Fossils & Ruins News
July 2, 2025
Top Headlines
June 3, 2025 — Collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet could be triggered with very little ocean warming above present-day, leading to a devastating four meters of global sea level rise to play out over hundreds ...
June 3, 2025 — A new study has finally confirmed the theory that the cause of extraordinary global tremors in September -- October 2023 was indeed two mega tsunamis in Greenland that became trapped standing waves. Using a brand-new type of satellite altimetry, the ...
June 2, 2025 — New research adds to our understanding of how rapidly rising sea levels due to climate change foreshadow the end of the Great Barrier Reef as we know it. The findings suggest the reef can withstand rising sea levels in isolation but is vulnerable to ...
June 2, 2025 — Researchers have recreated the world's oldest synthetic pigment, called Egyptian blue, which was used in ancient Egypt about 5,000 years ...
May 30, 2025 — A new species of velvet worm, Peripatopsis barnardi, represents the first ever species from the arid Karoo, which indicates that the area was likely historically more forested than at present. In the Cape Fold Mountains, we now know that every ...
May 30, 2025 — A new method could soon unlock the vast repository of biological information held in the proteins of ancient soft tissues. The findings could open up a new era for palaeobiological ...
May 29, 2025 — New techniques used to analyze soft tissue in dinosaur fossils may hold the key to new cancer discoveries. Researchers have analyzed dinosaur fossils using advanced paleoproteomic techniques, a method that holds promise for uncovering molecular data ...
May 29, 2025 — 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. Thanks to new research, scientists believe that ...
May 29, 2025 — Anthropologists have examined the societal consequences of global glacier loss. This article appears alongside new research that estimates that more than three-quarters of the world's glacier mass could disappear by the end of the century under ...
May 29, 2025 — Long considered a disease brought to the Americas by European colonizers, leprosy may actually have a much older history on the American continent. Scientists reveal that a recently identified second species of bacteria responsible for leprosy, ...
May 29, 2025 — Spring in the Arctic brings forth a plethora of peeps and downy hatchlings as millions of birds gather to raise their young. The same was true 73 million years ago, according to a new article. The paper documents the earliest-known example of birds ...
May 29, 2025 — Replanting forests can help cool the planet even more than some scientists once believed, especially in the tropics. But even if every tree lost since the mid-19th century is replanted, the total effect won't cancel out human-generated ...
Latest Headlines
updated 9:45am EDT
June 29, 2025 — Footprints found in the ancient lakebeds of White Sands may prove that humans lived in North America 23,000 years ago — much earlier than previously believed. A new study using radiocarbon-dated ...
June 27, 2025 — A groundbreaking study suggests that the famous Cambrian explosion—the dramatic burst of diverse animal life—might have actually started millions ...
June 26, 2025 — New research reveals why early human attempts to leave Africa repeatedly failed—until one group succeeded spectacularly around 50,000 years ago. Scientists discovered that before this successful ...
June 26, 2025 — Farming didn t emerge in the Andes due to crisis or scarcity it was a savvy and resilient evolution. Ancient diets remained stable for millennia, ...
June 26, 2025 — Experiments and simulations show Paleolithic paddlers could outwit the powerful Kuroshio Current by launching dugout canoes from northern Taiwan and ...
June 25, 2025 — The shift from lizard-like sprawl to upright walking in mammals wasn’t a smooth climb up the evolutionary ladder. Instead, it was a messy saga full of unexpected detours. Using new bone-mapping ...
June 23, 2025 — DNA from a skull found at Newgrange once sparked theories of a royal incestuous elite in ancient Ireland, but new research reveals no signs of such a ...
June 17, 2025 — A massive, extinct salamander with jaws like a vice once roamed ancient Tennessee and its fossil has just rewritten what we thought we knew about Appalachian amphibians. Named Dynamognathus ...
June 13, 2025 — Despite Earth's most devastating mass extinction wiping out over 80% of marine life and half of land species, a group of early reptiles called archosauromorphs not only survived but thrived, ...
