Scientists have identified a mineral signature for sites that are more likely to contain rare fossils that preserve evidence of soft tissue — essential information to understanding ancient life. Much ...

Skeleton season may be just around the corner, but the skeleton age dawned with the early Cambrian Period, about 538 million to 506 million years ago. In this time span, most major animal groups ...

How smushed shells could help to resolve paleontological mysteries. By Asher Elbein You never know where a bit of unusual scientific research is going to lead. Consider a 2012 study about turtle ...

Stanford, CA– Over millions of years carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere have been moderated by a finely-tuned natural feedback system– a system that human emissions have recently overwhelmed. A ...

The fossil record may not be perfect, but it passed a critical test with flying colors, according to a study by University of Chicago paleontologist Susan M. Kidwell published in the Feb. 11 issue of ...

Ancient fossils unearthed in Morocco reveal parasitic worms burrowing into mollusc shells approximately 480 million years ago, pushing back the known timeline for parasitism by 60 million years. This ...

The fossil record may not be perfect, but it passed a critical test with flying colors, according to a study by University of Chicago paleontologist Susan M. Kidwell that will be published in the Feb.