Dinosaur coloration has always been a source of wild speculation. Artistic renders have ranged from the conservative (battleship grey, lizard green) to the flamboyant, but all guesses appeared equally valid. While there are some wonderfully preserved examples of dinosaur skin texture, fossils have remained stubbornly monochromatic… until now. [more inside]
posted by Bora Horza Gobuchul on Aug 11, 2009 - 62 comments

Worship the Trilobite. [Via Pharyngula.]
posted by homunculus on Jan 16, 2008 - 32 comments

Scientists discover fossilized claw of enormous ancient sea scorpion. They estimate this thing was 2.5 meters long. Sorry about the nightmares. [via]
posted by flotson on Nov 21, 2007 - 49 comments

GIANT PENGUINS! The discovery in 2005 of fossils in Peru is challenging previous views about the evolution of penguins. They were tall, fast, and enjoyed being smacked by cavemen*.

* may not be true
posted by Stynxno on Jun 29, 2007 - 31 comments

A retired construction guy with a large property was bulldozing a new driveway and noticed some shiny rocks. He excavated carefully, revealing an entire forest of upright, undisturbed petrified trees (photo gallery). Soon he began cataloging and selling pieces to museums but has since stopped. More about his find. (via girlhacker)
posted by mathowie on May 4, 2007 - 29 comments

"Hundreds of skeletons of prehistoric animals have been found in a volcanic ash bed buried beneath the rolling farmlands of northeastern Nebraska. Some of the best-preserved fossil rhinos, horses, camels, and birds known anywhere have been, and are being, excavated by museum crews working in the Ashfall Fossil Beds in northern Antelope County." [*]Guide from the Nebraska Game and Parks with a quick video tour [*]More information from Nebraska's NET page [*]Wikipedia Link [*] Photos from a Field Trip of Geologists
posted by j-urb on Dec 18, 2006 - 19 comments

Orsten or stinkstone (it smells like rotten eggs), is a limestone nodule that has preserved Cambrian fossils extremely well. Scanning Electron Microscopic images of the fossils reveals incredible detail.
posted by obedo on Oct 9, 2005 - 8 comments

Fossil records show Biodiversity comes and goes in a 62 million year cycle. The analysis, performed by researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and UBC, has withstood thorough testing so that confidence in the results is above 99-percent.
posted by furtive on Apr 8, 2005 - 37 comments

The life and times of Thalassocnus, the aquatic sloth. They're long extinct, but apparently modern sloths are excellent swimmers, so you can imagine how they came to be.
posted by homunculus on Oct 12, 2004 - 5 comments

Why no Pliestocene Park? "Everyone seems to assume that the primeval condition of the Great Plains was bison and prairie dog, with the occasional pronghorn herd, but no other large mammals. Yet for 1.65 million years, North America teemed with large animals: the 'pleistocene megafauna.' Then as the last ice age was ending and the first humans were coming over from Siberia, most of them died out." Sad -- doesn't everybody want a pony?
posted by namespan on Sep 9, 2004 - 15 comments

Coelacanth quiz. Test your knowlege about this unpalatable but interesting ol' fish.
posted by Danf on Apr 7, 2004 - 6 comments

Fossil Horses in Cyberspace. Equine history.
posted by plep on Dec 4, 2003 - 5 comments

Scientists Find World's Oldest Known Genitals - A team led by Prof. Jason Dunlop from Humboldt University has found the world's oldest genitals. This new find is older than the previous record holder (discovered by Prof. David Siveter of the University of Leicester) by about 300 million years. The record holder for world's oldest pile of vomit remains unchallenged. Images of whip-wielding biologists in fedoras escaping giant rolling boulder traps to discover penis fossils flood my mind.
posted by Joey Michaels on Sep 22, 2003 - 9 comments

skulls
posted by crunchland on Sep 11, 2003 - 8 comments

This Thursday, the Canadian Museum of Nature opens an exhibit of Asian dinosaur skeletons from the Russian Paleontological Institute. Putting Russian dinosaur collections on tour reportedly raises funds for cash-strapped scientific institutions back home, but others allege that Russia's own museums are the poorer for it, and that the money -- and fossils -- may be going astray.
posted by mcwetboy on Oct 1, 2002 - 3 comments

Birds are not descended from Dinosaurs. The latest in the ongoing debate about the origin of birds and whether they evolved from dinosaurs or from a earlier common ancestor. Chinese scientists report the discovery of a 120 million year old bird fossil that had feathers and could clearly fly.
posted by lagado on Dec 10, 2000 - 3 comments