Featured
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News |
Prized dinosaur fossil returned to Brazil after controversy
The one-of-a-kind specimen will be housed at a museum in Santana do Cariri, near where it was found.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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News & Views |
Infancy of sterol biosynthesis hints at extinct eukaryotic species
A newly discovered fossil record of steroid molecules, spanning 1.64 billion years, points to ancient organisms in the eukaryotic domain being capable of only early steps in the synthesis of sterol molecules.
- Fabien Kenig
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News |
A ‘lost world’ of early microbes thrived one billion years ago
Fat-like compounds in ancient rocks point to a vast array of previously unknown microorganisms that once dominated complex life on Earth.
- Heidi Ledford
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Article |
Lost world of complex life and the late rise of the eukaryotic crown
Analysis of sedimentary rocks from the mid-Proterozoic interval reveals traces of protosteroids, suggesting the widespread presence of stem-group eukaryotes that predated and co-existed with the crown-group ancestors of modern eukaryotes.
- Jochen J. Brocks
- , Benjamin J. Nettersheim
- & Janet M. Hope
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Research Highlight |
This gigantic toothy reptile terrorized the Jurassic oceans
Fossils show that extinct marine beasts called pliosaurs might have grown to be nearly as large as a sperm whale.
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News |
Prized dinosaur fossil will finally be returned to Brazil
Following theft accusations, a German museum is set to hand over a one-of-a-kind dinosaur specimen with feather-like structures.
- Meghie Rodrigues
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Review Article |
Reappraising the palaeobiology of Australopithecus
This Review examines the palaeobiology of Australopithecus in terms of morphology, phylogeny, diet, tool use, locomotor behaviour and other characteristics, and considers the role of this genus of hominins in human evolution.
- Zeresenay Alemseged
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Article |
Testosterone histories from tusks reveal woolly mammoth musth episodes
Comparisons of steroid hormone concentrations in dentin samples from fossil mammoth tusks with those from a modern elephant tusk provide evidence of periodic increases in testosterone in the male mammoth characteristic of musth episodes.
- Michael D. Cherney
- , Daniel C. Fisher
- & Alexei N. Tikhonov
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Article
| Open AccessAncient human DNA recovered from a Palaeolithic pendant
A non-destructive DNA isolation method for the stepwise release of DNA trapped in ancient tooth and bone artefacts is developed.
- Elena Essel
- , Elena I. Zavala
- & Matthias Meyer
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Research Highlight |
Amber reveals beetles with a fluffy diet: dinosaur feathers
Larvae that fed on ancient plumage reveal the deep roots of keratin-eating insects.
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Nature Podcast |
Octopuses hunt by ‘tasting’ with their suckers
The receptors that help octopuses sense by touch, plus a round-up of stories from the Nature Briefing.
- Benjamin Thompson
- & Nick Petrić Howe
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News |
Facelift for T. rex: analysis suggests teeth were covered by thin lips
Crocodiles and Komodo dragons provide evidence to support the idea of a scaly cover over the teeth of dinosaur Tyrannosaurus rex.
- Dyani Lewis
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Career Q&A |
Promoting palaeontology across Sudan
Despite facing sociocultural and political barriers, vertebrate palaeontologist Khalafallah Salih returned home to train the next generation.
- Shihab Jamal
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Article |
Protomelission is an early dasyclad alga and not a Cambrian bryozoan
Protomelission-like macrofossils from the Xiaoshiba Lagerstätte show features characteristic of dasycladalean green alga, suggesting that Protomelission is unlikely to be an early bryozoan.
- Jie Yang
- , Tian Lan
- & Martin R. Smith
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News |
Big dino, little dino: how T. rex’s relatives changed their size
‘Impressive’ fossil analysis reveals why some dinosaurs were massive but their cousins were tiny.
- Dyani Lewis
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Research Highlight |
Extinct insects hunted like predatory giraffes
Immature lacewings had long, spindly ‘necks’ that might have helped them hide their bodies from their prey.
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Article |
Late Cenozoic cooling restructured global marine plankton communities
Analysis of Triton, a high-resolution dataset documenting the macroperforate planktonic foraminifera fossil record, reveals a global climate-linked equatorward shift of ecological and morphological community equitability over the past 8 million years.
