Paleontologists in Montana have discovered remarkably preserved feathers of an ancient aquatic bird inside a fossilized dinosaur dropping, offering rare insight into why certain birds survived the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

The post Exceptionally Preserved Bird Feathers Found in 66-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Coprolite appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleoanthropologists have identified a trove of Denisovan fossils from a cave in China’s Yunnan province, extending the known range of the elusive human relative and providing the first-ever direct evidence of what its forearm bones looked like.

The post Denisovans Once Roamed Southwest China, New Fossils Reveal appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists in North Dakota have unearthed a set of 66.5-million-year-old fossilized footprints that can be confidently attributed to a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex.

The post Paleontologists Discover First-Ever Adult Tyrannosaurus rex Trackway appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Scientists have identified the first dinosaur fossil from a remote western section of the Bayan Gobi Formation in China’s Inner Mongolia, extending the known geographic range of dinosaur fossils in this important Early Cretaceous rock unit.

The post 115-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Recovered from Deep Drill Core in China appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

For several decades, paleontologists have described Miracinonyx trumani -- an extinct species of cheetah-like felid that roamed the North American prairies and steppe terrains more than 13,000 years ago -- as North America’s answer to the African cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus).

The post Ancient DNA Rewrites Story of Enigmatic ‘American Cheetah’ appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists studying a fossil unearthed in southern Manitoba, Canada, have identified what they believe are two bite marks on the internal skeleton of the ancient giant cephalopod Enchoteuthis.

The post Fossil of Giant Squid-Like Creature from Cretaceous Period Bears Marks of Deadly Attack appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A new analysis of three skull fragments unearthed at the Gran Dolina cave site in Spain indicates that Homo antecessor had bone thickness closer to that of Neanderthals and modern people than to more archaic hominins.

The post Homo antecessor Had Surprisingly Modern Skull, New Fossils Suggest appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists have described a new genus of small, bird-like dinosaur that lived in what is now New Mexico approximately 73 million years ago.

The post New Troodontid Dinosaur Genus Identified from Fossil Bone Found Decades Ago in New Mexico appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists studying the La Brea Tar Pits, one of the world’s richest Ice Age fossil sites, have identified a previously unknown species of spadefoot toad that lived in what is now California during the latest Ice Age.

The post La Brea Tar Pits Yield New Species of Ice Age Toad appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists working in southern Wyoming have identified a previously unknown species of omomyid primate, adding a new chapter to the story of one of the best-studied fossil lineages in North America.

The post Tiny New Primate Species Emerges from 50-Million-Year-Old Wyoming Sandstone appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists working in southern China have identified a new species of sauropod dinosaur that appears to belong to a group never before documented anywhere in East Asia.

The post Fossil Find in China Reveals Dinosaur Family Never Before Seen in East Asia appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

An exquisitely preserved specimen of Austronaga minuta, a small, long-necked marine reptile from the Triassic of China, contains a fossilized stomach, liver and intestines, offering paleontologists their oldest detailed glimpse yet of how early reptiles digested food.

The post 244-Million-Year-Old Fossil Preserves Earliest Reptilian Digestive System appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A fossilized skull fragment of Homo sp. unearthed in central Spain offers paleoanthropologists a fresh window into the story of ancient humans who lived in Europe hundreds of thousands of years ago.

The post 224,000-Year-Old Homo Skull Fragment Adds New Mystery to Human Origins appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists have identified the earliest-known cephalopod equipped with a siphuncle -- a tubular extension of the mantle found in shelled cephalopods -- pushing back the fossil record of this key evolutionary feature to the Early Cambrian, roughly 520 million years ago.

The post 520-Million-Year-Old Fossil from China Fills Gap in Evolutionary History of Cephalopods appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

An international team of paleontologists has identified a new species of early sauropodomorph dinosaur in Zimbabwe, adding to growing evidence that southern Africa hosted a richer diversity of dinosaurs during the Late Triassic epoch than previously recognized.

The post New Species of Triassic Dinosaur Discovered on Shores of Zimbabwe’s Lake Kariba appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new fossil honeybee species that fills a long-standing gap in the evolutionary record of the genus Apis.

The post Japanese Fossil Bee Fills Two-Million-Year Gap in Honeybee History appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists at the University of New South Wales have described a new genus and species of dasyurid marsupial from the Early Miocene of Australia, offering the first solid evidence that the family Dasyuridae -- which today includes quolls, Tasmanian devils and tiny antechinuses -- existed long before scientists had proof of it in the fossil record.

The post Early Miocene Fossil Rewrites Family Tree of Little Carnivorous Marsupials appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Paleontologists have unearthed a remarkably preserved fossil snake in Brazil that is reshaping ideas about how the earliest snakes lived and complicating the long-running debate over whether their ancestors burrowed underground, swam in the sea or crawled the surface.

The post Did Early Snakes Burrow, Swim or Crawl? 80‑Million‑Year‑Old Fossil Suggests: All Three appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

A 201-million-year-old climate catastrophe turned Europe into a landscape of fern savannahs that repeatedly caught fire, according to new research published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The post Fern-Fueled Wildfires Raged across Europe for Millennia during End-Triassic Mass Extinction appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.

Liopleurodon ferox is a short-necked marine reptile that patrolled the seas of what is now England and France some 163 million years ago.

The post Jurassic Pliosaur Liopleurodon Was Big, but Not as Big as Once Feared appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.