Fossils

Researchers in China have discovered fossilized fragments of an ancient shark-like fish — the oldest jawed vertebrate ever discovered.

An armored "worm" from the Cambrian called Wufengella bengtsoni is the ancestor to three major animal groups that have totally different lifestyles today, a new study finds.

The oldest three-dimensional green algae fossil ever found dates back more than half a billion years and may reveal that plants are older than believed.

"Alien goldfish" from the Carboniferous had toothy tongue-like structures that resembled those in living mollusks, a new study finds.

The earliest known mammal was a shrewlike animal that emerged in the Triassic period with the first dinosaurs, a controversial new study claims.

The remains of an extinct lion-size otter have been discovered in Ethiopia, and it's the biggest otter on record, a new study finds.

A megalodon tooth found suspiciously close to two fractured whale vertebrae may reflect one small whale's heroic escape from the jaws of a giant prehistoric shark.

This is the first evidence of Denisovans living on the Tibetan Plateau.

Scientists have unearthed the oldest fossils to date of the mysterious human lineage known as the Denisovans.

A Saccorhytus species that's been described as an "angry Minion" and a "wrinkly ball sack" isn't a human ancestor, according to a new study.