Trilobites

Scientists found an unexpected aging pattern in a mostly intact juvenile mammal skeleton from the paleontological period.

By Jack Tamisiea

An examination of an aquatic, shrimplike creature that lived half a billion years ago offers insight into how arthropods with mandibles became so common.

By Rebecca Dzombak

While the volcano’s eruption was deadly, research shows that many people in the ancient Roman city died in building collapses from the earthquake associated with the outburst.

By Jordan Pearson

Asian honeybees protect their hives by making insect intruders go airborne.

By Elizabeth Anne Brown

It’s not easy being green, golden and male, according to a researcher’s observation of attempted frog cannibalism in Australia.

By Joshua Rapp Learn

Discovering evidence of deadly deluges of snow from the past could help protect people on mountains around the world, researchers say.

By Katherine Kornei

More than 100 million years ago, scientists say, warming seas and reduced oxygen may have sent some sharks higher into the water column, where they evolved to be fierce and hungry.

By Jeanne Timmons

Scientists used techniques from the field of gravitational wave astronomy to argue that the Antikythera mechanism contained a lunar calendar.

By Becky Ferreira

An ancient aquatic predator resembling a giant salamander turned up in an African fossil deposit, suggesting unwritten chapters of how animals moved onto land.

By Asher Elbein

The insects seem to know which injuries to treat as they engage in a behavior that seems almost human.

By Annie Roth

A fossil bed in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco is allowing new insights into the anatomies of arthropods that lived a half-billion years ago.

By Jack Tamisiea

A fatal fungal disease has devastated the world’s amphibians. But the fungus has a vulnerability: It cannot tolerate heat.

By Emily Anthes

Researchers discovered painted ladies on a South American beach and then built a case that they started their journey in Europe or Africa.

By Monique Brouillette

There has long been anecdotal evidence of the wormy creatures taking to the air, but videos recorded in Madagascar at last prove the animals’ acrobatics.

By Veronique Greenwood

Researchers analyzed a skull found in Montana of a plant-eating member of the ceratops family, finding distinct traits.

By Asher Elbein

Researchers say the nearly mile-long swim was the longest by big cats ever recorded.

By Anthony Ham

Computer simulations suggest that a collision with another planetary object early in Earth’s history may have provided the heat to set off plate tectonics.

By Lucas Joel

An analysis of elephant calls using an artificial intelligence tool suggests that the animals may use and respond to individualized rumbles.

By Kate Golembiewski

They build extensive burrow networks and don’t seem to mind when other woodland creatures use them as flameproof bunkers.

By Darren Incorvaia

During a chaotic period some 50 million years ago, the strange deep-sea creatures left the ocean bottom and thrived by clamping onto their mates.

By William J. Broad