Fossils

Find out everything there is to know about fossils and stay updated on the latest fossil news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and fossil pictures at LiveScience.com. Learn more about these fascinating findings as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about fossils.

Related Topics: Archaeology, Dinosaurs, Cretaceous Period, Evolution

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A 3D digital model of Saccorhytus coronarius on a white background.

Wrinkly 'sac' with no anus probably isn't humans' earliest ancestor. (Thank goodness!)

By Patrick Pester published

A Saccorhytus species that's been described as an "angry Minion" and a "wrinkly ball sack" isn't a human ancestor, according to a new study.

Lalieudorhynchus might have had a hippo-like lifestyle, spending much of its time in water.

Mammal ancestor looked like a chubby lizard with a tiny head and had a hippo-like lifestyle

By Jamie Carter published

Fossils found in France are from a previously unknown species of amphibian that belonged to a group of reptiles with mammal-like traits.

An artist's interpretation of the new species of European panda.

Europe’s last pandas were giant weaklings who couldn’t even eat bamboo

By Harry Baker published

Analysis of fossilized teeth that were rediscovered in museum archives in Bulgaria has revealed a new species of ancient panda that was likely the last of its kind in Europe.

A fossilized Pachycormus, an extinct genus of ray-finned fish.

'Never seen anything like it': Impeccably preserved Jurassic fish fossils found on UK farm

By Jennifer Nalewicki published

The 3D fossil of a Jurassic fish is one of the many remains "frozen in time" found on a farm in the UK.

(left) a fossil of a precambrian jellyfish relative outlined in white; (right) a colored illustration of the same animal, which resembles a sea anemone with two cup-like structures full of short tentacles

560 million-year-old tentacled creature may be the animal kingdom's first known predator

By Nicoletta Lanese published

A fossilized animal from the Ediacaran period is likely related to modern jellyfish.

The parasitic wasp, Hambletonia dominicana, is known to prey on a variety of insects.

Amber tomb of 'dancing' wasp and delicate flower also hides a gruesome secret

By Mindy Weisberger published

About 30 million years ago, resin hardened around a flower and a parasitic wasp, preserving clues to their relationship in an ancient ecosystem.

3D reconstruction of salamander skull

Stunning reconstruction of Jurassic salamander fossil reveals skull’s weirdness in 3D

By Harry Baker published

The skull shares similarities with crocodiles, frogs and modern salamanders.

illustration of jurassic water bugs swimming with clusters of eggs on their legs

Jurassic insect wore eggs on its legs, fossils show

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Scientists found eggs on water bug fossils from the Jurassic.

A reconstruction of Stanleycaris hirpex swimming above a fossil specimen.

'Astonishing' 500 million-year-old fossils preserved the brain of this creepy 3-eyed predator

By Jennifer Nalewicki published

Paleontologists found dozens of astonishingly well-preserved fossils of a three-eyed Cambrian creature, at a site in British Columbia in Canada.

Meet Meraxes, a distant therapod relative of T. rex that also had a large head and undersized front limbs.

Giant meat-eating dinosaur had a fancy skull and wee arms like T. rex

By Conor Feehly published

A newly described Cretaceous dinosaur had puny arms like Tyrannosaurus rex, though the two species were not closely related.

In this illustration, giant sharks scavenge the enormous corpse of Livyatan, an extinct, enormous sperm whale that lived around 12 million years ago.

What was megalodon's favorite snack? Sperm whale faces

By Mindy Weisberger published

New analysis of fossil skulls from sperm whales that lived millions of years ago shows that numerous species of ancient sharks preyed on the whales … and ate their faces.

Paleontologists recently discovered a new species of bear dog, naming it Tartarocyon.

Ancient 'bear dog' found in France named after child-murdering cyclops

By Jennifer Nalewicki published

A jawbone fossil from an extinct predator that resembled both bears and dogs, confirmed how widespread these carnivores were millions of years ago.

Researchers at site 1951

Lost fossil 'treasure trove' rediscovered after 70 years

By Harry Baker published

Previous researchers were unable to record its exact coordinates.

illustration of a jurassic cephalopod called Vampyronassa rhodanica

8-armed Jurassic 'vampire' used supersuckers to trap prey, amazing 3D images reveal

By Nicoletta Lanese published

This cephalopod is related to modern vampire squid.

A newly discovered, as-yet unnamed abelisaurid cautiously approaches a watering hole, in this detail from an artistic representation of the ecosystem of the Bahariya Oasis in Egypt's Sahara Desert approximately 98 million years ago.

Massive bulldog-faced dinosaur was like a T. rex on steroids

By Joanna Thompson published

A hefty abelisaurid is the fourth large, predatory dinosaur discovered in Egypt's Bahariya Formation, alongside other sizable Cretaceous carnivores.

An artist's rendition of Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus, the newfound dinosaur species described in this study.

Dinosaur 'reaper' with massive claws found in Japan

By Jennifer Nalewicki published

An herbivorous dinosaur used its vicious-looking claws to forage for plants near the shores of Cretaceous seas.

Even demon ducks had predators. Here, the giant "demon duck of doom" (Genyornis newtoni) flees its nest, pursued by the extinct lizard Megalania (Varanus priscus). Both species lived in Australia about 50,000 years ago.

'Demon ducks of doom' laid melon-size eggs in prehistoric Australia

By Joanna Thompson published

Melon-size eggs belonging to an extinct and flightless giant 'thunder bird' were eaten by the first Australians.

The newly described D. xiezhi had a protective head shield and a shorter neck than its giraffoid cousins.

Short-necked giraffe relative discovered in China. It used its helmet head to bash rivals.

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Scientists uncovered 16.9 million-year-old fossils of the beast.

An American cheetah (Miracinonyx trumani) and her cubs crouch over the remains a Harrington's mountain goat (Oreamnos harringtoni) inside a cave in the Grand Canyon, while a Shasta ground sloth (Nothrotheriops shastensis) lumbers past and a California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) soars in the distance. Inside the cave, two Stock's vampire bats (Desmodus stocki) hang from the ceiling, and a woodrat (Neotoma) hides by the wall on the right. Ovoid structures on the cave floor are droppings left by ground sloths, based on finds in locations such as Rampart Cave.

20,000 years ago, two American cheetahs fought to the death in a Grand Canyon cave

By Stephanie Pappas published

A new study of bones from the Grand Canyon reveals that this steep, rocky landscape was once a hunting ground for the extinct American cheetah.

The images show the impressions of a collapsed cell-wall covering (a coccosphere) on the surface of a fragment of ancient organic matter (left) with the individual plates (coccoliths) enlarged to show the exquisite preservation of sub-micron-scale structures (right). The blue image is inverted to give a virtual fossil cast, (i.e., to show the original three-dimensional form). The original plates have been removed from the sediment by dissolution, leaving behind only the ghost imprints.

'Ghost' fossils preserve haunting record of ancient life on a hellish Earth

By Joanna Thompson published

Ghostly imprints of very tiny "nannofossils" can offer a valuable window into our planet's past — and hint at its possible future.