Paleontology

An enigmatic group of fossil organisms has finally been identified—and is changing the story of how plants took root on land

A machine-learning breakthrough could lift the veil on Earth’s early history—and supercharge the search for alien life

RNA has been extracted from an ancient woolly mammoth, providing insight into its last moments on Earth

An analysis suggests Nanotyrannus is a separate, smaller dinosaur that lived alongside T. rex, settling a 30-year debate

Wyoming’s “dinosaur mummies,” once thought to preserve fossilized flesh, are actually detailed clay molds formed by microbes as the creatures decayed

A newly discovered dinosaur species has been identified from a fossil unearthed in Mongolia that represents the most complete pachycephalosaur specimen yet found

Genetic-sequencing techniques have identified microorganisms that lived in the mouths of ancient mammoths

About 150 million years ago storm winds snapped bones in the wings of baby pterosaurs, sending them tumbling to their deaths in a muddy lagoon in what is now Germany

Molecules from the 20-million-year-old teeth of a rhino relative are among the oldest ever sequenced, opening tantalizing possibilities to scientists

By physically engineering their environments, megafauna such as dinosaurs curbed fruit seed sizes—a role that now may be filled by humans

Fossilized claw tracks discovered in Australia show that the animal group that includes reptiles, mammals and birds formed earlier than expected

Studies of the horns, spikes, plates and clubs of dinosaurs could help settle a long-standing debate over their function