Did meat-eating really play a big role in human evolution?
New study calls an old evolutionary assumption into question.
How hard-wired are humans to be carnivores? How central is meat-eating to our evolutionary history?There’s a wide...
Palaeontology
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Goldfish driving, Moon mysteries, stellar fly-bys and other science you may have missed this week.
Teaching a goldfish to driveIsraeli scientists have taught a goldfish how to drive, and it’s probably the best th...
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Decoding the disappearance of bears and lions using ancient DNA
Australian researchers gain new insight into ancient extinctions.
Tens of thousands of years ago in the Pleistocene, North America was roamed by fearsome beasts, including ancient cav...
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Video
Apes vs snakes: Who would win?
How did ancient primates evolve resistance to cobra venom? We ask an expert.
Who's afraid of cobras? Not gorillas and chimps!Recent research has shown that an ancient ancestor of chimps, gor...
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Rock sample re-writes Earth’s early atmospheric history – again
New analysis rewinds previous research findings that atmospheric oxygen existed prior to the Grea...
Scientists have long debated when measurable levels of oxygen first appeared in Earth’s atmosphere.In 2007, start...
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Fossilised dinosaur egg shows embryo preparing to hatch like a bird
An exquisitely preserved oviraptorosaur embryo suggests modern birds’ pre-hatching behaviour orig...
Researchers have announced the exceedingly rare discovery of a perfectly preserved fossilised dinosaur embryo.The...
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Medical scan reveals the secrets of New Zealand’s extinct marine reptiles
CT scans offer new insights almost 150 years after the fossils’ discovery.
New Zealand’s fossil record of land dinosaurs is poor, with just a few bones, but the collection of ancient extinct m...
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9 dino-mite dinosaur stories that will have you roaring
What’s a dinosaur’s least favourite reindeer? Comet!
Here at Cosmos we love a good dinosaur story – who doesn’t? These prehistoric creatures capture everyone’s imaginatio...
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Ancient avian megafauna plagued by crippling bone disease
Rare fossil discovery points to a painful end for many of South Australia’s ancient “Thunder Birds”.
An exceptionally rare fossil discovery by Flinders University researchers in South Australia has offered new insight ...
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Big brain time: why ancient fish moved onto land
Researchers reveal that it was a smart move after all.
Why did fish decide to move out of the water and onto land 370 million years ago? New research from Flinders Universi...
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Fastest feet in the fossil record
T.rex cousin reached speeds of up to 45km/h.
Fossilised trackways in Spain have revealed an exciting story: some flesh-eating, two-legged dinosaurs could move sca...
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How did the world’s largest pterosaur fly?
Most comprehensive study yet of the enormous cousin of dinosaurs, Quetzalcoatlus.
Palaeontologists have painted the most complete picture yet of the world’s largest pterosaur, in six new papers publi...