Paleontology & Archeology articles

Mojoceratops: new dinosaur species named for flamboyant frill
When Nicholas Longrich discovered a new dinosaur species with a heart-shaped frill on its head, he wanted to come up with a name just as flamboyant as the dinosaur's appearance. Over a few beers with fellow paleontologists one night, he blurted out the first thing that came to mind: Mojoceratops.

Archaeology find sheds new light on family pets
A University of Leicester archaeologist has discovered a bone belonging to a late 19th-century tortoise from Stafford Castle, Staffordshire - believed to be the earliest archaeological evidence of a tortoise kept as a family pet.

Remarkable fossil cave shows how ancient marsupials grew
The discovery of a remarkable 15-million-year-old Australian fossil limestone cave packed with even older animal bones has revealed almost the entire life cycle of a large prehistoric marsupial, from suckling young in the pouch still cutting their milk teeth to elderly adults.

Maya king's tomb discovered in Guatemala
A well-preserved tomb of an ancient Maya king has been discovered in Guatemala by a team of archaeologists led by Brown University's Stephen Houston. The tomb is packed with carvings, ceramics, textiles, and the bones of six children, who may have been sacrificed at the time of the king's death.

Extreme archaeology: divers plumb the mysteries of sacred maya pools
Steering clear of crocodiles and navigating around massive submerged trees, a team of divers began mapping some of the 25 freshwater pools of Cara Blanca, Belize, which were important to the ancient Maya. In three weeks this May, the divers found fossilized animal remains, bits of pottery and - in the largest pool explored - an enormous underwater cave.

Now thats what I call a rat!
Archaeological research in East Timor has unearthed the bones of the biggest rat that ever lived, with a body weight around 6 kg.

These crocs were made for chewing?
Paleontologists scouring a river bank in Tanzania have unearthed a previously unknown crocodile from 105 million-year-old, mid-Cretaceous rock in the Great East African Rift System.

Ancient blob-like creature of the deep revealed by scientists
A unique blob-like creature that lived in the ocean approximately 425 million years ago is revealed in a 3D computer model in research published today in the journal Biology Letters. The model is helping researchers to understand what primitive species on early Earth looked like and how they might have evolved into the types of creatures that are on Earth today.

Ancient reptiles 'make tracks'
A new discovery of fossilised footprints reveals when reptiles first conquered dry land.

Reading the ZIP codes of 3,500-year-old letters
Unfortunately, when ancient kings sent letters to each other, their post offices didn't record the sender' return address. It takes quite a bit of super-sleuthing by today's archaeologists to determine the geographical origin of this correspondence - which can reveal a great deal about ancient rulers and civilizations.

Stone age remains are britain's earliest house
Archaeologists working on Stone Age remains at a site in North Yorkshire say it contains Britain's earliest surviving house.

Discovery of possible earliest animal life pushes back fossil record
Scientists may have discovered in Australia the oldest fossils of animal bodies. These findings push back the clock on the scientific world's thinking regarding when animal life appeared on Earth. The results suggest that primitive sponge-like creatures lived in ocean reefs about 650 million years ago.

Discovery points to ancestor 'Lucy' use of stone tools, meat consumption
Two Arizona State University researchers conducting zooarchaeological and archaeometric analyses of four fossilized animal bone fragments found by the Dikika Research Project in northeastern Ethiopia - within walking distance of the discovery of the hominin skeleton "Lucy" (Australopithecus afarensis) - confirm that unusual marks on the bones were inflicted by stone tools.

Fossil reveals 48-million-year history of zombie ants
A 48-million-year-old fossilised leaf has revealed the oldest known evidence of a macabre part of nature - parasites taking control of their hosts to turn them into zombies.

UF study shows carnivore species shrank during global warming event
A new University of Florida study indicates extinct carnivorous mammals shrank in size during a global warming event that occurred 55 million years ago.

New study shows how tortoises, alligators thrived in high Arctic some 50 million years ago
A new study of the High Arctic climate roughly 50 million years ago led by the University of Colorado at Boulder helps to explain how ancient alligators and giant tortoises were able to thrive on Ellesmere Island well above the Arctic Circle, even as they endured six months of darkness each year.

Ancient terror bird used powerful beak to jab like boxer
The ancient "terror bird" Andalgalornis couldn't fly, but it used its unusually large, rigid skull--coupled with a hawk-like hooked beak--in a fighting strategy reminiscent of boxer Muhammad Ali.

Evolution rewritten, again and again
Palaeontologists are forever claiming that their latest fossil discovery will 'rewrite evolutionary history'. Is this just boasting or is our 'knowledge' of evolution so feeble that it changes every time we find a new fossil?

Archaeological study shows human activity may have boosted shellfish size
In a counter-intuitive finding, new research from North Carolina State University shows that a species of shellfish widely consumed in the Pacific over the past 3,000 years has actually increased in size, despite - and possibly because of - increased human activity in the area.

Study adds new clue to how last ice age ended
As the last ice age was ending, about 13,000 years ago, a final blast of cold hit Europe, and for a thousand years or more, it felt like the ice age had returned. But oddly, despite bitter cold winters in the north, Antarctica was heating up. For the two decades since ice core records revealed that Europe was cooling at the same time Antarctica was warming over this thousand-year period, scientists have looked for an explanation.