paleontology

Scientists have identified an aggressive bone cancer — for the first time — in the fibula of a dinosaur that lived 76 to 77 million years ago. The diagnosis sheds new light on dinosaurs and disease.

A new study of dinosaur eggs, as well as a football-size egg from Antarctica, shows how some ancient creatures relied on soft shells rather than hard ones.

A new analysis of what were initially thought to be microbial fossils in Greenland suggests they might instead just be mineral structures created when ancient tectonic forces squeezed stone.

Scientists have discovered the proboscis butterflies use to suck nectar from flowers existed before flowers did. So: What were ancient butterflies using their long, tongue-like suckers for?

Even after a Harvard team took into account differences in age and weight among ancient specimens and knees today, they found that modern humans tend to have more osteoarthritis.

They were ugly. And, unfortunately, they were not equipped with an anus. But the sand dwellers could be an important part of filling in our own early evolutionary tree.