A Treasure Trove of Dinosaur Bones in Italy Rewrites the Local Prehistoric Record

Emily Schwing: This is Scientific American’s 60 Second Science. I’m Emily Schwing. When he was little, Alessandro Chiarenza’s grandmother used to read him bedtime stories about dinosaurs and she would always tell him the same thing.  Alessandro Chiarenza: Oh you know, but these things were not living here. They were living in like America and in … Read more

T. Rex May Have Actually Been 3 Species, According to a Close Look at The Bones

A towering colossus and predatory beast, the comically tiny-armed Tyrannosaurus rex is perhaps the most iconic of all prehistoric predators. Its place in the popular imagination is mirrored in academia, with researchers investigating everything from how it walked, to how it mated, to how many there even were.   Despite abundant research into the genus Tyrannosaurus, all adult … Read more

Gruesome Skull Discovery Contains The Earliest Evidence of Ear Surgery

An ancient skull uncovered at a 6,000-year-old megalithic monument in Spain still holds signs of what would have been a brutal ear surgery. Archaeologists suspect the patient probably had a double-sided acute middle ear infection, which can cause earaches and fevers.    Without treatment, fluid can gather behind the eardrum, possibly causing a visible lump … Read more

Scientists Unearth The Ancient Bones of The Largest Jurassic Pterosaur Ever Found

During low tide on Scotland’s Isle of Skye, a graduate student hunting for dinosaur bones looked down at the coastal rocks and made the discovery of a lifetime: the remains of the largest pterosaur on record from the Jurassic period.   Since collecting the specimen in 2017 – an eventful excavation that involved cutting out … Read more

Massive ‘Killer’ Croc Discovered With The Remains of a Dinosaur in Its Stomach

About 95 million years ago in what is now Australia, a massive crocodile relative clamped down with its powerful jaws on the small body of a dinosaur and gulped nearly all of it down in one mighty swallow.   The crocodilian died soon after, and as it fossilized, so did the partly-digested and near-complete dinosaur … Read more

A Fetus Was Preserved Within an Egyptian Mummy Because It ‘Pickled’, Scientists Say

Last year, archaeologists presented an incredible first: the discovery of a mummified fetus within the abdomen of its mummified ancient Egyptian mother. Who the woman was, and how she died just over 2,000 years ago are both still mysteries – hence she is known as the Mysterious Lady. But now we know how the fetus … Read more

These Ancient ‘War Donkeys’ Were Likely The 1st Human-Bred Hybrid Animals

Mesopotamians were using hybrids of domesticated donkeys and wild asses to pull their war wagons 4,500 years ago – at least 500 years before horses were bred for the purpose, a new study reveals.   The analysis of ancient DNA from animal bones unearthed in northern Syria resolves a long-standing question of just what type of animals … Read more

Archeology: Hybrid animal in 4500-year-old tomb is earliest known bred by humans

Early Bronze Age people in Syria crossed donkeys with wild asses to make prized horse-like hybrids, demonstrating advanced understanding of animal breeding Life 14 January 2022 By Alice Klein Equid skeletons from Tell Umm el-Marra, Syria Glenn Schwartz/John Hopkins University The bones of horse-like creatures unearthed in a 4500-year-old royal tomb in Syria are the … Read more

Don’t Forget The Time Scientists Grew ‘Dinosaur Legs’ on a Chicken

Until recently, one of the biggest myths in science was that all dinosaurs have been extinct for the past 65 million years. But thanks to new fossil discoveries that filled in our knowledge about avian dinosaurs, we now know that only some dinosaurs went extinct following an asteroid collision with Earth – others survived and gave … Read more

Dinosaur discovery: 70 million-year-old embryo found exquisitely preserved inside its egg

A 70 million-year-old oviraptorosaur egg that had been forgotten in a Chinese museum storeroom contains the most well-preserved dinosaur embryo ever discovered Life 21 December 2021 By Alice Klein The fossilised oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo curled up in its egg Xing et al., 2021 A fossilised dinosaur embryo discovered in southern China may be the most … Read more