paleontology
Scientists in Tibet have discovered the fossil of what may be the oldest big cat on record, and there could be more out there.
Horned dinosaurs such as the Triceratops have a new, bulbous-nosed cousin from present-day Utah to welcome into the family. Dubbed Nasutoceratops titusi, the creature roamed the North American continent during the Late Cretaceous period.
Unlocking the mysterious of the past can be difficult, but that hasn't stopped one intrepid scientist from the University of Bristol. Using biomechanical analysis and bone histology, Qi Zhao, now part of the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology in Beijing, has figured out how a dinosaur graduated from walking on four legs to two.
Imagine a giant lizard, six feet long and about the size of a sturdy dog, lumbering towards you through the ancient tropical flora of Southeast Asia. Now imagine that again, but set to the music of Jim Morrison's band, The Doors. Now, is this describing a bad Vietnam-era acid flashback, or bona fide paleontology? Thanks to researchers at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, it's the latter.
When you think of Newcastle, Wyoming, what do you picture? Probably the last thing you might think of is a tyrannosaurus rex feeding ground, but that's what it was in the late Cretaceious period. Now, victims of the T. rex's bite have been unearthed in a recent excavation, including a rare, nearly perfectly-complete Triceratops skeleton.
On the Siberian Lyakhovsky Islands, a team of scientists from the Russian province of Yakutsk witnessed a specimen of the extinct mammoth species bleed, and believe that the well-preserved tissue may contain living cells.
A fossil of a new species of bird is the oldest ever found.
A group of French paleontologists discovered the fossil of a rhino skull that was instantly killed by a volcanic eruption 9.2 million years ago.
