Laura Geggel
Laura Geggel

Laura is an editor at Live Science. She edits Life's Little Mysteries and reports on general science, including archaeology and animals. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Scholastic, Popular Science and Spectrum, a site on autism research. She has won multiple awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for her reporting at a weekly newspaper near Seattle. Laura holds a bachelor's degree in English literature and psychology from Washington University in St. Louis and an advanced certificate in science writing from NYU.

Articles by: Laura Geggel

European rabbits dug up Stone and Bronze Age artifacts on Skokholm Island.

Rabbits dig up 9,000-year-old artifacts on 'Dream Island'

By Laura Geggel

Burrowing rabbits have helped uncover artifacts from the Stone and Bronze Ages on a U.K. island.

Lengthwise (left, middle) and cross-sectional (right) views of the fossil remains of what may be the oldest cephalopod on record.

500 million-year-old fossil is the granddaddy of all cephalopods

By Laura Geggel

Tiny fossils in Newfoundland, Canada may be evidence of the oldest cephalopod on record.

full moon over a field

Catch March's full supermoon Worm Moon this Sunday

By Laura Geggel

Watch the full Worm Moon this Sunday, March 28.

This illustration shows a larger vampyromorph seizing a smaller one during the early Jurassic period.

Vampire squid ancestor died in 'eternal embrace' with its dinner

By Laura Geggel

A well-preserved fossil reveals that 180 million years ago, an eight-armed predator suffocated with its prey.

The arapaima, one of the world's largest freshwater fish, is native to the Amazon River.

Amazon 'river monster' turns up dead in Florida

By Laura Geggel

A dead "river monster" from the Amazon was discovered in Florida, leading to concerns that the fish might become an invasive species there.

One of the two vessels discovered in the ambassador's burial shows seated figures wearing headdresses performing a fire ritual.

Ancient Maya power broker died in obscurity, hieroglyphics show

By Laura Geggel

Hieroglyphics in a stairway near a burial tell the tale of an elite Maya ambassador's life.

An illustration of the newly described eagle shark, which lived in an ancient seaway 93 million years ago.

'Winged' eagle shark soared through oceans 93 million years ago

By Laura Geggel

A bizarre shark with wing-like side fins soared through an ancient sea 93 million years ago in what is now Mexico.

Three early churches found in Egypt's Western desert date to the fourth to seventh centuries A.D.

Early Christian monks' quarters and churches found in Egypt

By Laura Geggel

Archaeologists in Egypt have found three early churches and the living quarters of monks.

An oviraptorid dinosaur broods on its blue-green eggs with its mate nearby in what is now the Jiangxi Province of southern China.

'Rarest of the rare' dinosaur fossil found brooding on its eggs

By Laura Geggel

This is the first non-avian dinosaur to fossilize on a clutch of eggs containing embryonic remains.

The female sperm whale was as long as an 18-wheeler, or 52 feet (16 meters) in length.

Beached sperm whale in Australia shows scars from tussle with a giant squid

By Laura Geggel

A dead sperm whale measuring 52 feet (16 meters) long is rotting away on a beach in southern Australia.

The silver diadem could have been worn upward or downward, although it was found positioned downward on the woman's head in this burial.

'Powerful, maybe even frightening' woman with diadem may have ruled in Bronze Age Spain

By Laura Geggel

A Bronze Age woman buried with a silver diadem may have ruled a kingdom in what is now southeastern Spain.

This ancient Egyptian dog was buried in ceramic vessel.

World's oldest 'pet cemetery' discovered in ancient Egypt

By Laura Geggel

An ancient Egyptian pet cemetery holding the remains of cats, dogs and monkeys, some wearing collars, was unearthed by the Red Sea.

A juvenile shortfin mako shark with a stab wound in his head washed ashore in Los Cabos, Mexico.

Shark gets stabbed in the head, washes ashore in Los Cabos

By Laura Geggel

Dead sharks usually sink, so it's surprising to find one washed up onshore.

Archaeologist Lucia Castagna recovers the 5,600-year-old human skull at the top of a vertical shaft in the Marcel Loubens cave, in the Bologna area of northern Italy.

Decapitated Stone Age woman's head rolled into a cave in Italy

By Laura Geggel

After a woman died and was likely dismembered, her skull went on a "long and bumpy ride."

The new facial reconstructions, made from pigmented silicon casts, of Lucy (left) and the Taung child (right).

Human ancestor 'Lucy' gets a new face in stunning reconstruction

By Laura Geggel

New depictions of Lucy and the Taung child are shedding light on the tricky task of facial reconstruction.

This alligator 'popsicle' is making sure it can breathe in its frozen lake.

Alligators in Oklahoma turn into 'popsicles' sticking out of the frozen water

By Laura Geggel

Alligators often 'snorkel' during cold snaps, so they don't become trapped underwater without access to air.

An illustration of a tyrannosaurus Rex

Medium-size dinos are missing from the fossil record. Here's why.

By Laura Geggel

Here's why there aren't more medium-size carnivorous dinosaurs.

silhouette of a person thinking

Atheists and believers have different moral compasses

By Laura Geggel

The moral compass of believers and atheists is calibrated differently.

Archaeologists in the U.K. found a phallic carving dating to the Roman era.

Rare Roman-era phallus carving found in UK

By Laura Geggel

An excavation in the UK unearthed the Roman-era stone carving of a phallus.

This double-sided pancake map is the most accurate flat map of Earth ever created.

Astrophysicists create the most accurate 'flat map' of Earth ever

By Laura Geggel

Cartographers have struggled to map Earth accurately in 2D for centuries.

An illustration of the steppe mammoths that preceded the woolly mammoth, based on the genetic knowledge from the Adycha mammoth.

Oldest sequenced DNA belonged to 1 million-year-old mystery mammoth

By Laura Geggel

The oldest sequenced DNA on record belongs to a 1.2 million-year-old mammoth.

After unearthing its skeleton, researchers initially thought this horse dated to the last ice age. New analyses showed otherwise.

'Ice age' horse skeleton found in Utah backyard isn't what we thought

By Laura Geggel

The skeletal remains of a horse unearthed in Utah thought to date to the last ice age are actually much younger.

Archaeologists in Arctic Alaska have found blue beads (top left) from Europe, possibly Venice, that might predate Christopher Columbus' voyage to the New World.

European beads found in Alaska predate Columbus, controversial study claims

By Laura Geggel

Blueberry-size beads might have traveled more than 10,000 miles from Venice to Alaska in the 1400s.

Archaeologists in Turkey discovered 651 silver coins in a jug.

Stash of more than 600 Roman-era silver coins discovered in Turkey

By Laura Geggel

A newly discovered coin hoard features Roman emperors engraved on the sides.

a cascade of diamonds

Diamonds need an electric zap to crystallize deep inside Earth

By Laura Geggel

A lab experiment mimicking mantle conditions revealed how diamonds need an electric field to grow.