Meganeuropsis permiana was a giant dragonfly-like insect that lived before the dinosaurs and is considered the largest insect known to have existed. Around 300 million years ago, Earth differed considerably from the present day. During the Carboniferous and Permian periods, insects […]
A head preserved in amber and dated to approximately 99 million years ago was initially interpreted as belonging to the smallest dinosaur yet identified. Amber has yielded numerous palaeontological discoveries, including prehistoric insects and dinosaur feathers, preserving […]
Fossils of a giant turtle, one of the largest known, have been discovered in South America. They belong to Stupendemys geographicus, which lived approximately 5–10 million years ago during the Miocene and reached a size comparable to a car. This giant turtle measured […]
Tens of millions of years ago, Antarctica had a much warmer climate than it does today. Its flora and fauna differed considerably from those of the present day, and dinosaurs inhabited the continent. Palaeontologists have identified only five of the dinosaurs that […]
An expedition to Antarctica uncovered an ancient forest dating to approximately 260 million years ago. This fossilised forest provides evidence that the now-frozen continent was once covered by forests. Antarctica is commonly associated with snow and ice […]
The Burgess Shale in British Columbia, Canada, preserves numerous fossils that document the evolution of life on Earth. Among them is Habelia optata, a 508-million-year-old relative of early chelicerates. This armoured predator had five pairs of […]
The extinction of non-avian dinosaurs enabled small mammals to diversify, eventually leading to the emergence of humans. However, the disappearance of these large animals also affected the ecosystems they had inhabited for tens of millions of years. Although observing a living dinosaur would be fascinating […]
Researchers discovered an approximately 120-million-year-old assemblage of 25 dinosaur specimens in north-eastern China. One larger individual may have acted as a caregiver to the juveniles. Like other organisms, dinosaurs […]
Megalodon was the largest shark known to have existed. It appeared approximately 23 million years ago during the Miocene and could reach 18 metres in length. It was among the largest and most powerful vertebrate predators until approximately 2.6 million years ago, when it […]
Scientists rediscovered Lychnothamnus barbatus in North America, an algal species with a fossil record extending to the Cretaceous. Although it had been considered extinct in the region, its rediscovery suggests that it may have persisted there. Although the present-day world […]