- Adam Woodhouse
- , Anshuman Swain
- & Christopher M. Lowery
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News |
Sea life bounced back fast after the ‘mother of mass extinctions’
A treasure trove of fossils uncovered in China challenges the idea that marine animals took millions of years to recover from the world’s worst die-off.
- Dyani Lewis
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News & Views |
Fish fossil unfolds clues to vertebrate brain evolution
A 319-million-year-old fossil provides the oldest known evidence of preserved vertebrate brain tissue. This specimen offers insights into the brain evolution of ray-finned fishes, the most diverse group of living vertebrates.
- Hugo Dutel
- & Matteo Fabbri
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Article |
Exceptional fossil preservation and evolution of the ray-finned fish brain
A well-preserved 319-million-year-old brain of the extinct vertebrate Coccocephalus wildi provides insights into neural anatomy deep within the phylogeny of ray-finned fish.
- Rodrigo T. Figueroa
- , Danielle Goodvin
- & Sam Giles
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Article
| Open AccessTriassic stem caecilian supports dissorophoid origin of living amphibians
Analysis of fossils of the oldest known caecilian provide insights into the origin and morphological and functional evolution of caecilians.
- Ben T. Kligman
- , Bryan M. Gee
- & Michelle R. Stocker
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News & Views |
25th anniversary of the first known feathered dinosaurs
Our understanding of the origin of birds took a major step forward in 1998, thanks to the reported discovery of a remarkable fossil that unveiled the existence of feathered dinosaurs. Fossil publications that year caused a sensation.
- Kevin Padian
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Nature Podcast |
The science stories you missed over the past four weeks
We highlight some stories from the Nature Briefing, including climate promises from Brazil’s President Lula, how glass frogs hide their blood, and a new statue of Henrietta Lacks.
- Benjamin Thompson
- , Noah Baker
- & Flora Graham
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Where I Work |
Me and my rhino: a relationship five million years in the making
A construction site in Tennessee that was once an ancient watering hole yields fossils that give field technician Laura Emmert clues about the rhinoceros, mastodon and other wildlife that congregated there.
- Jack Leeming
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Research Highlight |
Bone bed hints at a birthing ground for marine reptiles bigger than buses
Fossils of adult and infant ichthyosaurs suggest that the ocean-going giants congregated to have their young.
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Nature Video |
Record-breaking ancient DNA found in frozen soil
Two-million-year-old DNA from extinct mammals has been sequenced, revealing a lost world in Greenland .
- Shamini Bundell
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Research Highlight |
Dinosaurs bashed each other with built-in tail clubs
Exceptionally preserved fossil suggests the armoured species Zuul crurivastator used its ‘tail club’ for battles with rivals.
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Research Briefing |
DNA reveals that mastodons roamed a forested Greenland two million years ago
Ancient environmental DNA from northern Greenland opens a new chapter in genetic research, demonstrating that it is possible to track the ecology and evolution of biological communities two million years ago. The record shows an open boreal-forest ecosystem inhabited by large animals such as mastodons and reindeer.
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News & Views |
Fossil find suggests ancestral bird beak was mobile
A 67-million-year-old fossil bird found in Europe provides evidence suggesting that scientists should reconsider centuries-old ideas about the nature of the ancestral avian beak.
- Christopher R. Torres
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News |
67-million-year-old fossil upends bird evolutionary tree
Beak bone from ancient bird revises order of their modern ancestors.
- Dyani Lewis
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Article |
Cretaceous ornithurine supports a neognathous crown bird ancestor
A new taxon of toothed Late Cretaceous ornithurine preserving a pterygoid is reported, overturning assumptions about the nature of the ancestral crown bird skull.
- Juan Benito
- , Pei-Chen Kuo
- & Daniel J. Field
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News |
Ancient skull uncovered in China could be million-year-old Homo erectus
Fieldwork is under way to excavate a rare, well-preserved specimen in central China.
