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.
By Jay Bennett
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
- Archaeology
Neandertals used fire-making tools 400,000 years ago
Flint, iron pyrite and fire residues found at an ancient site in England offer the earliest clear evidence of people lighting fires.
- Animals
RNA from mummified woolly mammoth is the oldest ever recovered
Genetic details from the animal, named Yuka, give a snapshot into its last moments alive. The mammoth had been preserved in permafrost for 40,000 years.
- Fossils
Here’s why ammolite gems have a rainbow shimmer
The fossils’ fabulous colors arise from delicate assemblies of crystal plates.
- Fossils
Newfound fossil is not a teen T. rex but a whole new species
Now known as Nanotyrannus, this mini dino could have roamed the late Cretaceous alongside T. rex.
- Humans
Smoke-dried mummies found in Southeast Asia are the oldest known
The corpses had been slow-dried over fires 12,000 years ago — millennia before Egyptians began mummifying their dead.
- Fossils
Baby pterosaurs likely died in violent Jurassic storms
Two hatchlings with broken arm bones point to ancient storms as the cause of mass casualties now preserved in Germany’s Solnhofen Limestone.
- Fossils
Fossil teeth reveal some dinos were fussy eaters
The type of calcium in those teeth points to what herbivores preferred to eat — whether soft leaves, rough twigs or something else.
- Archaeology
Knotted strands of 500-year-old hair tell a surprising story
Used in a device called a khipu, the hair reveals the owner’s simple diet. Those data now suggest that in Incan society, even some commoners kept records.
- Archaeology
This may be the oldest, most complete Neandertal fingerprint ever seen
The print appears in a red ochre dot, which a Neandertal left on the ‘nose’ of a facelike rock roughly 43,000 years ago.
