Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

May 10, 2022

6-year-old finds megalodon tooth on UK beach

A 6-year-old boy was looking for shells and fossils with his father on a U.K. beach when he picked up a rare tooth belonging to a megalodon — the biggest shark that has ever lived. Sammy Shelton discovered the megalodon tooth on Bawdsey Beach in Suffolk on the east coast...

May 20, 2022

'Ghost' fossils preserve haunting record of ancient life on a hellish Earth

Ghostly imprints of tiny plankton-like creatures have been found haunting the sediments of prehistoric oceans at a time when such organisms were thought to be extinct. The so-called nannofossil imprints reveal that the organisms survived acidic oceans caused by climate change, and could offer a clue for how modern creatures...

Jun 8, 2022

'Demon ducks of doom' laid melon-size eggs in prehistoric Australia

Scientists have finally cracked a 41-year-old mystery about an ancient eggshell from a large, extinct terrestrial bird with a demonic nickname. In 1981, researchers in Australia discovered the charred remnants of numerous eggs from several cooking fires used by prehistoric humans, dating to about 50,000 years ago. Some of the...

Jun 24, 2022

Lost fossil 'treasure trove' rediscovered after 70 years

Scientists have finally rediscovered a lost fossil site in Brazil, after the researchers who originally discovered it 70 years ago were unable to retrace their steps to the remote location. The unique geologic conditions at the long-lost site preserve paleontological treasures that could help shed light on one of the...

Jul 3, 2022

South African fossils may rewrite history of human evolution

Ancient human-like fossils in South Africa may be more than a million years older than previously thought, which raises the odds that the species they came from gave rise to humans, a new study finds. The new date could rewrite a few key stages in the history of human evolution....

Jul 8, 2022

'Astonishing' 500 million-year-old fossils preserved the brain of this creepy 3-eyed predator

What had spiny claws protruding from its mouth, sported a body shaped like a toilet brush and looked as though it slithered off the cover of a sci-fi novel? An ocean predator from the Cambrian period known as Stanleycaris hirpex. Newfound fossils of the bizarre creature are exceptionally complete, preserving...

Jul 8, 2022

Ancient 'bear dog' found in France named after child-murdering cyclops

With jaws equipped to tear the flesh from the bones of their prey, extinct carnivores known as bear dogs were powerful predators that prowled Asia, southern Africa, Europe and North America more than 7.5 million years ago. Now, researchers have unearthed the jawbone of one of these extinct carnivores in...

Jul 12, 2022

Jurassic insect wore eggs on its legs, fossils show

Insects that lived 160 million years ago wore clusters of eggs dangling off their legs, like grapes hanging from vines. Scientists recently discovered evidence of this parental behavior in remarkably well-preserved fossils that may be the earliest example of brood care — in which a parent protects their eggs or...

Jul 14, 2022

'Ancient death trap' preserved hundreds of fossilized frogs that drowned during sex

It was a cold case with hundreds of victims. For decades, scientists puzzled over a gruesome mystery: What killed hundreds of fossilized frogs found at an ancient death trap in Germany dating to millions of years ago? These frogs seemed to be completely healthy when they died, but researchers recently...

Jul 20, 2022

Ancient homesick 'fishapod' abandoned the land and returned to the sea, fossils show

Long before the dinosaurs appeared, when the first forests stretched toward the sky and enormous insects ruled Earth, a humble, shovel-faced fish with particularly strong fins decided to try its luck on dry land. Around the same time, another early land-exploring fish decided terrestrial life was overrated and fled back...

Jul 20, 2022

Stunning reconstruction of Jurassic salamander fossil reveals skull’s weirdness in 3D

A bizarre, newly discovered species of ancient salamander recently received a digital makeover. Researchers used X-ray images to create a 3D model of the animal's oddly shaped skull, which had been trapped inside a Jurassic rock first uncovered around 50 years ago. The newly identified species, which scientists named Mamorerpeton...

Jul 26, 2022

560 million-year-old tentacled creature may be the animal kingdom's first known predator

A bizarre, tentacled creature that lived in the deep ocean 560 million years ago resembled a goblet crammed full of wriggling fingers. It may be an ancient relative of modern jellyfish and the earliest known predator in the animal kingdom, analysis of a newly described fossil suggests. More than a...

Jul 28, 2022

'Never seen anything like it': Impeccably preserved Jurassic fish fossils found on UK farm

A farm in England was the unlikely source of a Jurassic jackpot: a treasure trove of 183 million-year-old fossils. On the outskirts of Gloucestershire in the Cotswolds, beneath soil that is currently trampled under the hooves of grazing cattle, researchers recently uncovered the fossilized remains of fish, giant marine reptiles...

Jul 31, 2022

Europe’s last pandas were giant weaklings who couldn’t even eat bamboo

A pair of fossil teeth in a museum collection recently revealed when pandas last roamed Europe. When researchers examined the teeth, which had been kept in storage for around 40 years, they discovered that the fossils belonged to a never-before-seen species of ancient European panda. The newfound species, which is...

Aug 1, 2022

Mammal ancestor looked like a chubby lizard with a tiny head and had a hippo-like lifestyle

An animal that lived before the dinosaurs looked like a rotund lizard with a very small head and had a hippo-like semiaquatic lifestyle, according to fossils that were recently excavated in France. The amphibious animal, which represents a previously unknown genus and species of mammal ancestor, measured about 12 feet...