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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


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?


The smuggled Mongolian dinosaur fossil that seemed too good to be true

The smuggled Mongolian dinosaur fossil that seemed too good to be true

12 February 2020

When a bizarre fossil appeared for sale in Europe, it looked so odd it had to be fake. But a high-tech investigation introduced us to Halzkaraptor escullei – part velociraptor, part penguin


leaf-like rangeomorphs

The bizarre plant-like animals that say life’s big bang never happened

6 November 2019

The Cambrian explosion is feted as the moment where complex animals burst onto the scene, but the enigmatic Ediacaran creatures that came first are rewriting the history of life on Earth


dinosaur footprint

Undiscovered dinosaurs: We are entering the golden era of fossil finds

31 July 2019

From tiny tyrannosaurs to species that soar on bat wings, new dinosaurs are unearthed every month. And the strangest discoveries may yet be lying in wait


Perito Moreno glacier

Ancient Earth reveals terrifying consequences of future global warming

3 July 2019

Lessons from the deep past reveal that human-induced warming could create more extreme conditions than Earth has ever experienced


insect in amber

Blood amber: The exquisite trove of fossils fuelling war in Myanmar

1 May 2019

A huge number of finds in newly mined amber are rewriting what we know about the age of the dinosaurs. But getting hold of them may come at a terrible human price


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