Articles for tag: Paleontology

Could Humanity Be Older Than Archaeologists Believe?

Could Humanity Be Older Than Archaeologists Believe?

Gargi Chakravorty

What if everything we thought we knew about human civilization is wrong? What if our ancestors achieved technological and social complexity thousands of years before mainstream archaeology admits? Recent discoveries from ancient sites around the world are challenging the established timeline of human development in ways that would make our history books obsolete. From mysterious ...

a mountain with snow

The Arctic Is Revealing Creatures Frozen for 40,000 Years

Suhail Ahmed

It begins with a whisper in the cold – ice slumping, ground settling, and a smell that hints at something old waking up. Across the Arctic and subarctic, thawing permafrost is unveiling tiny survivors and ancient passengers that time forgot. Some can twitch back to life after deep freeze, others carry genetic clues to ecosystems ...

Zhongyuansaurus junchangi

New Armored Dinosaur Species Unearthed in China: Meet Zhongyuansaurus junchangi

Suhail Ahmed

The discovery of Zhongyuansaurus junchangi, an new species of ankylosaurid from the Henan Province of China, adds a new dimension to the history of armored dinosaurs. It was an herbivore, as well as heavily armored, and lived during the Early Cretaceous period roughly 113-100 million years ago. Its evolutionary peculiarities included a bizzare ‘swallowtail’ tail ...

Speculative life restoration of the early pterosaur Eotephradactylus mcintireae

Ash-Winged Dawn: Oldest North American Pterosaur Emerges from Triassic Bonebed

April Joy Jovita

A gull-sized flying reptile has emerged from fossil-rich layers of Arizona’s Petrified Forest, revealing the earliest known pterosaur in North America. Named Eotephradactylus mcintireae, this delicate creature lived 209 million years ago and shared its ecosystem with turtles, amphibians, and armored reptiles, capturing a moment of evolutionary transition before the end-Triassic extinction. A Fossil Treasure ...

Tharsis sp. fossil display in the museum

Fatal Feast: Jurassic Fish Fossils Reveal Death by Squid 

April Joy Jovita

A new study published in Scientific Reports uncovers a tragic feeding mistake preserved in stone: Jurassic fish of the genus Tharsis choked to death while attempting to swallow squid-like cephalopods called belemnites. The fossils, found in Germany’s Solnhofen Limestone, offer rare insight into predator-prey dynamics and ecological conditions 150 million years ago. Fossils from a ...

Jurassic World Rebirth

Jurassic World’s Secret Weapon? A Real Dinosaur Scientist Behind the Scenes

Suhail Ahmed

This summer, the latest installment of the Jurassic World franchise, titled Rebirth, will showcase familiar patterns from the franchise while introducing towering titanosaurs and mutant dinosaurs as well as the beloved T. rex. However, bringing such creatures to life on screen in a tangible manner is Dr. Steve Brusatte’s work. Paleontologist Brusatte fixes the monsters ...

Khankhuuluu mongoliensis

Meet the ‘Dragon Prince’: New Dinosaur Discovery Rewrites T. Rex’s Family Tree

Jan Otte

Deep in Mongolia’s windswept deserts, a long-forgotten fossil has surfaced from the shadows of prehistory exposing a vital missing link in the narrative of the most terrifying predators to have ever trotted the planet. Meet Khan khuluu mongoliensis, the “Dragon Prince of Mongolia,” a recently discovered tyrannosaur that fills in between early, small-sized hunters and ...