Fossils

Kat Zhou has won the Aquatic Life category in the 2025 BigPicture Natural World Photography Competition, while a shot of a death-defying leap by a lemur took the top prize

Strange cone-shaped rocks led scientists to the hidden remains of one of Earth’s oldest asteroid impacts. It could help us find fossil life on Mars.

New versions of the H5N1 virus are increasingly adept at spreading. Suggestions to either let it rip in poultry or vaccinate the birds could backfire.

The oldest protein fragments ever recovered have been extracted from fossilised teeth found in Kenya's Rift Valley, revealing the remains belonged to the ancient ancestors of rhinoceroses and elephants

The U.S. push to mine international waters for metals defies global efforts to control and protect these fragile ecosystems.

After a controversial project claiming to have resurrected the dire wolf, Colossal Biosciences has now announced plans to bring back nine species of the extinct moa bird

U.S. diets should include more of vitamins D and E, fiber, calcium and magnesium — all are essential nutrients that could offer health benefits.

Sneaky chemistry by a real-life “Last of Us” Cordyceps fungus mind controls its zombie insect victims by convincing them they’re starving.

The first structures ever 3-D printed inside living cells point to applications for biology research.

In the remote reaches of Arizona s Petrified Forest National Park, scientists have unearthed North America's oldest known pterosaur a small, gull-sized flier that once soared above Triassic ecosystems. This exciting find, alongside ancient turtles and armored amphibians, sheds light on a key moment in Earth's history when older animal groups overlapped with evolutionary newcomers. The remarkably preserved fossils, including over 1,200 specimens, offer a rare glimpse into a vibrant world just before a mass extinction reshaped life on Earth.

In the remote reaches of Arizona s Petrified Forest National Park, scientists have unearthed North America's oldest known pterosaur a small, gull-sized flier that once soared above Triassic ecosystems. This exciting find, alongside ancient turtles and armored amphibians, sheds light on a key moment in Earth's history when older animal groups overlapped with evolutionary newcomers. The remarkably preserved fossils, including over 1,200 specimens, offer a rare glimpse into a vibrant world just before a mass extinction reshaped life on Earth.

In the remote reaches of Arizona s Petrified Forest National Park, scientists have unearthed North America's oldest known pterosaur a small, gull-sized flier that once soared above Triassic ecosystems. This exciting find, alongside ancient turtles and armored amphibians, sheds light on a key moment in Earth's history when older animal groups overlapped with evolutionary newcomers. The remarkably preserved fossils, including over 1,200 specimens, offer a rare glimpse into a vibrant world just before a mass extinction reshaped life on Earth.

Sewage-contaminated water absorbs certain wavelengths of light, leaving a signature that can be detected by space-based instruments, a new study finds.

The remains of extinct Homo erectus dredged from the seabed off Java, along with thousands of animal fossils, are revealing a long-lost ecosystem.

Adults who walked more than 100 minutes per day were less likely to have chronic low back pain than those who walked fewer than 78 minutes per day.

Scientists have found a new interstellar object whizzing toward the sun.

Two studies fill in gaps about the cosmos’s ordinary matter. One maps it all, even the “missing matter.” The other details one of its hiding spots.

When Siberian volcanoes kicked off the Great Dying, the real climate villain turned out to be the rainforests themselves: once they collapsed, Earth’s biggest carbon sponge vanished, CO₂ rocketed, and a five-million-year heatwave followed. Fossils from China and clever climate models now link that botanical wipe-out to runaway warming, hinting that losing today’s tropical forests could lock us in a furnace we can’t easily cool.

When Siberian volcanoes kicked off the Great Dying, the real climate villain turned out to be the rainforests themselves: once they collapsed, Earth’s biggest carbon sponge vanished, CO₂ rocketed, and a five-million-year heatwave followed. Fossils from China and clever climate models now link that botanical wipe-out to runaway warming, hinting that losing today’s tropical forests could lock us in a furnace we can’t easily cool.

The vanilla species grown for its flavoring is finicky. Genes from its wild relatives could help make it hardier — but not if those cousins go extinct.