Geology, features and articles | Educational Science

Nov 8, 2022

Helmet-headed dinosaurs kickboxed like kangaroos, new study suggests

It's dinosaur lore that pachycephalosaurs — bipedal, Cretaceous beasts with massively thick, domed skulls — forcefully butted heads like bighorn sheep do today. But a new analysis suggests that this is far from the case; rather, pachycephalosaurs (pack-ee-SEH'-fa-low-sawrs) may have moved more like kangaroos, using their tail as a tripod...

Nov 10, 2022

3.5 billion-year-old rock structures are one of the oldest signs of life on Earth

Layered rocks in Western Australia are some of Earth's earliest known life, according to a new study. The fossils in question are stromatolites, layered rocks that are formed by the excretions of photosynthetic microbes. The oldest stromatolites that scientists agree were made by living organisms date back 3.43 billion years,...

Nov 10, 2022

Penis worm's ancient cousin fossilized with its doughnut-shaped brain intact

Scientists uncovered something unexpected in the fossilized embryo of a worm-like creature from the Cambrian period: the remains of a tiny, doughnut-shaped brain in the primordial animal's head. The roughly 500 million-year-old fossil is an example of the marine species Markuelia hunanensis, an ancient cousin of penis worms (priapulids) and...

Nov 15, 2022

Scientists just found a hidden 6th mass extinction in Earth's ancient past

The height of the Ediacaran period, about 550 million years ago, was a boom time for life in Earth's oceans. Petalonamids shaped like feathers sucked nutrients from the water, slug-like Kimberella grazed on microbial mats, and the ancestors of jellyfish were just beginning to make waves. But then 80% of...

Nov 17, 2022

Scientists solved a 500 million-year-old mystery about strange Cambrian structures found in China

Over 500 million years ago, sea-dwelling invertebrates pioneered a new evolutionary experiment: skeletons. But while those durable, tubelike structures stood the test of time as fossils, the animals' soft bodies decayed and vanished, erasing all evidence of what these ancient animals may have looked like. Now, a recent reexamination of...

Nov 18, 2022

Titanic 12-foot turtle cruised the ocean 80 million years ago, newfound fossils show

Paleontologists have unearthed an extinct, never-before-seen species of giant sea turtle in Spain. The titanic turtle likely had a body length of around 12.3 feet (3.7 meters) — more than double the size of modern marine turtles — and is the largest turtle species ever uncovered in Europe. The new...

Nov 22, 2022

Tiny 'bramble snout' fossils found near Wales were 'weird wonders' that predated the dinosaurs

About 460 million years ago, bizarre soft-bodied creatures puttered through the depths of an ocean that covered what is now Wales. They propelled themselves with undulating, rounded flaps that waved over pairs of stumpy legs and probed the water with spike-studded snouts. Scientists recently discovered two fossilized specimens of these...

Nov 28, 2022

'Frightful' never-before-seen tyrannosaur might be the 'missing link' in T. rex evolution

Paleontologists have uncovered the remains of a never-before-seen tyrannosaur that was possibly a direct ancestor of the dinosaur king Tyrannosaurus rex. The newfound species could help settle a big debate about T. rex's evolutionary lineage. The newfound species, Daspletosaurus wilsoni, has a unique arrangement of spiked hornlets around its eyes....

Nov 30, 2022

Fossilized brain of 525 million-year-old deep sea worm likely the oldest ever discovered

A 525 million-year-old fossilized worm unearthed in China has what is likely the oldest example of a brain ever discovered. The surprising shape of the brain offers clues about the evolution of arthropods — a group that includes insects, arachnids and crustaceans — and could help solve a mystery that's...

Nov 30, 2022

Ancient superpredator that lived 328 million years ago was 'the T. rex of its time'

A fangy, 6-foot-long (1.8 meters) carnivore that haunted the lakes of what is now the American Midwest would have been a top predator in its freshwater ecosystem — a T. rex of its time, according to scientists who studied the creature. And it grew up fast, new research finds. The...

Dec 5, 2022

Monstrous 'gorgons' survived a mass extinction, but they were a 'dead clade walking'

Reports of a gorgon mass extinction at the end of the Permian period were greatly exaggerated, new research finds. These bizarre paleo-beasts were thought to have died out along with most other life on Earth at the time, but scientists recently found that some of these so-called gorgons survived into...

Dec 9, 2022

Mangled 'dragon' fossils were cooked by ancient continents colliding to form Pangaea

Bizarre, mangled fossils in Ireland were likely deformed by superheated fluids that burst out from below Earth's crust around 300 million years ago. The superhot fluids were released when the planet's ancient continents collided together to form the supercontinent Pangaea, a new study shows. The fossils, which mainly consist of...

Dec 15, 2022

Likeness of Cambrian critter finally revealed, and it looks like a taco

Since its discovery more than 100 years ago, Tuzoia — a weird little arthropod that swam close to the seafloor during the Cambrian period (541 million to 485.4 million years ago) — has befuddled paleontologists. Now, a new look at nearly a dozen remarkable fossils reveals details about this enigmatic...

Dec 23, 2022

7-foot-long arthropods commanded the sea 470 million years ago, 'exquisite' fossils show

Exquisitely preserved fossils in Morocco suggest that some of the earliest arthropods were nearly 7 feet (2 meters) long — gigantic in comparison with the shrimps, insects and spiders that are descendants of these early invertebrates, according to a new study. Researchers made the discovery while exploring the site, known...

Dec 28, 2022

10 stunning fossils from 2022 that didn't come from dinosaurs

When it comes to fossils, dinosaurs usually dominate the headlines. But many amazing and scientifically important non-dino fossil discoveries get dug up every year that deserve just as much respect. And 2022 was no different. From the oldest fossilized brain and ancient panda teeth to mangled dragon bones and a...