Fossils | Science News for Students

Fossils

an illustration of an asteroid impacting the Earth

A massive asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago. The explosive collision rattled the planet and changed its climate. The devastating changes it triggered abruptly wiped out the dinosaurs — and most other living species.

solarseven/iStock/Getty Images Plus

Earth
 
Jun 13, 2019
Reliving the last day of the dinosaurs
an illustration of Suskityrannus hazelae

At about 1 meter (39 inches) tall at the hip, the newly identified Suskityrannus hazelae (illustrated) suggests tyrannosaurs gained fearsome traits before they got really big.

Andrey Atuchin

Fossils
 
Jun 11, 2019
This tiny dinosaur is officially T. rex’s cousin
fossilized egg

This ancient bird is Avimaia schweitzerae. It lived about 110 million years ago in what is now northwestern China. When the bird died, its body held an unlaid egg (the lighter brown smudge).

A.M. BAILLEUL ET AL/NATURE COMMUNICATIONS 2019

Fossils
 
Apr 29, 2019
Paleontologists find the first fossilized egg inside an ancient bird
an illustration of Moros intrepidus

About the size of a deer, the newly discovered Moros intrepidus (illustrated) is one of the smallest tyrannosaurs known.

Jorge Gonzalez, © L. Zanno

Fossils
 
Mar 22, 2019
Mini tyrannosaur fills big evolutionary gap
a photo of a fossil of developing baby plesiosaur skeleton inside the mother's skeleton

The bones of a developing baby (encircled) can be seen inside the skeleton of this plesiosaur.

NHMLA

Fossils
 
Mar 8, 2019
Bones show ancient marine reptile was a big baby
A short video clip of the OroBOT walking as seen from overhead

Researchers built a robot called OroBOT to re-create the way that Orobates pabsti might have walked. That four-legged creature lived some 290 million years ago.

Tomislav Horvat and K. Melo/EPFL Lausanne

Fossils
 
Feb 15, 2019
This robot shows how an ancient creature might have walked
860_whiskered_pterosaur_fuzz.png

This pterosaur (seen here in an illustration) was covered in different sorts of hairlike fuzz. Their structure is the same as the protofeathers that covered some dinosaurs.

Yang Zhang

Fossils
 
Feb 4, 2019
These fuzz-covered flying reptiles had catlike whiskers
a photo of Ron Clarke, a pealeoanthropologist, excavating the skull of a skeleton embedded in a cave

Paleoanthropologist Ron Clarke excavates the skull of a skeleton called Little Foot. This adult female hominid lived in southern Africa nearly 3.7 million years ago. Researchers can’t agree on what species she belonged to.

University of the Witwatersrand

Human evolution
 
Jan 16, 2019
A skeleton named ‘Little Foot’ causes big debate
a photo of the skeleton of Sue, a T. rex skeleton at Chicago's Field Museum, against a white background

T. rex didn’t have the ability to clamp its jaws to crush bones, like some mammals do today. Instead, it used its powerful bite and strong teeth to pulverize the bones of its prey.

Connie Ma/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Fossils
 
Nov 12, 2018
T. rex pulverized bones with an incredible amount of force
an underwater image from the movie showing a megalodon shark swimming past a person in a clear polycarbonate cage

In this image from The Meg, a megalodon shark swims past a polycarbonate “cage” containing a biological oceanographer, played by Li Bingbing. 

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures
Animals
 
Aug 22, 2018
What ‘The Meg’ doesn't quite get right about megalodon sharks