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fossils

Ancient mass extinction may have driven millipedes to eat meat

Life

Ancient mass extinction may have driven millipedes to eat meat

The mass extinction at the end of the Permian Period wiped out many plants. Fossils of millipedes from that era have been found alongside carcasses of mammal ancestors, suggesting that mass plant die-off may have driven them to be carnivorous

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Life

Broad-nosed ancient shark was one of earliest fish to smell in stereo

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Life

Oldest ichthyosaur fossil hints they evolved before mass extinction

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Caption: New fossils of Protomelission from the Xiaoshiba biota, showing attachment of the alga to a brachiopod shell. Credit: Zhang Xiguang

Life

Fossil thought to be earliest bryozoan animal may actually be seaweed

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This is an artistic reconstruction of the Guiyang Biota. Guiyang Biota represents the oldest known Mesozoic lagerst?tte found so far. Guiyang Biota represents one of the earliest complete marine ecosystems after the great dying in Earth history. Guiyang Biota contains representatives of all trophic levels, especially abundant fish and decapod fossils, including about 1 m length coelacanths, and the earliest occurrences of lobsters and shrimps, extending the earliest record forward by 1.5 million years.

Life

Sea life recovered from Permian mass extinction faster than we thought

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Trilobite

Life

Trilobites used trident-like horns to fight over mates like stags

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Fossil flower trapped in Baltic amber

Life

Largest flower found in amber was frozen in time millions of years ago

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A view of one part of the Paleontology collection in the Musuem of Natural History, arranged by the addition of representative specimens from other parts of the three floors of fossils in the East Wing.

Humans

Remnants of Ancient Life review: Explore the palaeobiology revolution

Culture

Ichthyosaur

Life

Largest ever animal may have been Triassic ichthyosaur super-predator

Features

Artist’s reconstruction of Janavis finalidens, a very large marine bird from the late Cretaceous

Life

Ancient bird with a movable beak rewrites the story of avian evolution

A skull bone from 67 million years ago reveals that ancestors of modern birds had jointed beaks, not immobile ones as biologists have long thought

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Life

Oldest army ant found in 35-million-year-old Baltic amber

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Life

Gigantic turtle from the dinosaur era was almost 4 metres long

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Life

How flowering plants beat bloom-free gymnosperms to world dominance

Features

Life

Fossil shows what lizards' ancestors looked like 167 million years ago

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