Topic description and stories

Janavis finalidens, the last known toothed bird.

Bird beak evolved before dinosaur extinction

30 Nov 2022

Fossilised fragments of a skeleton, hidden within a rock the size of a grapefruit, have helped upend one of the longest-standing assumptions about...

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The Ediacaran fossil Dickinsonia costata, specimen P40135 from the collections of the South Australia Museum, Adelaide

‘Mysterious’ ancient creature was definitely an animal, research confirms

15 Sep 2017

It lived well over 550 million years ago, is known only through fossils and has variously been described as looking a bit like a jellyfish, a worm, a...

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Deinonychus

Opinion: Six amazing dinosaur discoveries that changed the world

30 Nov 2015

David Norman (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences) discusses the fossil discoveries that really made a difference to science.

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CT Scan

New CT imaging facility reveals 'internal secrets'

15 Feb 2015

A new imaging facility offers researchers in Cambridge and beyond the chance to see what lies within objects, without breaking them open.

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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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Completely enrolled specimen of the olenellid Mummaspis muralensis from the early Cambrian Mural Formation (Jasper National Park, Alberta). This represents the oldest direct evidence of enrolment in the fossil record of polymerid trilobites

Early rollers: scientists pinpoint very first ‘enrolling’ animal

25 Sep 2013

New fossil find reveals that trilobites were able to roll themselves up defensively far earlier than was originally thought

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Ancient ancestor of great white shark named after museum director

19 Aug 2013

A newly-discovered genus of shark that prowled Earth’s oceans 100 million years ago - and is thought to have been the ancestor of the great white -...

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