Field crews in Wyoming uncovered not one but four snake fossils so intact that their skulls, ribs, and tails lay in ...

Scientists dated a Scottish fossil, Westlothiana, to 346 million years ago, revealing its role in early land animal evolution ...

The researchers analyzed rare fossils of hatchling birds found in northern Alaska, which offered the earliest evidence of the ...

For over a century, scientists have wrestled with one of biology’s most fundamental mysteries: how the first animals evolved.

The Chicago Archaeopteryx provides rare 3D insights into skull evolution, soft tissue structure, and the first evidence of ...

The fossils of ancient salamander-like creatures in Scotland are among the most well-preserved examples of early stem tetrapods -- some of the first animals to make the transition from water to land.

In fossils, the structures provide telltale signs of early sponges, but keratosan sponges lack these rigid skeletons. Instead, they get their squishy structure from networks of the protein spongin ...

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.” So goes the famous dictum of Sherlock Holmes, echoed by paleobotanist C. Kevin Boyce in summarizing ...

Animal life, emerging nearly 600 million years ago, showcases incredible diversity and unique traits. Unlike plants, animals ...

Fossilized footprints of a primitive reptile found on a slab of rock from Australia could rewrite the story of how animals ...

A team of researchers has found what could be the earliest known bilaterian creature, offering a rare glimpse into life over 555 million years ago. This small wormlike fossil, Ikaria wariootia ...

The oldest bat skeletons in the world have been identified as a new species, helping scientists fill in the spotty fossil record of these flying mammals and providing new clues about how they evolved.