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Thomas Clements dissects fish
Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science
Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.
Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science
Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science

Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.

Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.

fossil

Drawing of fish with internal anatomy.
Researchers Visualize Heart From 380-Million-Year-Old Fish
Natalia Mesa, PhD | Sep 15, 2022 | 4 min read
A team of researchers in Australia have imaged fossilized soft organs of early jawed vertebrates for the first time, finding that our ancient fish ancestors’ hearts, livers, and stomachs are strikingly similar to ours.
Artist’s rendering of an early mammal called a mammaliamorph
Warm-Bloodedness in Mammals May Have Arisen in Late Triassic
Andy Carstens | Jul 21, 2022 | 2 min read
Researchers mapped ear canal shape to body temperature to predict when ancestors of mammals first became endothermic.
T. rex-like dinosaur head covered in knobby structures
The Dino That Looked T. Rex-y Long Before T. Rex 
Shawna Williams | Jul 7, 2022 | 2 min read
Fossil findings shed light on a little-known group of Cretaceous-era beasts—and indicate that the combination of a large head and diminutive arms was no evolutionary fluke.
Four fossil skulls<br><br>
South African Hominin Fossils Predate Lucy, Analysis Suggests
Andy Carstens | Jun 29, 2022 | 2 min read
A newer dating technique using cosmogenic isotopes finds Australopithecus remains from the Sterkfontein caves to be about 1 million years older than previous estimates, potentially changing scientists’ understanding of humanity’s origins.
Close up of mastodon tusk
Science Snapshot: Mastodons on the Move
Lisa Winter | Jun 15, 2022 | 2 min read
These Pleistocene Epoch giants likely traveled great distances each year to reach breeding grounds.
early giraffe relative at the bottom and modern giraffes at top
“Necks for Sex” May Explain Giraffes’ Distinctive Anatomy 
Andy Carstens | Jun 3, 2022 | 2 min read
An analysis of skull and vertebrae fossils suggests that an early relative of giraffes butted heads to compete for mates, which may reveal why modern giraffes are so throaty.
An artist's rendering of the ancient arthropod Erratus sperare
Anatomical Firsts in Early Arthropods
Clare Watson | Jun 1, 2022 | 2 min read
A team of scientists have discovered an ancient arthropod that may show the origins of branched limbs and the first gill-like breathing structures in the clade.
Illustration of a Tyrannosaurus rex on a rock on a mountain
Most Dinosaurs Were Warm-Blooded After All
Catherine Offord | May 26, 2022 | 2 min read
Endothermy was widespread among both avian and non-avian dinosaurs, a study suggests, so the metabolic strategy is unlikely to account for birds’ survival through the mass extinction event that wiped out their dinosaur cousins.
The fossil tooth found in the Annamite Mountains in Laos
Ancient Tooth Could Be Clue in Denisovan Migration Mystery
Andy Carstens | May 18, 2022 | 2 min read
The new fossil from Laos helps answer the question of how some people from Oceania carry DNA from the ancient hominin.
zebrafish (Danio rerio)
Caught on Camera
The Scientist | May 16, 2022 | 2 min read
See some of the coolest images recently featured by The Scientist
A fossil imprint of the stridulatory apparatus from an extinct cricket species
Listen to Extinct Crickets Chirp
David George Haskell | May 16, 2022 | 4 min read
The land’s first known singer may have sounded like a raspier version of today’s familiar insect fiddlers.
A fossil imprint of the stridulatory apparatus from an extinct cricket species
Book Excerpt from Sounds Wild and Broken
David George Haskell | May 16, 2022 | 5 min read
In a chapter entitled “Predators, Silence, Wings,” author David George Haskell explores the soundscapes of bygone eras of animal communication.
Drawing of white squid-like animal in blue water
Ten-Limbed Octopus Ancestor Described, Named After Biden
Natalia Mesa, PhD | Mar 10, 2022 | 3 min read
Octopuses were around 82 million years earlier than scientists previously thought—and had two extra limbs at the time.
Image showing diatom fluorescence
Caught on Camera
The Scientist | Feb 14, 2022 | 1 min read
Selected images from the-scientist.com
Reconstruction of an indeterminate theropod running on lacustrine sediments during low water timespan
Car-Sized, Meat-Eating Dinosaur Could Run Faster Than Usain Bolt
Christie Wilcox, PhD | Dec 10, 2021 | 3 min read
A new analysis of fossil footprints suggests that the 2-meter-tall, 4- to 5-meter-long carnivores that left them could run nearly 45 kilometers per hour, bolstering the evidence that at least some dinosaurs were speedy, agile hunters.
Fossils of African Fauna
African, Arabian Mammals Didn’t Escape Grande Coupure Extinction
Chloe Tenn | Nov 8, 2021 | 2 min read
More than two-thirds of mammals in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula went extinct during the Eocene-Oligocene transition some 30 million years ago, a study finds.
Caudipteryx Dinosaur Flock stock photo
Paleontologists Find Possible Dinosaur DNA
Chloe Tenn | Oct 26, 2021 | 3 min read
A report of preserved fragments of nuclei and chromatin in a fossilized femur of a 125-million-year-old Caudipteryx dinosaur elicits skepticism.
Megalodon from prehistoric times scene 3D illustration
Classroom Science Leads to Revision of Megalodon’s Size
Connor Lynch | Sep 1, 2021 | 5 min read
A handful of high schoolers prompt scientists to develop a new approach for calculating the size of the ancient behemoth.
Plant cryptospore fossil found in 480 million-year-old Australian rock
Discovered: Fossilized Spores Suggestive of Early Land Plants
Ruth Williams | Aug 12, 2021 | 3 min read
Spores found in 480 million-year-old rock bring the fossil record in line with molecular estimates of when plants first adapted to life on land.
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