paleontology

A hidden cave system in New Zealand is revealing fossil evidence of an ancient environment, hinting at a world unlike anything seen in the region today.

Nature, Published online: 11 June 2026; doi:10.1038/d41586-026-01905-x Researchers have uncovered more than 400 fossilized whale bones in an ocean-floor chasm. Plus, the working lives of scientists, in pictures, and how AI could slow the pace of research publication for the better.

When a whale dies, a very special natural phenomenon can come alive. The carcass might float at the surface for some time, attracting sharks and other predators. As it becomes weathered, it may start to sink, falling through the water until it eventually settles on the seafloor, where deep-sea scavengers feast upon it. The scientific […] The post A 5.3-million‑year‑old whale graveyard has been fo…

In paleontology, bones may steal the show. But to comparative biologist Armita Manafzadeh, joints are where the action is. As she sees it, almost every animal with a backbone that has ever walked, flown, swum or slithered across the planet has done so because of joints. It’s an understudied part of the evolutionary puzzle. Manafzadeh, soon to set up her own lab at the Georgia Institute of Technol…

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. The post Fossils from Chinese Cave Fill Crucial Gap in History of Gigantopithecus blacki appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News .

Chile's Atacama Desert, which gets less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) of rainfall each year, started to form more than 40 million years ago ‪—‬ 20 million years before the Andes.

Paleontologists have described a new genus and three new species of small, insect-eating marsupials from the Early Miocene deposits of the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in northwestern Queensland, one of Australia’s richest fossil sites. The post New Marsupial Lineage Emerges from Australian Fossils appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News .

They preceded vertebrates on land by about 80 million years The post These Ancient Millipedes Paved the Way for Terrestrial Life appeared first on Nautilus .

The footprints looked different from the moment researchers examined them. What seemed like another set of fossil tracks soon revealed evidence of something never documented before.

Welcome to the world of bees. This fuzzy yellow and black striped fellow is a bumblebee in the genus Bombus sp., family Apidae. We know him from our gardens where we see them busily lapping up nectar and pollen from flowers with their ...

A remarkable set of fossil feathers revealed an unexpected pattern. Hidden within the ancient plumage was a clue that had remained unnoticed for 160 million years.

Fossils sealed between million-year-old volcanic ash layers reveal a lost North Island ecosystem that disappeared long before humans arrived.

Cradled within the soft blue-grey embrace of the Gault Clay lies this beautifully preserved Proeuhoplites subtuberculatus, collected from Bed II (iv) of the Folkestone Gault in Kent, southeast England. Measuring just 35 millimetres across, this ...

Fossilized poo harbors remains from mammoths, bison and big cats, including some of the oldest DNA ever reconstructed

Millipedes may have been crawling across Earth's landscapes nearly 460 million years ago, long before vertebrates ventured onto land. A new study finally completes their evolutionary family tree, revealing surprising clues about these ancient ecosystem engineers and their early chemical defenses.

Approximately 160 million years ago, during the Age of Dinosaurs, giant marine reptiles ruled the seas. One such creature, an ichthyosaur, swam in a sea near present-day Peterborough, England. This huge animal, shaped like a dolphin, was a quick swimmer that chased prey such as ammonites and squid for sustenance. However, on this day, luck […]

For years, a mysterious predator haunted the fossil beds of Changma Basin in northwest China....

An ancient predator is once again at the center of attention, not because of how it lived millions of years ago, but because of the remarkable journey its fossils have taken in modern times.

A newly identified crocodile species nicknamed “Lucy’s hunter” prowled Ethiopia’s rivers when Lucy’s species walked the Earth more than 3 million years ago. The giant predator was likely the most dangerous animal in the ecosystem and may have regularly hunted early human relatives.