Largest ever flightless bird lived in Australia 50,000 years ago and weighed up to 1,323lbs with a HUGE head more than 1.5 feet long — but its brain was squeezed for space Experts studied fossils of ‘mihirungs’, the name given to Australia’s giant birds The largest, Dromornis stirtoni, was able to reach some 10 feet (3 … Read more
Interbreeding between Neanderthals and modern humans was common, reanalysis of thirteen 48,000-year-old Neanderthal teeth from Jersey has revealed. The teeth were first uncovered between 1910–11 from the top of a small granite ledge within the La Cotte de St Brelade cave by archaeologists with the Société Jersiaise. While the teeth had been assumed to come from a … Read more
Dinosaur fossil from 98 million-years-ago unearthed in Argentina may have been the largest animal to ever walk the Earth, study claims The fossil remains — including tail and pelvic bones — were uncovered in 2012 The giant titanosaur sauropod dinosaur would have had a long neck and tail It was preserved in a muddy floodplain in what … Read more
The fearsome 6ft-long dire wolves – as featured in Game of Thrones – first split from other wolf species about six million years ago, a new study discovered. The remains of more than 4,000 now extinct dire wolves have been excavated from La Brea Tar Pits in California and examined by experts from Durham University. … Read more
Controversy has surrounded the fossil of a chicken-sized dinosaur with unique shoulder ‘needles’ — after claims it may have been exported from Brazil illegally. Dating back some 110 million years, the unusual specimen was recently named Ubirajara jubatus — or ‘Maned Lord of the Spear’ — after its distinguishing spines. Experts have proposed that the … Read more
Altamura Man — a Neanderthal who starved to death after falling down a well over 130,000 years ago — had buck teeth he likely used to hold meat while cutting it. Cavers spotted the remains in the Lamalunga Cave, Italy, in 1993 — finding them covered in deposits of calcite, a mineral derived from the surrounding … Read more
Din O’Saurs discovered! Ireland’s first dinosaur fossils from 200m-year-old beasts are found in County Antrim Fossil bones are from a four-legged plant-eating scelidosaurus in Antrim Another dinosaur – a deadly two-legged carnivore sarcosaurus also found Late teacher and fossil collector Roger Byrne found the bones years ago They were confirmed as being from the dinosaurs … Read more
Fossil ‘shark spines’ unearthed in an English phosphate mine a century ago are actually jaw fragments of 100 million-year-old toothless pterosaurs — including an unknown species The fossils were collected in the Fens by Victorian miners and sold for profit They came from a rock formation that dates back to the early Cenomanian The palaeontologists … Read more
Newly analyzed fossils from Antarctica may represent an extinct species of giant bird with a wingspan of more than 20 feet. By comparison the largest modern-day bird, the wandering albatross, has a wingspan of just 11 feet and six inches. Called pelagornithids, the ancient avians soared over Earth’s oceans more than 40 million years ago. … Read more
Small fossils have been unearthed in China that belonged to a monkey about 6.4 million years ago. The remains were found a southeastern Yunan Province mine, making them the oldest to be found outside of Africa. Researchers from Penn State University have obtained a heelbone and jawbone with teeth that are believed to have been … Read more