June 10, 2025 — A prehistoric digestive time capsule has been unearthed in Australia: plant fossils found inside a sauropod dinosaur offer the first definitive ...
Earlier Headlines
June 10, 2025 — Neanderthals may have trekked thousands of miles across Eurasia much faster than we ever imagined. New computer simulations suggest they used river valleys like natural highways to cross daunting ...
June 9, 2025 — In a bold reimagining of Southeast Asia s prehistory, scientists reveal that the Philippine island of Mindoro was a hub of human innovation and migration as far back as 35,000 years ago. Advanced ...
June 8, 2025 — In a paper published in National Science Review, a Chinese team of scientists highlights the discovery of well-preserved blue-stain fungal hyphae within a Jurassic fossil wood from northeastern ...
June 7, 2025 — In the dense forests of Michigan s Upper Peninsula, archaeologists have uncovered a massive ancient agricultural system that rewrites what we thought we knew about Native American farming. Dating ...
June 6, 2025 — Bronze Age life changed radically around 1500 BC in Central Europe. New research reveals diets narrowed, millet was introduced, migration slowed, and social systems became looser challenging old ...
May 29, 2025 — A new study reveals that the aerobic nitrogen cycle in the ocean may have occurred about 100 million years before oxygen began to significantly accumulate in the atmosphere, based on nitrogen isotope ...
May 28, 2025 — New research brings together 7,000 years of history in South Arabia to show how ancient pastoralists changed placement and construction of monuments over time in the face of environmental and ...
May 28, 2025 — Researchers compared the whole genome sequence of two genetically distinct lineages of bed bug, and their findings indicate bed bugs may well be the first true urban ...
May 28, 2025 — Palaeontologists have analyzed the most complete stegosaurian skull ever found in Europe and rewritten the evolutionary history of this iconic group of ...
May 28, 2025 — Chemists have demonstrated how RNA (ribonucleic acid) might have replicated itself on early Earth -- a key process in the origin of ...
May 27, 2025 — Humans were making tools from whale bones as far back as 20,000 years ago, according to a new study. This discovery broadens our understanding of early human use of whale remains and offers valuable ...
May 26, 2025 — Contrary to widespread assumptions, the largest shark that ever lived -- Otodus megalodon -- fed on marine creatures at various levels of the food pyramid and not just the top. Scientists analyzed ...
May 26, 2025 — A gene that regulates the development of roots in vascular plants is also involved in the organ development of liverworts -- land plants so old they don't even have proper roots. The discovery ...
May 23, 2025 — A group of fossils of elasmosaurs -- some of the most famous in North America -- have just been formally identified as belonging to a 'very odd' new genus of the sea monster, unlike any ...
May 23, 2025 — A new study uses metabolic profiling to uncover ancient knowledge systems behind therapeutic and psychoactive plant use in ancient ...
May 23, 2025 — Cold-adapted animals started to evolve 2.6 million years ago when the permanent ice at the poles became more prevalent. There followed a time when the continental ice sheets expanded and contracted ...
May 22, 2025 — Researchers have analyzed ancient DNA from Borrelia recurrentis, a type of bacteria that causes relapsing fever, pinpointing when it evolved to spread through lice rather than ticks, and how it ...
May 22, 2025 — Scientists have analyzed ancient DNA and compared more than 400 fossils from 17 natural history museums to figure out how and why extinct sloths got so ...
June 26, 2025 — Deep beneath our feet, the Earth holds a hidden treasure trove of gold and rare metals more than 99.999% of it locked away in the planet s core. But a surprising new discovery in Hawaiian lava is ...
May 22, 2025 — A new study proves that a type of genetic element called 'introners' are the mechanism by which many introns spread within and between species, also providing evidence of eight instances in ...
Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Monday, June 9, 2025
Sunday, June 8, 2025
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Friday, June 6, 2025
Thursday, May 29, 2025
Wednesday, May 28, 2025
- A Sweeping Study of 7,000 Years of Monuments in South Arabia
- Bed Bugs Are Most Likely the First Human Pest, New Research Shows
- Europe's Most Complete Stegosaurian Skull Unearthed in Teruel, Spain
- Chemists Recreate How RNA Might Have Reproduced for First Time
Tuesday, May 27, 2025
Monday, May 26, 2025
- Megalodon: The Broad Diet of the Megatooth Shark
- A Root Development Gene That's Older Than Root Development
Friday, May 23, 2025
- Mystery of 'very Odd' Elasmosaur Finally Solved: Fiercely Predatory Marine Reptile Is New Species
- Earliest Use of Psychoactive and Medicinal Plant 'harmal' Identified in Iron Age Arabia
- Different Phases of Evolution During Ice Age
Thursday, May 22, 2025
- Ancient DNA Used to Map Evolution of Fever-Causing Bacteria
- Scientists Have Figured out How Extinct Giant Ground Sloths Got So Big and Where It All Went Wrong
Thursday, June 26, 2025
Thursday, May 22, 2025
- 'Selfish' Genes Called Introners Proven to Be a Major Source of Genetic Complexity
- Climate Change Poses Severe Threat to Bowhead Whale Habitat
Wednesday, May 21, 2025
- Enormous Boulder Washed Inland a Sign of Pacific Tsunami History
- Toothache from Eating Something Cold? Blame These Ancient Fish
Tuesday, May 20, 2025
- On the Origin (and Fate) of Plants That Never Bloom
- Asian Elephants Have Larger Brains Than Their African Relatives
- 'Sharkitecture:' A Nanoscale Look Inside a Blacktip Shark's Skeleton
- Research Team Traces Evolutionary History of Bacterial Circadian Clock on Ancient Earth
Monday, May 19, 2025
Friday, May 16, 2025
- Ancient Ocean Sediments Link Changes in Currents to Cooling of Northern Hemisphere 3.6 Million Years Ago
- Light-to-Electricity Nanodevice Reveals How Earth's Oldest Surviving Cyanobacteria Worked
- Very Different Mammals Follow the Same Rules of Behavior
Thursday, May 15, 2025
- Asians Made Humanity's Longest Prehistoric Migration and Shaped the Genetic Landscape in the Americas
- Scientists Use Fossils to Assess the Health of Florida's Largest Remaining Seagrass Bed: Surprisingly, It's Doing Well!
- Digital Reconstruction Reveals 80 Steps of Prehistoric Life
Wednesday, May 14, 2025
- Tiny Gas Bubbles Reveal Secrets of Hawaiian Volcanoes
- Dexterity and Climbing Ability: How Ancient Human Relatives Used Their Hands
- Fossil Tracks Show Reptiles Appeared on Earth Up to 40 Million Years Earlier
- Europe's Forest Plants Thrive Best in Light-Rich, Semi-Open Woodlands -- Kept Open by Large Herbivores
- Australia's Oldest Prehistoric Tree Frog Hops 22 Million Years Back in Time
- UV Light and CT Scans Helped Scientists Unlock Hidden Details in a Beautifully-Preserved Fossil Archaeopteryx
Tuesday, May 13, 2025
- CT Scanning Helps Reveal Path from Rotten Fish to Fossil
- Palaeontologists Discover 506-Million-Year-Old Predator
Monday, May 12, 2025
- From Prehistoric Resident to Runaway Pet: First Tegu Fossil Found in the U.S.
- Vast Aztec Trade Networks Behind Ancient Obsidian Artifacts
Friday, May 9, 2025
- First Fossil Evidence of Endangered Tropical Tree Discovered
- Researchers Map 7,000-Year-Old Genetic Mutation That Protects Against HIV
- New Ancient Fish Species Earliest Known Salmon Ancestor
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
- Triassic Fossil Reveals Nature's Best Jaw for Hunting Fast Fish
- Comb Jellies Reveal Ancient Origins of Animal Genome Regulation
Tuesday, May 6, 2025
- T. Rex's Direct Ancestor Crossed from Asia to North America
- New Drone-Assisted 3D Model Offers a More Accurate Way to Date Dinosaur Fossils
- Slickrock: Geologists Explore Why Utah's Wasatch Fault Is Vulnerable to Earthquakes
Monday, May 5, 2025
- Western US Spring Runoff Is Older Than You Think
- Ancient Andes Society Used Hallucinogens to Strengthen Social Order
- A Fully Automated Tool for Species Tree Inference
- Genomic Survey Uncovers Evolutionary Origins of Secretoglobins
Friday, May 2, 2025
Thursday, May 1, 2025
- Why Did Some Ancient Animals Fossilize While Others Vanished?
