Gold mining in Canada’s Yukon Territory exposed hidden burrows in the permafrost, revealing the eclectic diets of a mammoth-eating mammal

Ancient squirrel droppings packed with Ice Age DNA reveal that ground squirrels scavenged mammoths, bison, and big cats in prehistoric Yukon. image credit: Mercedes Minck/Hakai Institute

Terror birds survived millions of years longer than previously thought

A 25,000-year-old fossilized “drumstick” is helping rewrite the history of the flightless terror birds that stalked the post-dinosaur world. Image credit: Zeinner de Paula

New Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unearthed in Romania

An incomplete skeleton from Romania's Hațeg Basin has revealed a new genus and species of duck-billed dinosaur. Image credit: Tibor Pecsics.

New Species of Ancient Bear-Dog Identified in Spain | Sci.News

Paleontologists have identified a previously unknown species of bear-dog from two specimens unearthed in Barcelona, Spain. Image credit: Jesús Gamarra.

New Marsupial Lineage Emerges from Australian Fossils | Sci.News

Paleontologists have described a new genus and three new species of small, insect-eating marsupials from Early Miocene deposits at one of Australia's richest fossil sites. Image credit: Peter Schouten.

Millipedes beat vertebrates to land by 80 million years

Millipedes may have been crawling across Earth's landscapes nearly 460 million years ago, long before vertebrates ventured onto land, a new study suggests.

Rare dinosaur fossils finally returned to Mongolia 20 years after theft

Nearly 20 years after they were stolen, rare dinosaur fossils—including a 70-million-year-old relative of Tyrannosaurus rex—have been returned to Mongolia.

What Australia would have looked like when the dinosaurs roamed

Palaeontologists say evidence pointing to Australia's polar past shows that many dinosaurs roamed the country when the south east was still within the Antarctic Circle. Image credit: Beth Zaiken

The missing notebooks that solved a 55-million-year-old fossil mystery

A spectacular fossil fish discovered on a remote cliff in New Zealand nearly 30 years ago has finally revealed its full story thanks to an unexpected discovery: the original collector’s long-lost field notebooks. Image credit: University of Otago

Where science meets art: Paleoartists bringing dinosaurs to life

Exhibitions in Devon and Lyme Regis are showcasing how paleoartists combine science and art to reconstruct dinosaurs and other prehistoric creatures. Image credit: Lee Brown

A submersible ride revealed a vast whale graveyard. And it holds more than just bones

Scientists who recently piloted a submersible to a remote spot in the southeastern Indian Ocean have identified one of the largest and deepest whale graveyards containing hundreds of fossils.

700,000-year-old squirrel poop helps scientist recreate an ancient world

A trove of prehistoric squirrel poop packed with 700,000-year-old environmental DNA is helping scientists reconstruct a lost Yukon ecosystem teeming with plants, insects, microbes, and large mammals. Image: Scott Cocker

Oxfordshire dinosaur highway 'one of the longest in the world'

A dinosaur trackway containing around 200 footprints, discovered by a worker at Dewars Farm Quarry in Oxfordshire four years ago, has been identified as one of the longest of its kind in the world. Image credit: Oxford University Museum of Natural History

New Scientist recommends a brilliant take on the evolution of birds

Paleontologist Steve Brusatte's new book The Story of Birds traces how feathered dinosaurs survived an asteroid strike and evolved into the birds that fill today's skies. Image credit: JA CHIRINOS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY

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.