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Fossil of pregnant ground sloth discovered with fetus inside

14 July 2023

Found in a Brazilian cave, the remarkable specimen of a ground sloth fetus inside its mother offers a rare insight into the developmental biology of the extinct mammal


Broad-nosed ancient shark was one of earliest fish to smell in stereo

8 April 2023

Fossils found in Morocco show the sensory specialisation of a 365-million-year-old shark, given the species name Maghriboselache mohamezanei


Tiktaalik, an early fish that crawled on land

Spine of early crawling fish was becoming more like a land animal's

20 February 2023

Scans show that the spine and ribs of Tiktaalik, one of the first fish to crawl on land, had features that are more like those of early land animals than fish


view of Earth from space

The ozone layer was destroyed during Earth's biggest mass extinction

6 January 2023

Fossils show plants were producing higher levels of sunscreen chemicals to protect against higher ultraviolet light levels at the end of the Permian period


Ichthyosaur

Largest ever animal may have been Triassic ichthyosaur super-predator

29 December 2022

New fossil discoveries show predatory marine reptiles from 200 million years ago may have been bigger than today’s blue whales – and that they evolved astonishingly rapidly


Whatcheeria

Ancient predator was one of first vertebrates to grow fast while young

28 November 2022

The bones of 2-metre-long tetrapod Whatcheeria reveal that it had an early growth spurt – a trait that was thought to have evolved later


How flowering plants beat bloom-free gymnosperms to world dominance

How flowering plants beat bloom-free gymnosperms to world dominance

8 November 2022

Flowerless gymnosperms, such as conifer and ginkgo, ruled the Jurassic world before their flowering rivals, the angiosperms, became dominant. What caused the fall of one and the rise of the other?


panoramic of Serran?a del Perij?

Colombian dinosaur finally identified thanks to 2016 peace agreement

18 August 2022

A peace agreement in Colombia meant researchers could return to the site where a sauropod fossil was dug up in 1943 and name it as a new species, Perijasaurus lapaz


Left: Lobopodian worm (Luolishania) Right: Arthropod (Naroia)

Some of the earliest complex animals were fossilised in a river delta

28 March 2022

The Cambrian animals preserved at the Chengjiang fossil site in China lived in a shallow sea close to a river delta – a changeable environment that might have driven rapid evolution


Reconstruction of the South American giant ground sloth Mylodon darwinii feeding on carcass

Some ancient giant ground sloths dined on meat

7 October 2021

Ground sloths are often depicted as herbivorous giants of the ice age, but a fresh analysis suggests a 3-metre-long species that once lived in South America also ate some meat


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