Fossils

A recent analysis of previously-unearthed pterosaur bones reveals that they belonged to a new genus and species.

An almost-complete skull of Australopithecus anamensis allowed scientists to realistically recreate its face for the first time.

Palaeontologists in New Zealand have now uncovered the remains of Heracles inexpectatus, an extinct giant parrot that would have stood hip-high to most people and packed a beak powerful enough to crack open pretty much whatever it wanted to.

​Half a billion years ago, in the Cambrian Period, most animals were smaller than a person's little finger. That makes the recent discovery of a marine predator from that time all the more exciting, as the sucker grew up to one foot (30 cm) long.

Although they may not be as well-known as dinosaurs such as the Tyrannosaurus, the duck-billed hadrosaurs were the most common plant-eating dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic Era. Now, a newly-classified member of the group appears to be a common ancestor to the various types that came later.

Fossilized human skulls found in a cave in Greece may force a rewrite of the human migration timeline yet again. Archaeologists have dated one of the skulls to about 210,000 years old – roughly 150,000 years older than the previous record-holder for earliest modern human remains in Europe.

The now-extinct megalodon was the largest predatory shark to ever live, while the great white is currently the largest of the predatory sharks. It now turns out that both fish likely descended from a small, flat shark that skulked along the seabed.

​As you remember from Jurassic Park, velociraptors were known for terrifying claws on their toes. A newly-discovered dinosaur from a related species was packing twice as many weapons. Vespersaurus paranaensis has been found to brandish two large claws on each foot, supporting itself on just one toe.

Generally speaking, the animals alive today are mere shadows of their former selves, and birds were no exception. In a Crimean cave, palaeontologists have uncovered the bones of some of the most gigantic birds to have ever walked the Earth, that would have lived alongside early European humans.

Imprints of ancient bones or footprints are often found in rock, but that’s not the only way they form – in much rarer cases they can also be encased in opal. Now palaeontologists in Australia have uncovered the most complete “opalized” dinosaur, which also happens to be a new species.

Sauropods – the giant, long-necked dinosaurs like Brachiosaurus – were the largest land animals to ever walk the Earth. Now, researchers have studied sauropod feet and found that the animals may have had an unexpected gait – tiptoeing around like they were wearing high heels.

It’s not known exactly when humans and Neanderthals split off from their last common ancestor, but the estimated window is very wide, between 300,000 and 800,000 years ago. Now a new study has found evidence that this split took place towards the earlier end of that range, or even longer ago still.