- Dyani Lewis
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Nature Index |
Pressure to publish is ‘fuelling illegal practices in palaeontology’
More safeguards and stronger journal policies are needed to curb the problem, say authors of analysis on publication trends.
- Clare Watson
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Book Review |
The rise of scientific racism in palaeoanthropology
A forensic anthropologist unmasks insidious interpretations of fossil finds.
- Fatimah Jackson
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Where I Work |
Using hyrax latrines to investigate climate change
Lynne Quick sifts through piles of ancient animal dung and dried urine to find signs of past climates in preserved pollen and charcoal.
- Nicola Jones
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Research Highlight |
How the dinosaur got its long neck: slowly
A Brazilian fossil suggests that the super-stretcher necks of Argentinosaurus and its ilk evolved gradually rather than in a rush.
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News & Views |
An exceptional fossil lizard from the Jurassic period
Lizards and snakes belong to the highly successful group of reptiles called squamates, but a poor fossil record has obscured their early evolutionary history. A discovery now sheds light on this enigmatic portion of the tree of life.
- Arnau Bolet
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Article |
Synchrotron tomography of a stem lizard elucidates early squamate anatomy
A study using high-resolution synchrotron phase-contrast tomography documents the near-complete skeleton of a stem squamate, Bellairsia gracilis, from the Middle Jurassic epoch of Scotland, providing insights into early squamate anatomy.
- Mateusz Tałanda
- , Vincent Fernandez
- & Roger J. Benson
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Article |
Environmental signal in the evolutionary diversification of bird skeletons
Morphological diversification in living birds is analysed, with substantial variation in evolutionary modes among subgroups and skeletal parts found, along with an important role for environmental divergence in structuring the radiation of crown-group birds.
- Guillermo Navalón
- , Alexander Bjarnason
- & Roger B. J. Benson
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Research Highlight |
This dinosaur looked like an ostrich but was as big as an elephant
Beasts with small heads and long legs roved an ancient supercontinent that included North America and most of Asia.
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Matters Arising |
Reply to: Triassic sauropodomorph eggshell might not be soft
- Mark A. Norell
- , Jasmina Wiemann
- & Darla K. Zelenitsky
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Matters Arising |
Triassic sauropodomorph eggshell might not be soft
- Seung Choi
- , Tzu-Ruei Yang
- & Noe-Heon Kim
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Article |
Scleromochlus and the early evolution of Pterosauromorpha
Using microcomputed tomographic scans, whole-skeletal reconstruction of the tiny Scleromochlus taylori from the early Late Triassic of Scotland reveals new anatomical details, identifying it as a cousin of pterosaurs.
- Davide Foffa
- , Emma M. Dunne
- & Paul M. Barrett
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News |
Geneticist who unmasked lives of ancient humans wins medicine Nobel
Svante Pääbo has made stunning discoveries about human evolution using ancient DNA — and his work helped to spawn the competitive field of palaeogenomics.
- Ewen Callaway
- & Heidi Ledford
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News & Views |
Fossils reveal the deep roots of jawed vertebrates
Scarce evidence indicates that key evolutionary steps for jawed vertebrates occurred during or before the Silurian period, 444 million to 419 million years ago. Fossil finds pull back the curtain on this interval.
- Matt Friedman
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Article |
The oldest complete jawed vertebrates from the early Silurian of China
Two new species of well-preserved jawed fishes with complete bodies from the early Silurian period (Telychian age, around 436 million years ago) of Chongqing, South China are described: a jawed stem gnathostome, Xiushanosteus mirabilis, and a chondrichthyan, Shenacanthus vermiformis.
- You-an Zhu
- , Qiang Li
- & Min Zhu
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Nature Podcast |
A trove of ancient fish fossils helps trace the origin of jaws
400-millon-year-old find gives insights into the evolution of jawed vertebrates, and the lack of evidence in transgender policy.
- Benjamin Thompson
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Article |
The oldest gnathostome teeth
Direct evidence for the presence of jawed vertebrates in the early Silurian (around 439 million years ago) is provided by isolated tooth whorls of the gnathostome Qianodus duplicis from Guizhou province, China.
- Plamen S. Andreev
- , Ivan J. Sansom
- & Min Zhu