Read the latest positive news, breakthroughs, and inspiring stories about ancient animals, curated daily by BrightWire.
Scientists in China discovered a remarkably preserved fossil that shows our ancient mammal ancestors were chewing, swallowing, and nursing their young 165 million years ago. The chihuahua-sized creature is pushing back the timeline of key traits that define mammals today.
A rock that fell from a Norwegian cliff split open to reveal a perfectly preserved ancient creature that looks like a fern but rewrites how we understand early animal life. The discovery suggests dozens more unknown organisms could be hiding in the Arctic cliffs above.
Scientists discovered the earliest animal with a head also had a right-side preference, just like most humans today. This tiny ocean creature from 550 million years ago set the evolutionary stage for handedness in everything from primates to insects.
Researchers successfully transplanted organizing cells between two different sea creatures, recreating a famous 1920s experiment that helped reveal how the first animals evolved from single-celled organisms. The discovery shows these "construction foreman" cells appeared at the very beginning of animal life on Earth.
Scientists just confirmed the largest scorpion ever discovered, a meter-long creature that dominated Earth 415 million years ago. The discovery rewrites our understanding of how life first emerged from the oceans onto land.
Yale scientists discovered a new species of ancient crocodile relative preserved alongside another croc in a 210-million-year-old fossil, revealing how these prehistoric predators diversified long before dinosaurs took over. The pair likely died together in a sudden disaster, giving researchers a rare snapshot of life frozen in time.
Scientists discovered 567-million-year-old fossils in Canada's remote mountains that show some of Earth's earliest creatures could move and reproduce sexually. The findings suggest complex life began in the deep ocean before gradually moving to shallow waters.
Researchers discovered fossils of colossal octopuses that stretched longer than school buses 100 million years ago. The massive predators showed signs of intelligence and hunted with powerful jaws that crushed prehistoric crustaceans.
Scientists discovered a poodle-sized reptile from 215 million years ago that started life on four legs but switched to walking on two as it matured. The finding rewrites what we know about how walking styles evolved in ancient creatures.
Scientists discovered a football-sized creature from 307 million years ago that was one of the first land animals to munch on plants instead of meat. The finding rewrites what we thought we knew about how early animals adapted to life on land.
Scientists discovered a football-sized ancient animal that munched plants 307 million years ago, pushing back the timeline of vegetarian eating by millions of years. The fossil skull from Nova Scotia reveals nature's earliest veggie experiments happened way sooner than we thought.