Turns out Toby’s new trick is thousands of years old. A pair of recently discovered fossils from Africa has immortalized a small critter’s 126,000-year-old butt-dragging habit, according to paleontologists. The fossils unearthed by the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience feature a tracksite and apparent butt-dragging impression believed to have been made by a rock hyrax, … Read more
Fossils usually leave us with bones turned to stone, the hard remains of creatures long gone. But every so often, nature offers something far rarer — a glimpse of soft tissue that survived for millions of years. Researchers examining a 520-million-year-old arthropod larva were stunned to find not just an outline of the creature, but … Read more
Paleontologists recently discovered a 506-million-year-old “moth-like” predator that lurked in prehistoric Canada. In a press release from the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM), officials identified the creature as Mosura fentoni, an extinct arthropod, as news agencies including SWNS reported. The museum reported that most of the Mosura fossils were collected by ROM paleontologists at Raymond Quarry in Yoho National … Read more
A 150-million-year-old, $45 million Stegosaurus fossil known as Apex will make its debut at the American Museum of Natural History this weekend. It will be displayed among the museum’s dinosaur skeletons beginning on Sunday, Dec. 8, and will remain at the New York City location for the next four years. After that, a cast of Apex … Read more
It’s the sh—tiest museum in the world. George Frandsen, who holds the Guinness World Record for the largest collection of fossilized feces, opened a museum of his findings in Williams, Arizona The aptly-named Poozeum houses thousands of pieces of coprolite — the scientific name of fossilized feces — including one of the world’s largest prehistoric … Read more
Call it shovel and pail-eontology. Three North Dakota boys made the extraordinary discovery of a highly rare Tyrannosaurus rex fossil that could change what we know about dinosaurs. Now, the achievement of the young brothers Liam and Jessin Fisher and their cousin Kaiden Madsen is being immortalized in a documentary narrated by “Jurassic Park” star … Read more
Scientists are taking “The Meg” down a peg. An international review of the megalodon, a giant shark that went extinct 3.6 million years ago, has suggested that it was much slimmer than researchers previously thought. The mammoth ocean predator became the stuff of literary and cinematic legend, most recently with the 2018 sci-fi thriller “The … Read more
One of the most impressively complete dinosaur fossils ever recovered is getting an autopsy. Big Al the Allosaurus, a 150-million-year-old resident of Wyoming, recovered 30 years ago and currently 95% complete, will be fully examined by experts at the Museum of The Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, in hopes of fully understanding “the record of its … Read more
These carnivores were classic — well before Jurassic. A new archeological study has uncovered further evidence of the apex predators said to have “dominated” the Earth 40 million years ahead of the dinosaurs, “as the biggest and most bloodthirsty meat eater” of that era. A nearly complete skull of the Pampaphoneus biccai, estimated to be … Read more
A fossil hunter found a 450,000-year-old mammoth tusk while on a recent visit to a local quarry. Jamie Jordan, 33, was at a quarry in Cambridgeshire, near Peterborough, England, roughly 75 miles north of London, when he spotted something notable in the rubble. The four-foot-long mammoth tusk was “sticking out like a sore thumb,” he told SWNS. “I could … Read more
“The Flintstones” may now be considered historical fiction. A new paper published in the journal Current Biology suggests that human ancestors lived with dinosaurs for a short time before the reptilian beasts went extinct. An in-depth analysis of the fossil record for placental mammals — the group including humans, dogs and bats — has provided … Read more
Eat the Flintstones? Cannibalism has been practiced long before Jeffrey Dahmer or even the Aztecs were having old friends for dinner. Mysterious marks on the bone of a human ancestor suggest that we could’ve been eating each other as early as 1.5 million years ago, per a gruesome study published in the journal “Scientific Reports.” … Read more
NEW YORK — The Tyrannosaurus rex is often shown baring massive, sharp teeth, like the ferocious creature in “Jurassic Park.” But new research suggests that this classic image might be wrong. The teeth on T. rex and other big theropods were likely covered by scaly lips, concludes a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The … Read more
Fans want him to make their bed rock — thanks to his rock-hard abs and his rock-solid knowledge. Meet Fossil Daddy — a 36-year-old, queer paleontologist from Massachusetts who is using his platform to educate people about science and the study of fossils by using pop culture to break it all down — with a … Read more
Not a bad look for 152 million years old. German scientists might’ve made paleontological history after unearthing a “perfectly preserved” 152 million-year-old dinosaur fossil — which is believed to be the oldest specimen of the species ever discovered. The groundbreaking finding occurred in 2014, but was only recently documented in the journal Fossil Records. “The … Read more
These ancient crustaceans are meager in size but mighty in history. A colony of prehistoric triops, a tadpole shrimp that’s existed for hundreds of millions of years, was beautifully captured by tourist Adar Leibovitch in Arizona recently. The 29-year-old computer engineer from Israel spotted the so-called “living fossil” at the landmark rock formation the Wave, … Read more