Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Aug 18, 2022

Wrinkly 'sac' with no anus probably isn't humans' earliest ancestor. (Thank goodness!)

An ancient creature that looks like an angry Minion with no anus is more closely related to penis worms and mud dragons than to humans, a new study suggests. The 500 million-year-old Saccorhytus coronarius was previously tied to a group of animals called deuterostomes that produced vertebrates and humans, suggesting...

Aug 30, 2022

Oldest-known fossils of mysterious human lineage uncovered in Siberian cave

Scientists have unearthed the oldest fossils to date of the mysterious human lineage known as the Denisovans. With these 200,000-year-old bones, researchers have also for the first time discovered stone artifacts linked to these extinct relatives of modern humans, a new study finds. First identified a little more than a...

Aug 30, 2022

Found: First Tibetan Evidence of Neanderthal Cousins, the Denisovans

For the first time, scientists have found fossils from an extinct ancient human lineage known as the Denisovans outside of Siberia. Denisovans were an extinct group of hominins that were close relatives of Neanderthals. They are known primarily from a handful of fossil fragments found at Denisova Cave in Siberia,...

Sep 9, 2022

Terrifying megalodon attack on whale revealed in 15 million-year-old fossils

About 15 million years ago in a warm coastal sea covering what is now southern Maryland, the ocean surface suddenly erupted in a violent upheaval as a shark the size of a five-story building — the mighty and massive megalodon (Otodus megalodon) — launched itself at a whale near the...

Sep 13, 2022

Lion-size otters prowled Ethiopia 3 million years ago

The fossilized remains of a gigantic, lion-size otter that lived alongside early humans have been unearthed in Ethiopia, a new study finds. The species, named Enhydriodon omoensis, lived about 3.5 million to 2.5 million years ago and co-existed with a group of extinct human relatives known as australopithecines, bipedal hominids...

Sep 13, 2022

Mammals lived alongside some of the earliest dinosaurs, controversial study claims

The earliest known mammal was a tiny, shrewlike animal that lived alongside the first dinosaurs 225 million years ago, pushing back the appearance of mammals by about 20 million years, a controversial new study claims. An international team of researchers studied the fossilized remains of an 8-inch-long (20 centimeters) animal...

Sep 23, 2022

Ancient 'alien goldfish' shot toothy 'tongue' out of its gut to catch prey

Ancient creatures nicknamed alien goldfish had toothy, tongue-like structures in their guts that they fired out of their bodies to catch prey 330 million years ago, but they weren't so different from some modern-day mollusks in that regard, a new study finds. Toothed tongue-launcher Typhloesus wellsi was first described in...

Sep 26, 2022

Plants evolved even earlier than we thought, exquisite 3D fossils suggest

The oldest green algae preserved in three dimensions may hint that plants originated earlier than previously believed. The fossils are older than 541 million years, putting them in the late Ediacaran period (635 million to 541 million years ago). This was at the cusp of the Cambrian period (541 million...

Sep 30, 2022

Ancient armored 'worm' is the Cambrian ancestor to three major animal groups

A bristly armored worm that scuttled across ocean reefs 518 million years ago is the ancestor to three aquatic animal groups that today live very different lifestyles, and it offers new clues about the explosion of diverse species at the time, a new study finds. An international team of researchers...

Oct 3, 2022

Bizarre, primeval sharklike fish is unlike any vertebrate ever discovered

Researchers in China have uncovered the remains of a 439 million-year-old shark-like fish with unusual features that set it apart from any known vertebrate, or animal with a backbone. The bizarre creature, which is covered in spines and bony armor, is the oldest undisputed jawed vertebrate ever discovered, a new...

Oct 11, 2022

'Hell fish' likely killed by dinosaur-ending asteroid is preserved in stunning detail

Just beneath the scrubby plains of southern North Dakota at the site of an ancient riverbed, paleontologists are hard at work digging up the end of the world as the dinosaurs knew it. Now, they've discovered two newfound species of 66 million-year-old sturgeon that lived and died alongside dinosaurs, preserved...

Oct 14, 2022

Climate Solution: Pay True Cost of Fossil Fuels, NASA Scientist Says

NEW YORK — Prominent climate scientist James Hansen has been warning that humans have brought the planet to a tipping point, after which changes, such as melting ice, can pick up momentum with potentially devastating effects. At a discussion today (Oct. 11), Hansen suggested society has reached its own tipping...

Oct 14, 2022

Ancient and bizarre 'innovation crab' from China had eyes on stalks, spike-studded arms and a tail full of 'blades'

Imagine a creature shaped somewhat like a toilet brush scuttling along the seafloor around 500 million years ago, near what is now southwestern China. Now picture that toilet brush with eyes bobbing on stalks; a pair of spike-lined armlike appendages; and a tail fan with long, sweeping blades, and you'll...

Oct 14, 2022

Armored Spiky Worm Had 30 Legs, Will Haunt Your Nightmares

A spiky, wormlike creature with 30 legs — 18 clawed rear legs and 12 featherlike front legs that likely helped it filter food from the water — once lived in the ancient oceans of the early Cambrian period, about 518 million years ago, a new study finds. The critter is...

Nov 1, 2022

Nazi bombs destroyed a priceless 'sea monster' fossil. Scientists just found its long-lost plaster copies.

When Nazi pilots bombed a precious sea monster fossil to smithereens during a World War II London air raid, a detailed black-and-white illustration of the predatory marine reptile, known as an ichthyosaur, was the only visual record that remained of the pulverized ancient bones. At least, that's what paleontologists thought....