268 Items Tagged

Fossils

Each cave’s beautiful decoration can tell us something about the world that came before us.

How to Decode a Cave

Below California’s surface lies a series of caves that can teach us a lot about our natural world—and its history.

Sponsored by Visit California

This Arctic Ichthyosaur Should Not Exist

A marine reptile fossil from Svalbard challenges ideas about evolution and Earth’s greatest mass extinction.

Gemma Tarlach March 21, 2023

The vast expansive dunes with the mother mountain source on the horizon

Cuatrociénegas, Mexico

Dunas de Yeso

These gleaming gypsum sand dunes are the second-largest in North America.

Skull and vertebrae of the mosasaurid Yaguarasaurus columbianus

Bogotá, Colombia

Museo Geológico Nacional José Royo y Gómez

A small museum filled with unique fossil finds, including one of the oldest specimens of ground sloths found in Colombia.

Wonder Is Everywhere: Civil War Gold, a New Moai, and More From Around the Web

Get a peek into what we’re obsessed with right now.

April White March 1, 2023

Iowa’s Ancient Apex Predator Was the ‘T. rex’ of Its Day

The monstrous menace known as Whatcheeria hints that our distant ancestors may have been more like us than we thought.

Gemma Tarlach December 2, 2022

Lamar, Colorado

Petrified Wood Building

Once named the “world’s oldest gas station” due to its unusual construction material.

Podcast: Fluorescent Rocks of Sterling Hill

A light show, courtesy of a historic New Jersey mine.

The Podcast Team November 30, 2022

A ‘Weird’ Ancient Marine Reptile Surfaces Thanks to the ‘Bone Biddies’

The unique plesiosaur defies the fossil rulebook—just ask the “paleogrannies” who prepared it for study.

Gemma Tarlach September 28, 2022

Supersize this guy by about 400 pounds, and you get some idea of the prehistoric <em>Enhydriodon omoensis</em>.

In Prehistoric Ethiopia, Otters Were as Big as Lions

But they didn’t eat our ancestors—probably.

Sarah Durn September 21, 2022

Male and female mastodon skeletons with footprints behind them.

Ann Arbor, Michigan

Longest Known Mastodon Trackway

See prehistoric footprints, plus two complete mastodon skeletons.

This eye-catching Finsch's Imperial pigeon has a wingspan of about two feet—the biggest birds ever to fly were more than 12 times its size.

What's the Biggest Bird in the World?

From a flightless giant heavier than a polar bear to a super-glider with a 24-foot wingspan, avians ancient and modern compete for the crown.

Jackie Mead July 19, 2022

<em>Meraxes gigas</em>, a large dinosaur recently discovered in Argentina, was dangerous to know. Despite the tiny arms, it was not related to <em>T. rex</em>.

Behold Meraxes, Argentina’s Ancient ‘Giant Dragon’

With a ‘Swiss Army knife’ head, tiny arms, and no relation to T. rex, a new dino find is providing intriguing evolutionary insights.

Gemma Tarlach July 7, 2022

In Egypt's ‘Land of Death,’ Dinosaurs Were Supersized—and Hungry

Fossils unearthed in the Bahariya Oasis tell a story of giant predators hunting on land and in the water.

Abe Musselman July 5, 2022

The well-preserved remains of Fred, also known as the Buesching Mastodon, were found in 1998 near Fort Wayne, Indiana.

The Intriguing Life, Death, and Afterlife of an Indiana Mastodon

Scientists have pieced together a detailed biography—including a search for love and a violent end.

Gemma Tarlach June 14, 2022

A Road Trip Into Colorado’s Prehistoric Past

From fossils to footprints to petrified trees, Colorado’s distant past awaits you at every turn.

Sponsored by Visit Colorado

Overlook of Little Jerusalem

Little Jerusalem Badlands

Once an ancient sea, this landscape of rocky ravines is filled with the fossils of ancient marine life.

Blasdell, New York

Penn Dixie Fossil Park

More than 350 million years ago, western New York was covered in a vast sea. Today, you can dig up the remains of the plants and animals that lived there.