ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

Scientists have described two new species of palaeotheriidae mammals that inhabited the subtropical landscape of Zambrana (Álava) about 37 million years ago. Their atypical dental features could point to a difference in environmental conditions between the Iberian and Central European areas.

Since the discovery of the first fossil remains, the image of the Neanderthal has been one of a primitive hominin. People have known for a long time that Neanderthals were able to fashion tools and weapons. But could they also make jewellery or even art? Researchers analyzed a new find from the Unicorn Cave in the Harz Mountains in Germany and conclude that Neanderthals had remarkable cognitive abilities.

Dinosaurs were generally huge, but a new study of the unusual alvarezsaurs show that they reduced in size about 100 million years ago when they became specialized ant-eaters.

An international team of scientists has used high-powered X-rays at the European Synchrotron to show how an extinct South African 200-million-year-old dinosaur, Heterodontosaurus tucki, breathed.

Scientists recently made news by using fossil shark scales to reconstruct shark communities from millions of years ago.