- Ptero Firma: Footprints Pinpoint When Ancient Flying Reptiles Conquered the Ground
Wednesday, April 30, 2025
- Geobiology: Iron, Sulfur, Heat -- And First Life
- Landmark Experiment Sheds New Light on the Origins of Consciousness
- One of Earth's Ancient Volcanic Mysteries Solved
Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Monday, April 28, 2025
- Elephant Instead of Wild Boar? What Could Have Been in Europe
- Anatomy of a 'zombie' Volcano: Investigating the Cause of Unrest Inside Uturuncu
- 'Extremely Rare Event': Bone Analysis Suggests Ancient Echidnas Lived in Water
Thursday, April 24, 2025
Wednesday, April 23, 2025
- Skeletal Evidence of Roman Gladiator Bitten by Lion in Combat
- What Rattlesnake Venom Can Teach Us About Evolution: New USF Study
- Melting Glaciers at the End of the Ice Age May Have Sped Up Continental Drift, Fueled Volcanic Eruptions
- Phoenician Culture Spread Mainly Through Cultural Exchange
Monday, April 21, 2025
Friday, April 18, 2025
- Unlocking the Genetic Basis of Adaptive Evolution: Study Reveals Complex Chromosomal Rearrangements in a Stick Insect
- Environmental Variability Promotes the Evolution of Cooperation Among Humans: A Simulation-Based Analysis
Monday, April 21, 2025
Thursday, April 17, 2025
Wednesday, April 16, 2025
- Sunscreen, Clothes and Caves May Have Helped Homo Sapiens Survive 41,000 Years Ago
- Secret to Crocodylian Longevity
- Inside Yellowstone's Fiery Heart: Researchers Map Volatile-Rich Cap, Offering Clues to Future Volcanic Activity
Monday, April 14, 2025
- Physics Reveals the Optimal Roof Ratios for Energy Efficiency
- Archaeologists Compared the Size of 50,000 Ancient Houses to Learn About History of Inequality, They Found That It's Not Inevitable
- Wealth Inequality's Deep Roots in Human Prehistory
- Pioneering Research Reveals Arctic Matter Pathways Poised for Major Shifts Amidst Climate Change
- Scientists May Have Solved a Puzzling Space Rock Mystery
- Sophisticated Pyrotechnology in the Ice Age: This Is How Humans Made Fire Tens of Thousands of Years Ago
- Footprints of Tail-Clubbed Armored Dinosaurs Found for the First Time
- Deep-Sea Mining Risks Leads Study to Urge Shift to Circular Solutions
Friday, April 11, 2025
Wednesday, April 9, 2025
- Ancient Tools from a South African Cave Reveal Connections Between Prehistoric People
- Sink or Swim: The Fate of Sinking Tectonic Plates Depends on Their Ancient Tectonic Histories
- Prehistoric Rhinos Lived in Super-Herds
- Mediterranean Hunter Gatherers Navigated Long-Distance Sea Journeys Well Before the First Farmers
- Mammoth Genetic Diversity Throughout the Last Million Years
- 8 Million Years of 'Green Arabia'
Tuesday, April 8, 2025
- Ancient Fossil Sheds Big Light on Evolution Mystery: Solving a 100-Year Arthropod Mystery
- Life Recovered Rapidly at Site of Dino-Killing Asteroid: A Hydrothermal System May Have Helped
- In Guatemala, Painted Altar Found at Tikal Adds New Context to Mysterious Maya History
- Dinosaurs' Apparent Decline Prior to Asteroid May Be Due to Poor Fossil Record