ケラトプスユウタ (Ceratops yuta) via Twitter When heavy equipment operator Shawn Funk clocked in at the Suncor Millennium Mine in Canada on March 21, 2011, he probably expected an ordinary day full of construction work. Little did he know that he'd stumble upon one of the most amazing paleontological discoveries in history: a "mummified" ...
December 29, 2020 | 2 mins read
HuffPost When we think of woolly mammoths, we tend to imagine them going extinct during the age of early human hunter-gatherers. It may come as a surprise, then, that quite a few of these hairy quadrupeds were still around when ancient civilizations were accomplishing amazing feats with steadily advancing technology. ...
December 12, 2020 | 2 mins read
Javier Trueba/Madrid Scientific Films No one could have expected that a skull fragment from a Spanish cave would unearth a 430,000-year-old cold case—one that's said to be the earliest known homicide to date. Discovered in Sima de los Huesos ("pit of the bones") in the Atapuerca Mountains, the ...
December 3, 2020 | 2 mins read
Nature For some, the topic of family may be a complicated subject to deal with. In a way, the same goes for archaeologists. Said complications often come with a ton of excitement, though, especially when they involve new discoveries. As it turns out, humanity has another ancient, distant cousin to ...
September 18, 2020 | 3 mins read
•Hanggang ngayon ay wala pa ring natatagpuang dinosaur sa Pilipinas—at malabong mangyari ito. •Ito'y sapagkat ang arkipelago ng Pilipinas ay nabuo lamang 5 milyong taon matapos malipol ang mga dinosaur. •Sa kabilang banda, maraming ibang prehistorikong hayop na nabuhay sa Pilipinas noong panahon ng Pleistocene. (Na-update noong ika-6 ng Mayo, 2020) ...
May 5, 2020 | 3 mins read
Inhabiting the planet millions of years before we even showed up, the dinosaurs enjoyed millions of years of uncontested domination... until a massive extinction event wiped them out. Our knowledge of dinosaurs has come a long way since 1824, when the first non-avian dinosaur, Megalosaurus, was officially named. However, there's still ...
September 5, 2019 | 2 mins read
There's just something about dinosaurs that never fails to fascinate kids (and kids at heart). Sadly, they all went extinct 66 million years ago, and cloning them a la Jurassic Park isn't really an option. Basically, the odds of seeing any living, breathing specimens of these majestic creatures would lie somewhere ...
August 15, 2019 | 2 mins read
•A newly named dinosaur, Suskityrannus hazelae, was only slightly longer than a full-grown Tyrannosaurus rex's skull, and smaller than an adult Bengal tiger. •The tiny theropod was discovered in New Mexico, dating back to about 92 million years ago. •Amazingly, S. hazelae's bones remained unidentified for more than 20 years. Mention the ...
May 7, 2019 | 2 mins read
•A new exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History showcases the most updated information we have on Tyrannosaurus rex. •According to existing data, T. rex's young were turkey-sized and covered in feathers. •Interestingly, the longstanding myth that T. rex's arms were useless may not be true, after all. The ...
March 7, 2019 | 2 mins read
•The Permian-Triassic extinction event, also known as the Great Dying, took place 252 million years ago. •Experts say that rising global temperatures due to volcanic activity wiped out nearly all of the species on the planet. •Increased human activity has brought about another extinction event--one that is still going on. Mention ...
February 25, 2019 | 3 mins read
•While it's no mystery that many dinosaurs had feathers, we're still not sure when and how they evolved to fly. •A newly published study reveals changes in the proteins in their feathers (called keratins), making them lighter and more suitable for flight. •Researchers determined this by comparing some well-preserved feathers ...
January 30, 2019 | 2 mins read
• 250 million years ago, the platypus-looking Eretmorhipis carrolldongi swam in the waters of China. • It had a comically undersized head with small eyes, and grew up to a little over two feet in length. • Prior to this discovery, partial Eretmorphis fossils did not include its head. Picture an ordinary-looking platypus (which ...
January 25, 2019 | 2 mins read
• A newly named shark, Galagadon nordquistae, possessed teeth that resemble spaceships from the 1981 video game Galaga. • The prehistoric predator lived in the Cretaceous period, and measured about 12 to 18 inches in length. • The shark's tiny teeth were discovered in the same sediment where "Sue" the Tyrannosaurus rex was unearthed. Due to ...
January 22, 2019 | 2 mins read
• Discovered by an amateur paleontologist in 1996, Saltriovenator zanellai is the first Jurassic-era dinosaur from Italy. • The circumstances of its death were also remarkable -- it's one of the few dinosaurs whose remains show evidence of consumption by marine scavengers. • This large predator also provides a vital clue in the mystery ...
December 21, 2018 | 3 mins read
• New analysis of Elasmotherium sibiricum, an extinct species of single-horned Eurasian rhinoceros, reveals that the hair-covered "Siberian unicorns" lived alongside ancient humans up until 35,000 to 39,000 years ago. • Research also suggests that they went extinct not because of human activity, but due to drastic climate change. (Updated on June 21, 2020) When we ...
