Beer brewed from prehistoric whale fossil

Shark Teeth Found Stuck in Ancient Ammonite Shell - Wired Science

A shelled fossil discovered in an amateur’s collection may harbor the first direct evidence of prehistoric sharks eating ammonites some 150 million years ago. The palm-sized ammonite, an extinct marine animal and distant relative of the modern nautilus, was fossilized…

Mass strandings of marine mammals blamed on toxic algae: Clues unearthed in ancient whale graveyard

Modern whale strandings can be investigated and their causes identified. Events that happened millions of years ago, however, are far harder to analyze — frequently leaving their cause a mystery.

Scientists examined a large fossil site in the Atacama Desert of Northern Chile — the first definitive example of repeated mass strandings of marine mammals in the fossil record. It reflected four distinct strandings over time, indicating a repeated and similar cause: toxic alga

'Steak-knife' teeth reveal ecology of oldest land predators

The first top predators to walk on land were not afraid to bite off more than they could chew, a study has found. Researchers suggest that Dimetrodon, a carnivore that walked on land between 298 million and 272 million years ago, was the first terrestrial vertebrate to develop serrated ziphodont teeth.

New fossil species found in Mozambique reveals new data on ancient mammal relatives

In the remote province of Niassa, Mozambique, a new species and genus of fossil vertebrate was found. The species is a distant relative of living mammals and is approximately 256 million years old.

This new species belongs to a group of animals called synapsids. Synapsida includes a number of extinct lineages that dominated the communities on land in the Late Permian (260-252 million years ago), as well as living mammals and their direct ancestors.

Functional importance of dinosaur beaks illuminated

Why beaks evolved in some theropod dinosaurs and what their function might have been is the subject of new research by an international team of palaeontologists.

Giant prehistoric toilet unearthed

Pooooooooh!

Colossal new predatory dino terrorized early tyrannosaurs

A new species of carnivorous dinosaur – one of the three largest ever discovered in North America – lived alongside and competed with small-bodied tyrannosaurs 98 million years ago. Siats meekerorum, (pronounced see-atch) was the apex predator of its time.

Amber provides new insights into the evolution of Earth's atmosphere: Low oxygen levels for dinosaurs

Scientists have reconstructed the composition of the Earth’s atmosphere of the last 220 million years by analyzing modern and fossil plant resins. The results suggest that atmospheric oxygen was considerably lower in the Earth’s geological past than previously assumed. This new study questions some of the current theories about the evolution of climate and life, including the causes for the gigantism of dinosaurs.

Evidence of 3.5-billion-year-old bacterial ecosystems found in Australia

Reconstructing the rise of life during the period of Earth’s history when it first evolved is challenging. Earth’s oldest sedimentary rocks are not only rare, but also almost always altered by hydrothermal and tectonic activity. A new study has revealed the well-preserved remnants of a complex ecosystem in a nearly 3.5 billion-year-old sedimentary rock sequence in Australia.