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Left: Hallucigenia sparsa from the Burgess Shale (Royal Ontario Museum 61513) The fossil is 15 mm long. Right: Colour reconstruction of Hallucigenia sparsa.

Newly-discovered ‘ring of teeth’ helps determine what common ancestor of moulting animals looked like

24 Jun 2015

A new analysis of one of the most bizarre-looking fossils ever discovered has definitively sorted its head from its tail, and turned up a previously...

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Left: Illustration of Metaspriggina swimming. Right: Fossil of Metaspriggina from Marble Canyon – head to the left with two eyes, and branchial arches at the top.

New fossil find pinpoints the origin of jaws in vertebrates

11 Jun 2014

A major fossil discovery in Canada sheds new light on the development of the earliest vertebrates, including the origin of jaws, the first time this...

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Spartobranchus tenuis reconstruction by Marianne Collins

Ancient worm provides unexpected evolutionary link in our early history

13 Mar 2013

Fossils of a creature that lived on the ocean floor 505 million years ago have been identified by scientists as those of a previously-unknown marine...

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