Life
Scientists Say: Theropod
This group of dinosaurs once included Tyrannosaurus rex. Today, they include birds.
MS-LS4-1
Analyze and interpret data for patterns in the fossil record that document the existence, diversity, extinction, and change of life forms throughout the history of life on Earth under the assumption that natural laws operate today as in the past.
More Stories in MS-LS4-1
- Humans
Scientists Say: Midden
One ancient person’s, or animal’s, trash may become an archeologist’s treasure.
- Humans
Humans have used fire far longer than anyone realized
Cave dirt suggests one ancestral species was using fire around 1.8 million years ago. That pushes back the earliest known use by about 800,000 years.
- Fossils
A new dino may be the culprit in an ancient murder mystery
The new microraptor, Jian changmaensis, may have snacked on birds when not gliding through northwestern China some 120 million years ago.
- Animals
The dawn of animal evolution saw a bizarre array of sea creatures
Newfound fossils turned up a strange zoo of often-complex creatures, including some suggesting that evolution of left-right symmetry occurred earlier than once though.
- Life
Some of these Smithsonian secrets might just blow your mind
Millions of treasures stashed in this museum storage site — open only to select visitors — tell the history of Earth's inhabitants.
- Archaeology
These 12,000-year-old Native American dice are the oldest in the world
A study of ancient artifacts suggests Native American dice games began thousands of years earlier than previously documented.
- Fossils
Fossil vomit shows what one 290-million-year-old predator dined on
Bones in the barfed-up material, which dates to a time before the dinosaurs, offer a rare peek into the diet of a prehistoric hunter.
- Animals
Analyze This: Primates may have evolved in the cold
Scientists thought the ancestor of humans and apes lived in the tropics. A new study points to a chilly location instead for primate evolution.
- Fossils
Prehistoric ‘sea’ monster also lurked in rivers, data show
A 66-million-year-old fossil tooth turned up alongside remains of a T. rex and ancient crocodile. This shows some mosasaurs roamed into rivers.
