Paleontology

Unearthed in southern Patagonia, a remarkably intact skeleton has been found to be a new species of crocodyliform: A fearsome hypercarnivore that roamed the Earth 70 million years ago, using its blade-like teeth to tear up pray – including dinosaurs.

A groundbreaking study has traced the 66-million-year history of primates to overturn conventional thought that our ancestors came from tropical forests. The earliest members of our family tree, scientists say, were actually cold-climate survivors.

Researchers in Germany found fossilized dinosaur teeth can reveal what the air was like in prehistoric times. Humans might have found it hard to breathe if we were around back then, because CO2 levels were four times as high as the preindustrial era.

Well-preserved bones of a two-tonne glyptodont revealed cut marks indicative of stone tools, suggesting that human hunter-gatherers had settled in the Americas around 21,000 years ago – some 5,000 years before people were thought to have arrived.

A never-before-seen species of horned, herbivorous dinosaur, a predecessor of the Triceratops, has been unveiled at the Natural History Museum of Utah. And its showy, distinctive headgear has earned it a name reminiscent of a god.

A 280-million-year-old fossil from the Italian Alps is pretty much just black paint in the lizard-shaped grooves of a rock. So say researchers who examined the specimen and laid to rest questions that have long puzzled paleontologists.

Still prized at the dinner table today, it appears the drumstick was just as popular with tyrannosaur kids 75 million years ago. A fascinating find in a dinosaur's stomach offers clues as to why these giant predators became the most successful on Earth.

It's been called plain and boring, but this Thescelosaurus species has now had its sad reputation upended, thanks to fascinating sensory discoveries that suggest it lived a unique, successful life underground, beneath the feet of its fearsome predators.

A new genus and species of ancient sea worm with an impressive set of star-shaped chaetae has been identified, after its fossil first puzzled paleontologists. Thanks to its alien-worm-like appearance, scientists found a fittingly sci-fi name for it.

The blue whale has long been considered the largest animal to have ever existed, even dwarfing the biggest known dinosaurs. But now a new species threatens to steal the crown, and upends what we thought we knew about whale evolution.

Paleontologists have now uncovered the fossils of a dinosaur and a small mammal locked in combat when they apparently died together mid-fight. The remarkable find reveals new insights into the relationship between ancient reptiles and mammals.

Meet the Gonkoken nanoi, a large duck-billed dino that roamed very far and wide 72 millions years ago. Discovered in southern Chile, it has now raised even more questions as to how ancient hadrosaurs moved across the planet during the Mesozoic Era.