Fruit salad may have been on the menu for some dinosaurs. Over 74 million years ago, there was a richer garden of fruit- and seed-bearing plants than scientists thought. A…
Category: Paleontology
A textbook assumption about early land vertebrates may be wrong
New fossil evidence is overturning a long-held assumption about how vertebrates first transitioned from water to land. The hatchlings of three different animals related to the earliest land-goers show that…
Frozen squirrel poop hints at sights and smells of Ice Age ecosystems
Ancient squirrel poo doesn’t stink. At least not at first. But that changes when you begin to break down the pellets. Melting them made it clear that they were not…
If wings came before flight, what were they for?
Lily Burton is the Spring 2026 science writing intern at Science News. She holds a bachelor’s degree in Molecular and Cell Biology and Anthropology from UC Berkeley. She also has…
Mummified reptile hints at the origins of how we breathe
The mummified remains of of a land-dwelling vertebrate are helping to reveal how early ancient reptiles began to take a breath with their whole chests — the breathing style used…
Fossil reveals that an early relative of spiders had claws
A stunningly preserved fossil shows that early relatives of spiders and scorpions were already armed with their hallmark front claws about half a billion years ago. The newly described animal…
Modern apes may have actually evolved in North Africa or the Middle East
Modern apes may have swung into existence in North Africa or the Middle East. New fossil findings — published March 26 in Science — unveil Masripithecus, a roughly 17-million-year-old early…
A mouth built for efficiency may have helped the earliest bird fly
About 150 million years ago, in a coastal lagoon in what is now southern Germany, the oldest known bird gobbled up food with a beak built for efficient eating. It’s…
These ancient bumblebees were found with their pollen source
A telltale hint was on the bee’s knees. An analysis of 127 fossil flowers, flower buds and bees from central Germany revealed pollen particles that precisely matched ancient flowers to…
This exquisite Archaeopteryx fossil reveals how flight took off in birds
An exceptionally preserved specimen of the ancient bird Archaeopteryx offers the most detailed window yet into the evolution of flight, researchers report online May 14 in Nature. The remarkable preservation…
