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Writing in The Conversation, Professor Graham Sheilds and Elias Rugen (both UCL Earth Sciences) discuss their discovery of rocks proving the polar ice caps once expanded so far they joined up around the equator. More than 700 million years ago, the Earth was plunged into a state that geologists call  "snowball Earth" , when our planet was entirely encased in ice.

A short but robust little shrimp may have died out over 330 million years ago during the Carboniferous period, but the rare Scottish shellfish has been revitalised as a new species to science and as a Glaswegian.

Part of the research team in 2020 examining the initial finds (at the back) of the new discovery made by Ruby and Justin Reynolds. Additional sections of the bone were subsequently discovered. From left to right, Dr Dean Lomax, Ruby Reynolds, Justin Reynolds and Paul de la Salle. Credit: Dr Dean Lomax A palaeontologist at The University of Manchester has identified the fossilised remains of a second gigantic jawbone measuring more than two metres long.

The oceans were full of large apex predators 66 million years ago, in contrast to modern times.

New species of duckbill dinosaur found in Africa indicates they were diverse, with at least three species inhabiting north Africa at the end of the Cretaceous.

The last time atmospheric carbon dioxide consistently reached today's human-driven levels was 14 million years ago, researchers have found.

New Milner Centre for Evolution study tracks how "flower power" survived mass extinction 66 million years ago to become the dominant plant type Published on Wednesday 13 September 2023 Last updated on Wednesday 13 September 2023 A new study by researchers from the University of Bath (UK) and Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Mexico) shows that flowering plants escaped relatively unscathed from the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago.

Fossils of two new abelisaurs have been discovered in Morocco, showing the diversity of dinosaurs in this region at the end of the Cretaceous period.

Digital modelling of legendary fossil's soft tissue suggests Australopithecus afarensis had powerful leg and pelvic muscles suited to tree dwelling, but knee muscles that allowed fully erect walking.

An almost metre-long footprint made by a giant, meat-eating theropod dinosaur from the Jurassic Period represents the largest of its kind ever found in Yorkshire. Curiously, the unusual footprint appears to capture the moment that the dinosaur rested or crouched down some 166 million years ago. The Yorkshire coast is renowned for producing some visually and scientifically incredible fossils, including thousands of dinosaur footprints.

Fossils of a giant killer mosasaur have been discovered, along with the fossilised remains of its prey.

The discovery of an exceptional prehistoric site containing the remains of animals that lived in a tropical sea has been made in a farmer's field in Gloucestershire. Discovered beneath a field grazed by an ancient breed of English Longhorn cattle, the roughly 183-million-year-old fossils are stunningly well preserved like they were frozen in time.

This discovery of plesiosaur fossils in an ancient riverbed suggests some species, traditionally thought to be sea creatures, may have lived in freshwater.

Writing in The Conversation, Dr Marc Jones and Professor Susan Evans (UCL Cell & Developmental Biology) and Professor Richard Benson (University of Oxford) write about their research into a newly-identified extinct salamander species found in Scotland.

The fossilised remains of Chile's first complete ichthyosaur have been unearthed from a melting glacier deep in the Patagonia area of the South American country.

The diversity seen in whale skulls was achieved through three key periods of rapid evolution, reveals a new study led by researchers at UCL and the Natural History Museum. The study, published in Current Biology , gathered the most expansive 3D scan data set ever for Cetacea (whale) skulls spanning 88 living species (representing 95% of extant cetacean species) and 113 fossil species and covering 50 million years of evolution.

A new bird-like dinosaur has been found by paleontologists combing through fossils found on the Isle of Wight.

The skeleton fragments of a new horned dinosaur, Sierraceratops turneri, have been discovered in North America.

One of the largest and most important finds of exquisitely preserved Jurassic echinoderms - spiny-skinned marine animals such as starfish and sea urchins - has been uncovered by a University of Birmingham Research Associate.

By closely examining the jaw mechanics of juvenile and adult tyrannosaurids, some of the fiercest dinosaurs to inhabit earth, scientists led by the University of Bristol have uncovered differences in how they bit into their prey.

A study of more than 1,400 protein-coding genes of fleas has resolved one of the longest standing mysteries in the evolution of insects, reordering their placement in the tree of life and pinpointing who their closest relatives are. The University of Bristol study, published in the journal Palaeoentomology , drew on the largest insect molecular dataset available.

The origin of endothermy in synapsids, including the ancestors of mammals. The diagram shows the evolution of main groups through the Triassic, and the scale from blue to red is a measure of the degree of warm-bloodedness reconstructed based on different indicators of bone structure and anatomy.

The evidence consists of limestone pebbles that carry borings made by molluscs as well as oysters. These pebbles were torn up from the underlying Carboniferous limestone which formed the basic landscape all over Somerset and across the Severn Estuary to South Wales.

Our knowledge of dinosaurs has expanded greatly since the public first became aware of their existence, but the history of these animals encompasses more than just the fossils themselves, writes Richard Fallon (UCL Science & Technology Studies).

Using two partially fragmented fossil skulls, a student at the University of Bristol has digitally reconstructed, in three-dimensions, the skulls of two species of ancient reptile that lived in the Late Triassic, one of which had been previously known only from its jaws.

Image courtesy of Naturalis Visitors to Glasgow will get an amazing opportunity to see one of the best preserved Tyrannosaurus rex skeletons when it visits Scotland on the last leg of its European tour.

Aust Cliff near Bristol has been known as a rich fossil site since the 1820s. Since then, thousands of people have visited this spectacular location on the banks of the Severn, and collected fossils of ancient sharks and sea dragons.

A new species of ancient reptile has been described by scientists at the University of Birmingham, filling a critical gap in the fossil record of dinosaur cousins and suggesting that some features thought to characterise dinosaurs evolved much earlier than previously thought. Described in a paper published today in Nature, the carnivorous reptile, Teleocrater rhadinus, was approximately 7-10 feet in length, had a long neck and tail, and walked on four crocodile-like legs.