Archaeology

Luck has played a big part in many of the world's great fossil discoveries. New models predict where the bones are and put serendipity in the backseat

New technique helps paleontologists narrow their search for ancient bones

English mud captures an ancestral stroll

Kids searching for fossils using SharkFinder kits at Scientific American’s booth at the USA Science & Engineering Festival. Credit: Jason Osborne Jason Osborne was trying to grab a quick lunch away from the crowds when his wife called his cellphone.

Sometimes you never know where your work will end up. Take this figure depicting the evolution of whales that I created for Jerry Coyne’s book, Why Evolution is True.

Relying on evidence from Southwestern deserts, a biologist debunks an evolutionary theory that assumes continental sterility for Precambrian life

There have never been enough amphisbaenians on Tet Zoo. In fact, the only time I've written about them at any sort of length is in the 2008 (and 2012) April Fool's article wherein they were convincingly (cough) shown to be the true ancestors of mammals.

A contract from A.D. 267, the first of its kind ever found, details an agreement between the backers of two teen wrestlers in the finals of an important regional competition

Analysis of a 325 million-year-old fossil suggests that modern sharks have evolved extensively, rather than remaining unchanged since prehistoric times

The arsenic was within the mummy's hair, showing that Chileans dating back to 1,000 to 1,500 years ago likely drank arsenic-contaminated water

Testing of a scrap of papyrus, which bears words suggesting that Jesus had a wife, points to the document's authenticity