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Thomas Clements dissects fish
Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science
Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.
Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science
Researchers Watch Fish Rot, for Science

Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.

Recording the pH within decaying organs for the first time, researchers come closer to understanding why some soft tissues are more likely to be preserved as fossils than others.

fossils

Drawing of fish with internal anatomy.
Researchers Visualize Heart From 380-Million-Year-Old Fish
Natalia Mesa, PhD | Sep 15, 2022 | 4 min read
A team of researchers in Australia have imaged fossilized soft organs of early jawed vertebrates for the first time, finding that our ancient fish ancestors’ hearts, livers, and stomachs are strikingly similar to ours.
Various primate 
Science Snapshot: An Arm and A Leg
Lisa Winter | Aug 24, 2022 | 1 min read
3D modeling of 7 million-year-old hominin bones hints at bipedality occurring earlier than previously thought.
Elderly African man smiling
Famed “Turkana Boy” Discoverer Kamoya Kimeu Dies
Lisa Winter | Aug 19, 2022 | 3 min read
The paleoanthropologist was widely celebrated for his unmatched ability to find and identify fossils.
T. rex-like dinosaur head covered in knobby structures
The Dino That Looked T. Rex-y Long Before T. Rex 
Shawna Williams | Jul 7, 2022 | 2 min read
Fossil findings shed light on a little-known group of Cretaceous-era beasts—and indicate that the combination of a large head and diminutive arms was no evolutionary fluke.
A yellow-orange, translucent artist's rendition of a yunnanozoan, an ancient wormlike fish, that highlights the arches that make up its cartilage skeleton.
This Simple Fish May Have Been One of the First Vertebrates
Dan Robitzski | Jul 7, 2022 | 5 min read
A fossil analysis suggests that the yunnanozoan, a wormlike fish that flourished around 520 million years ago, sported structures that were the precursors of the head and jaws of modern vertebrates.
Four fossil skulls<br><br>
South African Hominin Fossils Predate Lucy, Analysis Suggests
Andy Carstens | Jun 29, 2022 | 2 min read
A newer dating technique using cosmogenic isotopes finds Australopithecus remains from the Sterkfontein caves to be about 1 million years older than previous estimates, potentially changing scientists’ understanding of humanity’s origins.
early giraffe relative at the bottom and modern giraffes at top
“Necks for Sex” May Explain Giraffes’ Distinctive Anatomy 
Andy Carstens | Jun 3, 2022 | 2 min read
An analysis of skull and vertebrae fossils suggests that an early relative of giraffes butted heads to compete for mates, which may reveal why modern giraffes are so throaty.
A fossilized skeleton of an ancient crocodile-like organism that lived in what’s now Brazil.
Q&A: Paleontology’s Colonial Legacy
Dan Robitzski | Mar 3, 2022 | 8 min read
Archaeologist and paleontologist Juan Carlos Cisneros tells The Scientist that researchers frequently fail to involve local groups—and sometimes violate laws—when studying Latin American fossils.
More Images
An artist's depiction of a new species of Homo, H. longi
“Dragon Man” May Replace Neanderthal as Our Closest Relative
Amanda Heidt | Jun 25, 2021 | 8 min read
A massive, well-preserved skull discovered in China in the 1930s belongs to a new species called Homo longi, researchers report, but experts remain skeptical about the evidence.
Genetics Steps In to Help Tell the Story of Human Origins
Katarina Zimmer | Sep 1, 2020 | 10+ min read
Africa’s sparse fossil record alone cannot reveal our species’ evolutionary history.
Infographic: Meet Your Ancient Ancestors and Relatives in Africa
Katarina Zimmer | Sep 1, 2020 | 7 min read
Modern human genomes and bones left behind from ancient hominins in Africa tell a complex story about the origins of our species.
nmk national museums kenya job kibii fossil micro-ct scan paleontology
Initiative Seeks to CT Scan Kenya’s Unexplored Fossil Trove
Stephenie Livingston | Jul 30, 2020 | 6 min read
A paleontologist at the National Museums of Kenya is spearheading an effort to make 3-D reconstructions of the institution’s fossils available internationally.
Proterocladus antiquus green algae evolution photosynthesis nanfen formation
Oldest Green Algae Fossil Discovered in China
Kerry Grens | Feb 25, 2020 | 2 min read
The 1-billion-year-old impressions have features similar to modern algae and indicate that photosynthesizing plants evolved at least that long ago.
Exploding Stars Probably Didn’t Spur Hominins to Walk Upright
Ashley Yeager | Sep 1, 2019 | 3 min read
The astronomical idea doesn’t align well with the fossil record, anthropologists argue, but the origins of bipedalism are still difficult to determine.
Suskityrannus hazelae tyrannosauroid paleotology dinosaurs new species
Image of the Day: New Tyrannosauroid
Chia-Yi Hou | May 7, 2019 | 1 min read
Fossils of two dinosaur skeletons found in New Mexico are from a species new to science that lived 92 million years ago.
Photos of the Year
Carolyn Wilke | Dec 21, 2018 | 2 min read
From 500-million-year-old fat to a newly discovered virus, here are some stunners from The Scientist in 2018.
Image of the Day: Baby Boom
Sukanya Charuchandra | Aug 31, 2018 | 1 min read
Researchers describe the remains of a clutch of extinct mammal-like animals.
Geologists, paleontology, excavation
Oldest Evidence of Terrestrial Life on a Young Earth
Anna Azvolinsky | Jul 23, 2018 | 4 min read
Microbes were living on land as early as 3.22 billion years ago, fossilized rocks show, 500 million years earlier than previously documented.
Nick Pyenson Reconstructs Bygone Whale Populations Using Fossils
Jim Daley | Jul 1, 2018 | 3 min read

The Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History paleobiologist also studies the evolution of echolocation and special sensory structures in modern whales.

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