Fossils

Most fossils are just bones, but occasionally striking specimens turn up bearing skin or feathers, encased in gemstones, and even preserving traces of DNA against all odds. Here's a look at some of the most incredible fossil finds of recent years.

Made famous in the movie Jurassic Park, the raptor dinosaurs are scientifically known as the dromaeosaurids. A newly-discovered member has recently been added the group, and it was likely one of the last raptors to exist.

The fossilized remains of the oldest known ancestor of almost every animal have been discovered. The creature, named Ikaria wariootia, is a wormlike animal about the size of a grain of rice, and it's the earliest example of the bilaterian body shape.

Hands were one of the key things fish needed to evolve before moving out of the water and becoming tetrapods like us, and a new fossil study pinpoints a "missing link" in the evolutionary tree. Meet Elpistostege, from nearly 400 million years ago.

A tiny, 99-million-year-old skull found in a piece of Burmese amber in Myanmar may not only be the smallest known dinosaur of the Mesozoic era, but it could also provide new insights into the evolution of birds.

Palaeontologists claim to have discovered evidence of cartilage cells, proteins, chromosomes and even DNA preserved inside 75-million year old dinosaur fossils, suggesting these molecules can survive for far longer than we thought.

Wouldn't it be neat if there had been a pint-size Tyrannosaurus? Well, sorry, but there wasn't. According to new research, skeletons that were thought to belong to a pygmy relative are actually from teenage T. Rexes.

Earlier this year, many people were freaked out by the discovery of what was claimed to be the fossilized remains of a disturbingly-big spider. Now, however, it turns out that the "spider" is actually a crayfish with extra legs painted on.

Scientists have uncovered what may have been the “last stand” of Homo erectus. Previously thought to have disappeared about 300,000 years ago, Homo erectus could have survived in Indonesia until as recently as 108,000 years ago.

The ancestors of today's whales originally walked on four legs. New research suggests that previously-discovered fossils represent a point at which the creatures were moving from swimming with those legs to swimming with their tails.

The Mars 2020 rover will be touching down in Jezero Crater and now there’s more evidence this was a good choice. Two new studies have found that the landing site is rich in minerals that could preserve fossils of ancient microbes and other lifeforms.

The skeletal remains of some 14 woolly mammoths have been discovered in Mexico. More than 800 mammoth bones were distributed in two round pits – apparently traps used to house the mammoths. The remains were found north of Mexico City.