
A Failure of Imagination
Nature does not have to play fair with our puny human brains
Nature does not have to play fair with our puny human brains
These are startling times, but there’s a way out
Is life’s persistence on Earth really the norm?
In a vast game of chance and competition, things can get ugly
Small, feathery dinosaurs jettisoned indigestible food just like some modern birds do
At the end of her time at Scientific American, Riley Black reflects on the history of Laelaps
An injury on an ancient bone hints that a saber-toothed carnivore healed fast for its time
A fossil found in Alaska may help explain why a mysterious group of seagoing creatures went extinct
The fossil of an ancient squid relative tells paleontologists something new about the reptile that tried to feed on it
Stunning new fossil reveals that at least one Cretaceous slime mold—an “intelligent” giant amoeba—looks identical to one alive today
A fossil penguin wing found in Antarctica has broader implications for what dinosaurs looked like
Ancient drought and unfortunate bathroom habits may have doomed some ice age sloths
Smell was certainly an important part of dinosaur life. What do we know about it?
A study of whale feeding habits found that food is the main limit to the size of ocean giants
Envisioning the Jurassic world requires a lot of fossil detective work
A new study finds that many crocodile species can bound and gallop. But alligators can’t
Explaining the very long steps of Earth’s oxygenation—and perhaps that of other planets, too
A new study casts doubt over the suggestion that alligators use sticks to catch birds
Meandering rivers may hold a vital clue to the earth’s capacity for life
Out of 25 living crocodilian species, all but one have been seen to “death roll”
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