The atmosphere of Earth during the Mesozoic era, between 252 and 66 million years ago, contained far more carbon dioxide than it does today and total photosynthesis...
Pterosaurs are often imagined soaring over the heads of dinosaurs, but a new analysis of their fossilized footprints shows that some of these flying reptiles...
Up until now, the accepted understanding about these egg-laying was that they were both descended from a land-bound ancestor. And while the platypus ancestors...
Pelage coloration, which serves numerous functions, is crucial to the evolution of behavior, physiology, and habitat preferences of mammals. However, little...
Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of extinct scorpion from the Early Cretaceous Yixian Formation of China.
Jeholia longchengi is the...
The El Niño-Southern Oscillation, which is characterized by irregular alternations between anomalously warm (El Niño) and cold (La Niña) conditions,...
New research by paleontologists from the University of Leicester, the University of Birmingham and Liverpool John Moores University demonstrates an unexpectedly...
During the Mesozoic era, between 250 and 120 million years ago, an ancient seafloor sank deep into Earth in the East Pacific Rise, a tectonic plate boundary...
In a paper published in the journal Nature Geoscience, scientists offer a new explanation for a string of severe environmental crises, called oceanic anoxic...
A fundamental question in dinosaur evolution is how they adapted to long-term climatic shifts during the Mesozoic Era (the dinosaur era lasting from 230...
Bergmann’s rule is a scientific principle stating that animals in high-latitude, cooler climates tend to be larger than close relatives living in warmer...
Dinosaurs debuted on Earth’s stage in the aftermath of the Permian-Triassic mass extinction event, and survived two other Triassic extinction intervals...
The early dinosaurs were faster and more dynamic than their competitors, according to a study led by University of Bristol researcher Amy Shipley.
By adopting...
Acoustic communication has played a key role in the evolution of a wide variety of vertebrates and insects. However, the reconstruction of ancient acoustic...
Paleontologists have analyzed 125-million-year-old feathers from a dinosaur species called Sinornithosaurus as well as feathers of the early bird Confuciusornis...
The unusual fossil from around 125 million years ago shows a dramatic moment in time when a species of badger-like carnivorous mammal called Repenomamus...
The specimen provides the first unequivocal evidence of immature feathers in the Mesozoic fossil record.
A small piece of Burmese amber preserving feathers...
The recovery of life from the devastating end-Permian mass extinction, which peaked about 252.3 million years ago, was an important period of evolution....
In new research, Dr. Stephan Lautenschlager from the University of Birmingham analyzed the shape of the eye sockets in 410 specimens of dinosaurs and related...
