Paleontologists

Scientists at North-Eastern Federal University in Russia conducted a necropsy, or animal autopsy, of the bear in late February.

Researchers Examine 3,500-Year-Old Brown Bear Preserved in Siberian Permafrost

Found in 2020, the animal was originally declared to be a cave bear from the Ice Age

Stories of the enslaved people who helped kick-start paleontology and the Native American guides who led naturalists to fossils around the continent have long been suppressed.

The First Fossil Finders in North America Were Enslaved and Indigenous People

Decades before paleontology’s formal establishment, Black and Native Americans discovered—and correctly identified—millennia-old fossils

An artist's representation of the dinosaur that left the footprint

Cool Finds

Squatting Dinosaur Left Behind a Huge Footprint in England

An archaeologist accidentally came across the fossil that was preserved for 166 million years

An artist’s reconstruction of Ignacius dawsonae surviving in the warm but dark forests of Ellesmere Island

Primate-Like Critters Survived in the Arctic When It Was a Lush, Warm Swamp

Even as darkness gripped the forests for months, two small species made it home

Tyrannosaur fossils show the animals squared off and bit each other in the face.

Busted and Broken Fossils Show How Dinosaurs Fought

From locking horns to biting each other in the face, this is how dinos of the same species battled

The flower measures roughly an inch across and is at least three times larger than all other known amber-encased blossoms.

See the Largest Known Flower Preserved in Amber

Aided by modern technology, researchers discovered the prehistoric blossom was a case of mistaken identity

The small mammal's foot in the fossil of the microraptor.

This 120-Million-Year-Old Dinosaur Fossil Had a Mammal Hiding in Its Stomach

The finding represents only the second recorded instance of a dinosaur consuming a mammal

A reconstruction of adult and newly born Triassic ichthyosaurs Shonisaurus

Paleontologists May Have Solved the Mystery Behind a Prehistoric Reptile Graveyard

Ichthyosaur mothers likely migrated to the site to give birth

The year was filled with major discoveries about a number of species.

The Top Ten Dinosaur Discoveries of 2022

From scientists uncovering the first dinosaur built to swim to finding a new species that looked a lot like T. rex, these were the year's biggest stories

The skull of an elasmosaur found in Queensland, Australia

In Rare Find, Scientists Unearth Fossil of Large Marine Reptile With Both Head and Body

Skeletons of elasmosaurs are often found without their skull

A cast of Patagotitan mayorum's skull

This 122-Foot-Long Dinosaur Will Barely Fit in London's Natural History Museum

The replica titanosaur, based on fossils discovered in 2012, goes on view in March

Artist’s reconstruction of Janavis finalidens

How a 67-Million-Year-Old Fossil Turned the Theory of Bird Evolution Upside-Down

A skull bone suggests prehistoric birds could move their upper beaks, much like most modern birds

Natovenator likely swam to catch small prey.

World’s First Swimming Dinosaur Discovered in Mongolia

Natovenator was a streamlined hunter with jaws full of tiny teeth

A red-eyed treefrog hangs on to a leaf in Costa Rica.

Why Frogs Survived the Asteroid That Wiped Out the Dinosaurs

Not too big, not too small—they were just the right size to live through Earth’s worst day

Visitors look at Shen, displayed at the Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall in Singapore earlier this year.

Christie's Calls Off T. Rex Auction Expected to Fetch $25 Million

The auction house cited a need for "further study" after experts noted similarities to another T. rex skeleton

Paleontologists discovered the skull in the Hell Creek Formation of South Dakota.

T. Rex Skull Named Maximus Could Sell for $20 Million

The bones belonged to a dinosaur that lived some 76 million years ago

A mouse lemur grasps onto a tree branch in Madagascar. Scientists looked to characteristics in such modern primates to form a hypothesis about how primates behaved after an asteroid wiped out non-avian dinosaurs.

Soon After Dinosaur Decimation, Our Primate Ancestors Began Pouncing on Prey

Nails helped them climb trees quietly, and forward-facing eyes helped with depth perception to aid in precise leaping

Yale cast (top) and Berlin cast (bottom)

Scientists Find Plaster Copies of Fossil Destroyed by Nazis

Two casts of the first complete ichthyosaur skeleton ever unearthed were hidden in museum collections in Berlin and Connecticut

An artistic rendering of a multituberculate mother with her litter of offspring.

Just Like Us, Jurassic Mammals Cared for Their Young

Clues from bones reveal multituberculates looked after their offspring for lengthy periods during the Age of Dinosaurs

Deinocheirus walks across a landscape dotted with ponds. Fossils found recently in eastern North America provide evidence that similar dinosaurs lived on our continent.

Giant Ostrich-Like Dinosaurs Once Roamed North America

Rare finds in Mississippi paint a picture of these creatures’ lost world

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