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.
- Animals
Let’s learn about bones
Bones hold us up and help us fight gravity with every step. They also make blood cells, hormones and more.
- Animals
See what these animal mummies are keeping under wraps
A new method of 3-D scanning mummified animals reveals life and death details of a snake, a bird and a cat that lived in ancient Egypt.
- Animals
American crocs seem to descend from kin that crossed the Atlantic
A fossil hints that early crocodiles crossed over from Africa, millions of years ago, to colonize a new land.
- Archaeology
Let’s learn about early humans
Homo sapiens are the last member left of our genus. But many other species of early humans existed before us.
- Chemistry
Early dinosaurs may have laid soft-shelled eggs
Scientists for the first time have turned up evidence of fossils from soft-shelled dinosaur eggs. This has scientists rethinking how dinosaur eggs evolved.
- Fossils
These crocodile ancestors lived a two-legged life
A set of 106-million year old footprints show a crocodile relative appears to have walked on two legs.
- Animals
Tube-dwelling sea creatures may be oldest known parasites
A fossil bed of clam-like animals from a half-billion years ago is covered in tube-dwelling organisms. These suggest the tube dwellers were parasites, scientists now report.
- Archaeology
This cave hosted the oldest known human remains in Europe
Bone fragments, tools and other finds in Bulgaria suggest that Homo sapiens moved rapidly into Eurasia as early as 46,000 years ago.
- Fossils
Saber-toothed anchovy relatives were once fearsome hunters
Today’s plankton-eating anchovies sport tiny teeth. But their ancient kin were armed with spiky lower teeth and a giant upper sabertooth.
- Humans
Skeletons hint that ancient societies had women warriors
Some women in North American hunter-gatherer societies and Mongolian herding groups may have been warriors.
- Chemistry
Ancient recipes helped scientists resurrect a long-lost blue hue
Led by medieval texts, scientists hunted down a plant and used its fruit to make a blue watercolor with mysterious origins.
- Fossils
This dinosaur was no bigger than a hummingbird
The skull of one of these ancient birds — the tiniest yet known — was discovered encased in a chunk of amber originally found in Myanmar.
