Category: fossil

This Perfectly Preserved Praying Mantis Trapped in Fossilized Amber Is 30 Million Years Old

A praying mantis, encased in amber and frozen in time since Earth’s ancient Paleogene Period, sparked a flurry of bids amongst collectors after its modern discovery in the Dominican Republic. Some 30 million years ago, when giant rhinos and primitive three-toed horses roamed the earth, sticky resin leaking out of a single tree trapped a…


Investors Pressure European Banks to Stop Financing New Fossil Fuel Projects

A group of investors representing over $1.5 trillion in assets under management sent demand letters on Feb. 7 to five of Europe’s biggest banks, calling on them to stop financing fossil fuel firms by the end of 2023. ShareAction—an investment group whose website states that its “vision is a world where the financial system serves…


Paleontologists Unearth Fossil of Largest Dinosaur Ever Found in Europe From Man’s Back Garden in Portugal

From the backyard of a residence in the city of Pombal, Portugal, a team of paleontologists excavated the enormous fossilized rib cage of what could be the largest dinosaur ever found on the continent of Europe. It was March 2017 when a homeowner in the Monte Agudo locality first stumbled upon bits of prehistoric bone…


Fossil Teeth Offer New Insights Into Human and Primate History

A new window into human history has been opened up by a global team of scientists who have discovered an innovative method to identify ancient seasonal climates using teeth. The scientists have developed a novel way to establish the role that ancient seasonal climates and behaviours played in the development of both primates and humans,…


Ancient Bird Species Unearthed More Than a Century After Excavation

Researchers from Flinders University and the South Australian Museum have finally corrected the record on a misclassification that has lasted more than 100 years old after unearthing Australia’s first fossil vulture, the Cryptogyps lacertosus. The fossilizinitiallys originally classified as the eagle, Taphaetus lacertosus, in 1905 by Charles Walter de Vis, an English ornithologist—studier of birds— who thought…


Fossil of Pregnant Ichthyosaur Discovered in Chile

The University of Magallanes announced on May 10 the discovery of the complete fossil of a pregnant ichthyosaur in Chile’s Patagonian glacier. The paleontologist who led the team said it was the only known fossil of a pregnant ichthyosaur from the Early Cretaceous period, between 129 and 139 million years ago The four-meter-long fossil was…


Did Dwayne Johnson Buy a T-Rex Fossil for $31 Million? Here’s Why the Rock’s Manningcast Appearance Leaves Some Wondering

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson upped the interior design bar when a Tyrannosaurus Rex skull appeared in the background during an interview on the “The ManningCast” show on Monday night. What to Know Johnson, at home, joined show hosts Peyton and Eli Manning remotely on Walt Disney Co.-owned ESPN2 during the second quarter of the NFC wild-card playoff featuring Los…


Giant Millipedes as Big as Cars Roamed Northern England, Fluke Fossil Find Shows

Giant millipedes as long as a car and weighing 50 kg (110 lbs) once hunted across Northern England, experts have revealed, following the discovery of a 326 million-year-old fossil. The largest-ever fossil of a giant millipede was found by a “fluke” on a Northumberland beach at Howick after a section of cliff fell onto the…


New Dinosaur Species From Chile Had a Unique Slashing Tail

Fossils found in Chile are from a strange-looking dog-sized dinosaur species that had a unique slashing tail weapon, scientists reported Wednesday. Some dinosaurs had spiked tails they could use as stabbing weapons and others had tails with clubs. The new species, described in a study in the journal Nature, has something never seen before on…


Diver Finds Massive 6-Inch Megalodon Tooth Over 20 Million Years Old off Coast of Florida

Gargantuan precursors of the white shark, megalodons once boasted enormous serrated teeth growing as long as six inches. When Floridian Michael Nastasio, owner of  Black Gold Fossil Charters, stumbled on his first megalodon tooth fossil on a beach in Venice, he was hooked on the hunt. After getting certified as a diver, he started taking tours…