Topic description and stories

Tyrannosaurus tango

Opinion: Mysterious footprint fossils point to dancing dinosaur mating ritual

08 Jan 2016

David Norman (Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences) discusses how palaeontologists can interpret fossil footprints to find clues as to whether dinosaurs...

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Artist's reconstruction of the Fractofusus community on the H14 surface at Bonavista Peninsula

Earliest evidence of reproduction in a complex organism

03 Aug 2015

A new study of 565 million-year-old fossils has identified how some of the first complex organisms on Earth – possibly some of the first animals to...

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Collinsium ciliosum, a Collins’ monster-type lobopodian from the early Cambrian Xiaoshiba biota of China

Spiky monsters: new species of ‘super-armoured’ worm discovered

29 Jun 2015

A newly-identified species of spike-covered worm with legs, which lived 500 million years ago, was one of the first animals on Earth to develop...

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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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Odaraia alata, an arthropod resembling a submarine from the middle Cambrian Burgess Shale.

Clues contained in 500 million-year-old brain point to the origin of heads in early animals

07 May 2015

The discovery of a 500 million-year-old fossilised brain has helped identify a point of crucial transformation in early animals, and answered some of...

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The Esquel pallasite from the Natural History Museum collections, consists of gem-quality crystals of the silicate mineral olivine embedded in a matrix of iron-nickel alloy.

Death of a dynamo – a hard drive from space

21 Jan 2015

Hidden magnetic messages contained within ancient meteorites are providing a unique window into the processes that shaped our solar system, and may...

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Fossil of Haootia quadriformis

Animals first flex their muscles

27 Aug 2014

A new fossil discovery identifies the earliest evidence for animals with muscles.

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Palaeontological reconstruction of rangeomorph fronds from the Ediacaran Period (635-541 million years ago) built using computer models of rangeomorph growth and development.

How some of the first animals lived - and died

11 Aug 2014

New three-dimensional reconstructions show how some of the earliest animals on Earth developed, and provide some answers as to why they went extinct...

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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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Casts of fossils such as this beautiful Fractofusus specimen from Newfoundland are on display

A snapshot of life 560 million years ago

10 Mar 2014

A new display at the Sedgwick Museum focuses on the latest research into a group of fossils that might be the earliest examples of animals ever found...

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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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Mammals vs dinosaurs

15 Mar 2013

Were dinosaurs really the most exciting and interesting creatures ever to roam the planet? Zoologist Nick Crumpton tells the Cambridge Science...

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