Geologists have discovered the first ancestor on the family tree that contains most animals today, including humans. The ancient worm-like creature , Ikaria wariootia , is the earliest bilaterian, or...
By John Long & Richard Cloutier / The Conversation One of the most significant events in the history of life was when fish evolved into tetrapods , crawling out of the water and eventually...
Even a million and a half years ago, our ancestors understood that sometimes you need a simple hammerstone and other times a finely-made hand axe would better suit the task in front of you. New...
A new analysis of two 7.2 million-year-old fossils belonging to a hominin species nicknamed “El Graeco” from Mediterranean Europe, suggests that mankind emerged in Europe and not in Africa. The new...
Almost half a billion years ago Earth was largely inhabited by armored arthropods with segmented bodies and jointed limbs, shelled mollusks, and wobbly unrecognizable fishlike organisms darting about...
The fossils of a previously unknown titanosaur have been found in Ecuador. The medium to small-sized dinosaur lived 85 million years ago, during the Upper Cretaceous period. Its remains were...
By Chris Rogers / The Conversation Every now and again, scientists discover fossils that are so bizarre they defy classification, their body make-up is unlike any other living animals or plants...
They walked and perhaps played along the beach in a prehistoric world; we know this as archaeologists have discovered hundreds of Neanderthal footprints in France— with most of them left by children...
A Denisovan finger fossil is revealing secrets about this extinct Stone Age race. A decade ago, scientists excavating Denisova Cave , an ancient archaeological site in southern Siberia, discovered...
Before the famed Australopithecus afarensis Lucy roamed the land of Ethiopia some 3.18 million years ago, one of her progenitors, an Australopithecus anamensis, met its demise in what is now the...
By Renaud Joannes-Boyau , Ian Moffat , Justin W. Adams , and Luca Fiorenza / The Conversation Humans’ distant ancestor Australopithecus africanus had a unique approach to raising their young, as...
Meet the ancient bird that had toes longer than its lower legs. Researchers have discovered a bird foot from 99 million years ago preserved in amber that had a hyper-elongated third toe. The study,...
Experts in Crimea have found a fossil of a gigantic bird , that lived some 1.6 to 1.8 million years ago. The find demonstrates that giant birds once made their home in Europe and reveals for the...
For a people from whom one 41,000 year old finger bone fossil from a nine year old girl, along with a bracelet she wore, were (until recently) the only authenticated known artifacts, the mysterious...
Neanderthals and modern humans diverged at least 800,000 years ago, substantially earlier than indicated by most DNA -based estimates, according to new research by a UCL academic. The research,...
On many continents during the last ice age , typically from about 50,000 to 12,000 years ago, species of megafauna that had lived there for hundreds of thousands of years became extinct...
Rattlesnake fangs are known to deliver hemotoxic venom which destroys human tissue causing disrupted blood clotting (necrosis and coagulopathy). But scientists have found one encased inside a human-...
An exceptionally-preserved fossil from Herefordshire in the UK has given new insights into the early evolution of sea cucumbers, the group that includes the sea pig and its relatives, according to a...
By Debbie Guatelli-Steinberg / Science Advances A relative of modern humans that lived at least 104,000 years ago in northern China showed evidence of dental growth and development very similar to...
Together with their sister group the Neanderthals, Denisovans are the closest extinct relatives of currently living humans. "We knew from previous studies that Neanderthals and Denisovans must have...
Huw Groucutt / The Conversation The Arabian Peninsula is a vast landmass at the crossroads of Africa and Eurasia. Yet until the last decade almost nothing was known about early humans in the area. In...
A large international research team, led by Israel Hershkovitz from Tel Aviv University and including Rolf Quam from Binghamton University, State University of New York, has discovered the earliest...
A team of geologists have discovered remnants of a 280-million-year-old fossil forest in Antarctica. They suggest that the trees of the forest survived through periodic extremes of total darkness and...
South Africa's status as a major cradle in the African nursery of humankind has been reinforced with today's unveiling of "Little Foot," the country's oldest, virtually complete fossil human ancestor...
