Fossils

Scientists have analyzed the fossilized dental plaque of Neanderthals to sequence their oral microbiome, including the oldest ever at 100,000 years old. By comparing them to humans and other primates the study reveals new insights into our evolution.

Scientists have discovered the fossil of what may be the earliest multicellular animal ever found. Dating back a billion years, the microscopic fossil contains two distinct cell types, potentially making it an ancestor to advanced animals.

It’s easy to assume tyrannosaurs didn’t need much help bringing down prey. But contrary to the popular image of these predators being lone hunters, new analysis of a mass grave site adds to evidence that tyrannosaurs may have lived and hunted in packs.

Although adult stegosaurs reached lengths of up to 9 m (30 ft) they still started out as small as a cat, if a recently-found footprint is anything to go by. And what's more, they may have walked differently as babies.

Pterosaurs included the largest flying animals ever, and a new study has uncovered biological secrets that helped them grow so large. CT scans revealed that the neck vertebrae of giant pterosaurs had a supporting structure unlike any other animal.

It's a common view that opposable thumbs are a key feature that distinguishes us from most other species, but a flying reptile that clambered through the trees 160 million years ago isn't one of them according to analysis of a newly discovered species.

Trilobites are one of the most common creatures found in the fossil record, but now some particularly well-preserved specimens have revealed some intriguing new details. It turns out that trilobites breathed oxygen – through their legs.

Australian paleontologists have examined the brain cases of extinct flightless birds in the dromornithidae family – including some of the largest birds that ever existed – and found that they represented some weird evolutionary experiments.

The whale shark and the manta ray are perhaps two of the ocean's most fascinating large fishes. Well, scientists have now announced the discovery of a prehistoric ancestor of both, that looked like a cross between the two.

For the past 150 years or so, scientists have theorized that the life cycle of the present-day lamprey mirrors the evolution of all fish – and thus of all vertebrates. Newly analyzed fossils, however, indicate that such is not the case.

While we've seen fossilized dinosaur eggs and embryos before, paleontologists have now discovered an unprecedented three-for-one – a fossilized dinosaur parent sitting on a nest of eggs, in which embryos are present.

Researchers have identified the oldest known fossils of primates, dating them to 65.9 million years ago. That’s just after one of Earth’s biggest mass extinction events, and it suggests that the ancestor of all primates lived alongside the dinosaurs.