Fossils

Find out everything there is to know about fossils and stay updated on the latest fossil news with the comprehensive articles, interactive features and fossil pictures at LiveScience.com. Learn more about these fascinating findings as scientists continue to make amazing discoveries about fossils.

Related Topics: Archaeology, Dinosaurs, Cretaceous Period, Evolution

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Exceptional fossils of a spider and a feather from the Australian site are between 16 million and 11 million years old.

Rare and fragile fossils found at a secret site in Australia's 'dead heart'

By Mindy Weisberger published

A site in Australia that holds thousands of astonishingly well-preserved fossils has been kept a closely guarded secret among paleontologists for the past three years.

The mushroom of the newly discovered parasitic fungus A. blatica growing out of the rectum of a carpenter ant fossilized in amber.

10 coolest non-dinosaur fossils unearthed in 2021

By Harry Baker published

A list of the 10 coolest stories about non-dinosaur fossil discoveries published in 2021.

Specks of silver were found in the fossilized feces of ancient worms living in the seafloor.

Flecks of silver in poop of ancient Cambrian creature baffle scientists

By Harry Baker published

Researchers have discovered specks of silver in 500 million-year-old fossilized worm dung; the precious metal likely came from "mining" microbes.

The fossilized exoskeleton fragment from the giant millipede ancestor Arthropleura recently found in the U.K.

Scientists find fossil of largest arthropod to ever live, a car-size millipede

By Harry Baker published

Researchers in the U.K. have discovered the fossilized exoskeleton of an 8.5-feet -long millipede from around 326 million years ago.

Amphicotylus milesi lunges at its Jurassic prey.

Jurassic crocodile relative could breathe easily while drowning its prey

By Mindy Weisberger published

The modern crocodile can breathe while most of its head is submerged because of specialized airway adaptations, which scientists can now trace to the Jurassic period.

The 'Excalibur worm and 'Shuriken' worm (seen here) had overlapping systems of armored plates that made them the most knightly detritivores on the block.

Fossils of 400-million-year-old 'Excalibur worm' discovered in Australia

By Brandon Specktor published

Researchers discovered the fossils of two previously unknown armored marine worms named Excalibur and Shuriken.

This life reconstruction of Kyhytysuka sachicarum from the early Cretaceous of Colombia shows the swordfish-like reptile.

This 130 million-year-old ichthyosaur was a 'hypercarnivore' with knife-like teeth

By Stephanie Pappas published

A newly identified species of ichthyosaur had big teeth to attack large prey, possibly including other marine reptiles.

THE “TRISTAN OTTO” TYRANNOSAURUS REX SKULL THAT WAS EXAMINED BY RESEARCHERS

Famous T. rex had a bone infection, new medical scans reveal

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Scientists used a special technique to examine the fossil without damaging it.

Researchers pinpoint the mammoth tusk on the ocean floor

Exquisitely-preserved mammoth tusk found 10,000 feet underwater

By Joanna Thompson published

Researchers discovered the 100,000 year old tusk of a mammoth off the coast of California

Here, one of the Denisovan bones found in Denisova Cave in Siberia.

Oldest-known fossils of mysterious human lineage uncovered in Siberian cave

By Charles Q. Choi published

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

illustration of ammonite swimming in the ocean

Human-size ammonites swam the Atlantic Ocean 80 million years ago

By Nicoletta Lanese published

Scientists uncovered more than 100 new fossils to learn more about the world's largest ammonites.

Illustration showing one gorgonopsian biting the other on the face.

Ancient saber-toothed 'gorgons' bit each other in ritualized combat

By Laura Geggel published

"Gorgons" that lived during the Permian period bit each other on the face, the discovery of a bite mark on a skull reveals.

Illustration of a Cambrian penis worm inhabiting a hyolith shell.

Ferocious 'penis worms' were the hermit crabs of the ancient seas

By Brandon Specktor published

Priapulids, sometimes called penis worms, were fearsome predators of the Cambrian Period. They may have worn shells for protection, new fossil evidence suggests.

Cretaspara athanatas as rendered by an artist

Tiny 'immortal' crab entombed in amber discovered in a first of its kind

By Joanna Thompson published

A fossil crab was discovered perfectly preserved in Burmese amber.

Life reconstruction of the 220 million-year-old dinosaur track-maker from Queensland, Australia.

Triassic dinosaur with giant 'murder feet' wasn't so big after all, scientists find

By Mindy Weisberger published

The footprints of a Triassic dinosaur in Australia convinced scientists that the animal was a giant carnivore, but a new analysis proved otherwise.

A phacopid trilobite with hyper-compound eyes

This trilobite was equipped with a 'hyper-eye' never seen before in the animal kingdom

By Joanna Thompson published

Trilobite with "hyper compound eyes" could see through hundreds of lenses, new X-ray study reveals.

Pointy peaks in the tooth's crown told paleontologists that this was a mastodon molar.

Michigan boy finds 'dragon's tooth' that belonged to a mastodon

By Mindy Weisberger published

A boy stumbled upon a mastodon molar while on a nature walk in Michigan.

illustration shows a close up of the newly identified eagle Archaehierax sylvestris next to a lake, with an eagle of the same species flying in the background

Koala-hunting eagle terrorized Australia 25 million years ago

By Nicoletta Lanese published

A newly-identified eagle fossil is the oldest ever found in Australia.

Reconstitution of mother-newborn interaction in the Matalascañas Trampled Surface.

Baby elephants frolicked in an ancient 'nursery,' fossil footprints show

By Mindy Weisberger published

Over 100,000 years ago, extinct relatives of modern elephants lived in matriarchal groups, according to preserved trackways in southwestern Spain.

The original fossil of Yuanchuavis, which was found in the Jehol Biota in northeastern China.

Bizarre tail on little dinosaur-age bird was literally a drag

By Laura Geggel published

An extraordinary 120-million-year-old fossil bird from China reveals that the animal had a sexy but vaguely impractical tail.