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Two new sabretooth cat species identified from fossils in South Africa

20 July 2023

Two sabretooth cat species that lived 5 million years ago had 10-centimetre-long fangs, which they probably used to hunt prey in forested landscapes like leopards do

Amazing fossil hints mammals hunted dinosaurs three times their size

18 July 2023

A small mammal from the Cretaceous Period appears to have been preserved by volcanic debris while attacking a dinosaur three times its size

Ancient alligator had a stubby snout and may have chomped on snails

13 July 2023

A fossil has been identified as an ancient alligator species with a very short snout, ridged skull and teeth made for crushing hard shells, suggesting that it may have munched on snails along with other prey

Ancient reptiles' long necks made them vulnerable to decapitation

19 June 2023

Extremely long necks probably helped ancient marine reptiles ambush prey in murky waters, but also made them easy targets for decapitation by predators

Extinct lizard was a bizarrely supersized version of modern skinks

13 June 2023

Tiliqua frangens, a giant, armoured skink that lived over 40,000 years ago, is the latest bizarre megafauna species to be discovered in Australia

Tam Pà Ling cave in northern Laos, where several human fossils dating back tens of thousands of years have been found

Fossils in Laos cave imply modern humans were in Asia 86,000 years ago

13 June 2023

Human skull and shinbone fragments found in a cave in northern Laos suggest modern humans may have been in South-East Asia between 68,000 and 86,000 years ago, considerably further back than the previous estimates of around 50,000 years

Oldest ichthyosaur fossil hints they evolved before mass extinction

13 March 2023

Ichthyosaur bones found in 250 million-year-old rock hint that these swimming reptiles may have appeared before Earth’s biggest mass extinction and survived

Caption: New fossils of Protomelission from the Xiaoshiba biota, showing attachment of the alga to a brachiopod shell. Credit: Zhang Xiguang

Fossil thought to be earliest bryozoan animal may actually be seaweed

8 March 2023

The Cambrian fossil Protomelission was identified in 2021 as a type of coral-like animal called a bryozoan, but new specimens make it look more like a kind of green algae

This is an artistic reconstruction of the Guiyang Biota. Guiyang Biota represents the oldest known Mesozoic lagerst?tte found so far. Guiyang Biota represents one of the earliest complete marine ecosystems after the great dying in Earth history. Guiyang Biota contains representatives of all trophic levels, especially abundant fish and decapod fossils, including about 1 m length coelacanths, and the earliest occurrences of lobsters and shrimps, extending the earliest record forward by 1.5 million years.

Sea life recovered from Permian mass extinction faster than we thought

9 February 2023

A diverse set of fossils from China shows that a complex marine ecosystem existed 251 million years ago, shortly after a mass extinction wiped out most complex life on Earth