Octopuses’ earliest relatives that lived 100 million years ago may have been “gigantic” predators that hunted alongside dinosaurs, according to new research. Although scientists previously believed that the earliest finned octopuses lived around 15 million years ago, researchers with Hokkaido University found fossilized jaws inside Late Cretaceous rock samples, according to a study published in…
CT scans of a decades-old specimen from the Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History show a new species of short-snouted crocodylomorph with unusually strong jaws, offering a rare snapshot of ecological specialization in the Late Triassic epoch. Eosphorosuchus lacrimosa (left) is disturbed by Hesperosuchus agilis (right) near a Coelophysis carcass at what will become modern-day…
New research shows that the large-bodied ornithopod dinosaur Muttaburrasaurus langdoni from the mid-Cretaceous of Australia was no ordinary herbivore. With a toothed beak and a brain wired for smell, this species likely combined selective feeding with agile behavior. The findings also hint at life near a vast inland sea, where it may have consumed salty…
An assemblage of more than 700 Ediacaran fossils from the end of the Ediacaran period indicates that key animal groups — including early relatives of vertebrates — were already diversifying millions of years earlier than long believed. Reconstruction of the Jiangchuan Biota. Image credit: Xiaodong Wang. The burst of animal diversification spanning the transition from…
Artist’s reconstruction of the ancient ocean ecosystem preserved in the Jiangchuan biota Xiaodong Wang A huge and beautifully preserved suite of fossils discovered in China has cast doubt on the idea that complex life flourished dramatically during a rapid burst of evolution known as the Cambrian explosion. This event, spanning roughly 541 million to 513…
Paleontologists at Harvard University have described a large predatory arthropod from the Middle Cambrian of Utah featuring massive three-segmented chelicerae. Named Megachelicerax cousteaui, this soft-bodied animal represents the earliest known member of the chelicerates, pushing back the origins of spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, and sea spiders by 20 million years. The surprisingly complex anatomy of…
The Galápagos lava heron, a small heron that stalks the lava-strewn shores of the Galápagos Islands, Ecuador, may finally have secured its place as a distinct species. The Galápagos lava heron (Butorides sundevalli). Image credit: Casey Klebba / CC BY-SA 4.0. The Galápagos lava heron, a slate-gray to black heron endemic to the Galápagos Islands,…
Paleontologists have identified a new genus and species of fossil ape that lived about 17-18 million years ago in northern Egypt. The discovery suggests that the ancestors of modern apes — and humans — may have emerged not in East Africa, but at a crossroads between Africa and Eurasia. Life reconstruction of Masripithecus moghraensis. Image…
Scientists have extracted and analyzed DNA from 216 canid remains, including 181 from Paleolithic and Mesolithic Europe. The oldest data that they recovered are from a 14,200-year-old dog from the Kesslerloch site in Switzerland. Their results suggest that domesticated dogs (Canis lupus familiaris) predate farming and share deep ancestry with wolves (Canis lupus) from Eurasia,…
‘Richard Dawkins brilliantly made us think from the gene’s-eye view’: rereading The Selfish Gene In 1976, Richard Dawkins published a book titled after an idea he’d come up with while teaching a lecture on animal behaviour for his PhD supervisor. It just so happened that the idea of The Selfish Gene was an irresistible scientific…
