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News Articles: paleontology

Ice Age skull on stand in research lab at the Page Musuem at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

Saber teeth in predators evolved many times. Did it lead to their extinction?

A new analysis suggests saber teeth were highly specialized for puncturing prey, ultimately at the cost of durability.

January 21, 2025
|
By:
  • Jonathan Lambert
Researchers analyzed theropod footprints in Brazil, left, and in Cameroon, right.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

Matching dinosaur prints were found an ocean apart in Africa and South America

A group of scientists say in new research that matching dinosaur tracks found in modern-day Brazil and Cameroon were made 120 million years ago in an area that once connected the two continents.

August 28, 2024
|
By:
  • Joe Hernandez
Glyptodonts were giant, armadillo-like shelled mammals that went extinct about 10,000 years ago. A study reveals that cut marks on a glyptodont fossil in South America could have been made by humans a little over 20,000 years ago.

Tagged as: 

  • Research News

When did humans get to South America? This giant shelled mammal fossil may hold clues

A fossil of an armadillo-like mammal appears to bear cut marks from butchering by humans, suggesting people were living in South America at least 20,000 years ago, even earlier than once thought.

July 23, 2024
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
Paleontologist Dany Azar holds up one of his treasures that he discovered in a piece of amber from the early Cretaceous: The oldest mosquito ever found.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

In Lebanon, the 'Amber Man' digs up golden time capsules from the age of the dinosaurs

When dinosaurs reigned some 130 million years ago, flowering plants were taking over the world. That change is sealed in ancient amber specimens on the slopes of Lebanon that Danny Azar knows so well.

June 28, 2024
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
This illustration depicts a washed-up <em>Ichthyotitan severnensis </em>carcass on the beach.

Tagged as: 

  • Research News

Largest-ever marine reptile found with help from an 11-year-old girl

A father and daughter discovered fossil remnants of a giant ichthyosaur that scientists say may have been the largest-known marine reptile to ever swim the seas.

May 06, 2024
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
An artistic rendering of a washed-up <em data-stringify-type="italic">Ichthyotitan severnensis</em> carcass on the beach.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

An 11-year-old unearthed fossils of the largest known marine reptile

When the dinosaurs walked the Earth, massive marine reptiles swam. Among them, a species of Ichthyosaur that measured over 80 feet long. Today, we look into how a chance discovery by a father-daughter duo of fossil hunters furthered paleontologist's understanding of the "giant fish lizard of the Severn." Currently, it is the largest marine reptile known to scientists.

Read more about this specimen in the study published in the journal PLOS One.

Have another ancient animal or scientific revelation you want us to cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org — we might talk about it on a future episode!

April 19, 2024
|
By:
  • Emily Kwong,
  • Rachel Carlson,
  • and 2 more
<em>Dinocephalosaurus orientalis</em> swimming alongside prehistoric fish known as Saurichthys.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

Paleontologists discover a 240 million-year-old 'dragon' fossil in full

Dinocephalosaurus orientalis's snake-like body was 16 feet long and lived in Triassic China. The newly revealed specimen allows scientists to depict the creature in full for the first time.

February 26, 2024
|
By:
  • Diba Mohtasham

Tagged as: 

  • Animals

That giant extinct shark, Megalodon? Maybe it wasn't so mega

The ancient extinct shark that starred in the film The Meg is thought to be the largest shark that ever swam the Earth. But there's debate over what it really looked like.

January 26, 2024
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
Scientists have identified a fossil of an herbivorous dinosaur, <em>Psittacosaurus</em>, being bitten by a mammal, <em>Repenomamus</em>.

Tagged as: 

  • Research News

This fossil of a mammal biting a dinosaur captures a death battle's final moments

A 125-million-year-old fossil from the early Cretaceous shows the skeletons of a smaller mammal biting a larger horned dinosaur, suggesting a much more complex ancient food web.

July 19, 2023
|
By:
  • Ari Daniel
A photo of the the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite in Moab, Utah. A construction project at the site recently damaged some of the tracks and trace fossils.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

A construction project caused damage to 100-million-year-old dinosaur tracks in Utah

A project to replace the boardwalk at the Mill Canyon Dinosaur Tracksite in Moah, Utah, cause minor damage to tracks and trace fossils at the site, a Bureau of Land Management paleontologist found.

April 04, 2022
|
By:
  • Joe Hernandez
Fossilized human footprints shown at the White Sands National Park in New Mexico. According to a report published in the journal <em>Science</em>, the impressions indicate that early humans were walking across North America around 23,000 years ago.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

Ancient Footprints Suggest Humans Lived In The Americas Earlier Than Once Thought

A team of scientists dated the footprints along an extinct lake bed in New Mexico and found them to be between 21,000 and 23,000 years old — far older than reliable evidence has suggested to date.

September 27, 2021
|
By:
  • Scott Neuman
A reconstructed Neanderthal skeleton (right) and a modern-human version of a skeleton are displayed at the American Museum of Natural History in New York in 2003. A new study confirms that early humans who lived in colder places adapted to have larger bodies.

Tagged as: 

  • Science

Colder Climates Meant Bigger Bodies For Ancient Humans

Human ancestors got steadily larger over the last 1 million years. Our relatives living in colder places developed bigger bodies, a new study finds.

July 09, 2021
|
By:
  • Rebecca Hersher
Scientists in Canada have diagnosed malignant cancer for the first time in a dinosaur, a <em>Centrosaurus apertus</em> from 76 to 77 million years ago.

Tagged as: 

  • Research News

New Research Shows Dinosaurs Suffered From Malignant Cancer, Too

Scientists have identified an aggressive bone cancer — for the first time — in the fibula of a dinosaur that lived 76 to 77 million years ago. The diagnosis sheds new light on dinosaurs and disease.

August 05, 2020
|
By:
  • Elena Burnett

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