These fossilized foraminiferan shells, dating back 35 to 45 million years, were found in Tanzania. They all belong to species that are now extinct. The largest are about half a millimeter in diameter.

The History of the Ocean, as Told by Tiny Beautiful Fossils

Bountiful remains of foraminifera reveal how organisms responded to climate disturbances of the past. They can help predict the future, too.
A piece of polished amber

Facts and Fancies About Amber

It's taken scientists a long time to figure out what amber is made of, and what we can learn from it.
Restoration of Burgess Shale fossil arthropod Waptia fieldensis

Meeting Earth’s First Animals at the Burgess Shale

The Burgess Shale is a huge deposit of unique fossils that reveals records of the middle Cambrian, a vital period in evolutionary history.
conodonts

The Most Abundant Creature You’ve Never Heard Of

Conodonts are actually older than the oldest previously known vertebrates, making them the earliest known “skeletonized” vertebrates in existence.
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Getting to Know Pterosaurs

Everyone loves dinosaurs. Perhaps less well-known are their cousins, the pterosaurs. Pterosaurs could fly, and were closely related ...
Dinosaur fossil

The Popular, Lucrative, and Legally Questionable Fossil Trade

Middlemen sell fossils to the highest bidder, whether it’s a museum or a wealthy collector who wants their own stegosaurus.
Iguanodons, Megalosaurus and Heliosaurus

Dinosaur Brains And Other Unusual Fossil Finds

How can anything besides bones remain from so many millions of years ago?
Coast in Greenland

Do Fossils Always Tell the Truth?

New findings indicate life on earth is older than we thought.
Fossil of Tullymonstrum gregarium, an extinct animal

The Tully Monster, Monstrous No More

The identity of the Tully monster, a 50-year-old paleontological mystery, has been solved.
A close-up of a cell fossil

The Mystery of Megasphaera

When did animals first come into being? It might have been millions of years earlier than we thought.