November 29, 2018 | 2 mins read
Meet humanity's distant relative Gordodon kraineri, a sail-backed, dinosaur-like reptile that lived in the Permian era. This mammalian cousin, whose name took inspiration from its teeth, is the oldest vegetarian tetrapod in the fossil record. One look at Gordodon kraineri would probably conjure up a mental image of the extinct ...
November 25, 2018 | 2 mins read
Named after the Marvel character, Thanos simonattoi was an Upper Cretaceous abelisaurid approximately 5.5 to 6.5 meters long. But is declaring a new species based on just partial fossils a hard choice for the strong-willed -- or a mistake akin to courting Death? Scattered across the Southern Hemisphere since the late Jurassic, ...
November 18, 2018 | 2 mins read
Fossils of the 75-million-year-old Mirarce eatoni reveal that it was as well-adapted for flight as today's birds. But why did it and the rest of the enantiornithines -- the so-called 'opposite birds' -- die out alongside the dinosaurs? Picture yourself as a paleontologist out for a quiet walk. You stumble ...
November 14, 2018 | 3 mins read
Paleontologists found fossils of Lavocatisaurus agrioensis in a place that, 110 million years ago, was likely too dry for the dinosaur to thrive in. Have you ever looked at something and wondered how it got there? Paleontologists from Spain and Argentina unearthed fossils from a long-necked dinosaur species that lived in ...
November 4, 2018 | 2 mins read
Around 500,000 to 1,000,000 years ago, a massive bird roamed the woodlands and forests of prehistoric Madagascar, unaware of the title it would eventually hold in Earth's fossil record. A new study identified Vorombe titan ("big bird" in Malagasy and Greek) as the largest bird to walk the planet. This extinct avian ...
September 30, 2018 | 2 mins read
Think craft beer is a "millennial" or new-age "hipster" thing? Science says (in ironically hipster fashion) that our Eastern Mediterranean ancestors did this way before us -- 13,000 years ago, to be precise. A prehistoric pub, perhaps? Recently published findings in the Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports reveal archaeological evidence of ...
September 23, 2018 | 2 mins read
Ever feel like you're such a terrible artist? If your sketches had been 73,000 years earlier, they could have earned a spot in the National Museum of Natural History. A recently published study in Nature revealed humanity's oldest known drawing: A Paleolithic-era rock fragment with cross-hatched lines (a "hashtag") in ochre ...
September 13, 2018 | 2 mins read
Various online publications are calling it a "Russian Jurassic Park" -- but it's actually much more than that. Russia is set to unveil plans for an advanced "paleo-genetic scientific center" located in Yakutsk, Siberia. This state-of-the-art laboratory's primary goal will be to successfully bring back the woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) ...
September 2, 2018 | 2 mins read
Nearly 15 years ago, for 10 glorious minutes, science fiction became a living, breathing reality. On July 30, 2003, scientists from France and Spain witnessed a truly historic moment in the field of genetics. Three years earlier, the last Pyrenean ibex, Celia, met her end under the weight of a fallen tree. Her cells, ...
January 6, 2018 | 3 mins read
Think horseshoe crabs are nothing more than boring, cockroach-like critters? If Vaderlimulus tricki were alive today, it would definitely find your lack of faith disturbing. Paleontologists gave this 245-million-year-old fossil horseshoe crab its undeniably awesome name due to its resemblance to the helmet of the iconic cinematic villain Darth Vader. ...
December 8, 2017 | 2 mins read
A study published in the Journal of Systematic Palaeontology sheds new light on the prehistoric origins of modern crocodiles. A recent re-examination of a marine fossil in Edinburgh revealed that an extinct group of aquatic reptiles actually evolved millions of years earlier than scientists thought. This crocodile ain't no crock ...
October 19, 2017 | 2 mins read
According to researchers from Japan, a 3.95-billion-year-old discovery in northern Labrador in Canada will "rock" prehistory to its core. The team examined the oldest known metasedimentary rocks in the area -- the Saglek Block rocks -- and found carbon atoms that they believe may contain the oldest traces of life ...
October 7, 2017 | 2 mins read
Did dinosaurs really move and behave the way they do on the silver screen? Were there ever any dinosaurs in Antarctica or the Philippines? And did the mighty Tyrannosaurus rex really look like a giant chicken? Learn the answers to these questions and more, as The Mind Museum celebrates its 5...
September 4, 2017 | 2 mins read
Picture this: 100 million years ago in prehistoric Myanmar, a large animal trudged through a pine forest, dislodging a few flowers along the way. While we will never know for sure what happened, it is fortunate that each flower - seven of them, in fact - was perfectly preserved in amber. ...
August 24, 2017 | 2 mins read
Humanity and the life we see around us - from our lovable pets to the wonderfully exotic creatures we only see on the internet - may not have come to exist, if it weren’t for specific circumstances in the Earth’s history that gave rise to the first animals ...
August 23, 2017 | 2 mins read
(Updated on May 6, 2020) It’s tough being a fan of dinosaurs in the Philippines. Aside from the occasional Jurassic Park sequel, the stray dino-themed back issue or two of National Geographic one can find at their friendly neighborhood Book Sale outlet, or assorted merchandise featuring the annoyingly cheerful Barney and ...
July 27, 2017 | 3 mins read
The best Pinoy Science news and features coming your way.
