Fossils

  1. Fossils

    There really was a Brontosaurus, study claims

    A new analysis finds evidence that the Apatosaurus and Brontosaurus were separate groups of animals, which deserve their own names and places on the dino family tree.

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  2. Fossils

    Snakes may have slithered amongst Jurassic dinos

    Newly analyzed fossils suggest snakes lived at the same time as the golden age of dinosaurs. These early snakes appear to have had flexible skulls and likely also had four small limbs.

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  3. Fossils

    Scientists Say: Coprolite

    Every living thing and signs of its existence — right down to their wastes — can fossilize under the right conditions. When poop fossilizes, it gets a special name.

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  4. Earth

    Dino double whammy

    Most scientists think an asteroid helped kill off the dinosaurs. But new calculations suggest that asteroid might have gotten some help from a long series of volcanic eruptions in what is now India.

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  5. Fossils

    Dinos: Some were ‘marathoners’

    The arrangement of major muscles in a duck-billed dinosaur’s legs would have helped them outrun predators such as T. rex, a new analysis suggests.

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  6. Animals

    Tar pit clues provide ice age news

    New analyses of insects and mammals trapped in the La Brea Tar Pits point to climate surprises during the last ice age.

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  7. Animals

    When life exploded

    Life exploded in diversity during the Cambrian Period. Experts are exploring what could account for this sudden change 540 million years ago.

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  8. Fossils

    Spiked tail to the rescue!

    A stegosaur’s bony ‘armor’ didn’t just fend off a predator’s teeth. The tail spikes could gore attackers, ultimately killing them, fossils now show.

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  9. Fossils

    Early dino-era start for modern mammals

    Fossils of an extinct group of rodent-sized mammals suggest they were related to modern mammals. These ancient remains push back the origin of mammals by many millions of years.

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  10. Fossils

    Biggest dino ever?

    This plant-eater would have towered over even a T. rex. A truly huge brute, Dreadnoughtus means ‘fear nothing.’

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  11. Fossils

    Feathers: What every dino wore?

    A dino discovery in Siberia suggests feathers were common among the ancient ‘lizards.’

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  12. Fossils

    Dinos ‘quickly’ shrunk into birds

    Scientists had long known birds descended from dinosaurs. A study now shows that the morphing from dinos into birds went along with a quick and steady shrinking of their body sizes.

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