fossils

A team of researchers in Australia have imaged fossilized soft organs of early jawed vertebrates for the first time, finding that our ancient fish ancestors’ hearts, livers, and stomachs are strikingly similar to ours.

3D modeling of 7 million-year-old hominin bones hints at bipedality occurring earlier than previously thought.

The paleoanthropologist was widely celebrated for his unmatched ability to find and identify fossils.

Fossil findings shed light on a little-known group of Cretaceous-era beasts—and indicate that the combination of a large head and diminutive arms was no evolutionary fluke.

A fossil analysis suggests that the yunnanozoan, a wormlike fish that flourished around 520 million years ago, sported structures that were the precursors of the head and jaws of modern vertebrates.

A newer dating technique using cosmogenic isotopes finds Australopithecus remains from the Sterkfontein caves to be about 1 million years older than previous estimates, potentially changing scientists’ understanding of humanity’s origins.

An analysis of skull and vertebrae fossils suggests that an early relative of giraffes butted heads to compete for mates, which may reveal why modern giraffes are so throaty.

Archaeologist and paleontologist Juan Carlos Cisneros tells The Scientist that researchers frequently fail to involve local groups—and sometimes violate laws—when studying Latin American fossils.

A massive, well-preserved skull discovered in China in the 1930s belongs to a new species called Homo longi, researchers report, but experts remain skeptical about the evidence.

Africa’s sparse fossil record alone cannot reveal our species’ evolutionary history.

Modern human genomes and bones left behind from ancient hominins in Africa tell a complex story about the origins of our species.

A paleontologist at the National Museums of Kenya is spearheading an effort to make 3-D reconstructions of the institution’s fossils available internationally.

The 1-billion-year-old impressions have features similar to modern algae and indicate that photosynthesizing plants evolved at least that long ago.

The astronomical idea doesn’t align well with the fossil record, anthropologists argue, but the origins of bipedalism are still difficult to determine.

Fossils of two dinosaur skeletons found in New Mexico are from a species new to science that lived 92 million years ago.

From 500-million-year-old fat to a newly discovered virus, here are some stunners from The Scientist in 2018.

Researchers describe the remains of a clutch of extinct mammal-like animals.

Microbes were living on land as early as 3.22 billion years ago, fossilized rocks show, 500 million years earlier than previously documented.