NEWSNATIONNOW (Sergio Robles) - Fossils found in Southern California could be prehistoric 'thunder beast' or 'swamp rhino'
The fossil bones were found in thick sedimentary rocks that are exposed in that area of San Diego County.
AMERICANALMANAC (Lynn Jenkins) - Ancient teeth suggest betel-nut use in Indonesia 25,000 years ago
Ancient teeth from Indonesia may show betel-nut use 25,000 years ago, pushing a widespread mind-affecting habit deep into humanity’s hunter-gatherer past. Researchers found deep, unusual grooves and chemical traces in ancient teeth from Sulawesi, an island in modern-day Indonesia. They say the evidence fits decades of sucking betel nuts. The remains date as far back […] The post Ancient teeth suggest betel-nut use in Indonesia 25,000 years ago appeared first on American Almanac .
Ancient teeth from Indonesia may show betel-nut use 25,000 years ago, pushing a widespread mind-affecting habit deep into humanity’s hunter-gatherer past. Researchers found deep, unusual grooves and chemical traces in ancient teeth from Sulawesi, an island in modern-day Indonesia. They say the evidence fits decades of sucking betel nuts. The remains date as far back as 25,000 years. If the researchers are right, the discovery captures an early form of a habit now practiced by about 600 million people. A second set of teeth, found about 20 miles east, carried similar marks. Those teeth may be up to 8,000 years old. The research, led by Griffith University archaeology professor Adam Brumm, was published in Science Advances. The team…Open
ABCNEWS (ABC News: Top Stories) - WATCH: High school teacher discovers T. rex tracks in North Dakota
Denver Museum of Nature & Science research associate Kent Hups discusses his discovery of T. rex footprints in the Badlands.
NYTIMES (Adeel Hassan) - A T. Rex Walked Here: Teacher Finds Rare Footprints in North Dakota
Kent Hups, a high school science teacher in Colorado, discovered a 23-foot trackway of fossilized dinosaur footprints, which offer a glimpse of how the apex predator moved 66 million years ago.
AMERICANALMANAC (Sadie Smith) - Paleontologists find first-ever adult T. rex trackway in North Dakota badlands
A high school teacher volunteering on a fossil dig stumbled onto four connected Tyrannosaurus rex footprints in the North Dakota badlands, the first trackway ever confirmed from a full-grown T. rex. Kent Hups, an amateur fossil hunter, made the find in 2025 while working on a dig led by Dr. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of […] The post Paleontologists find first-ever adult T. rex trackway in North Dakota badlands appeared first on American Almanac .
A high school teacher volunteering on a fossil dig stumbled onto four connected Tyrannosaurus rex footprints in the North Dakota badlands, the first trackway ever confirmed from a full-grown T. rex. Kent Hups, an amateur fossil hunter, made the find in 2025 while working on a dig led by Dr. Tyler Lyson, senior curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. The site sits on U.S. Forest Service land near Marmarth, a small town in southwestern North Dakota close to the Montana border. A peer-reviewed paper describing the discovery was published this week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. Before this find, only two isolated adult T. rex footprints had ever been confirmed anywhere on Earth, one in New…Open
AMERICANALMANAC (Charles McAdams) - A T. rex walked slower than most joggers, new fossil trackway study finds
Scientists who analyzed rare Tyrannosaurus rex footprints in North Dakota say the fearsome predator strolled at roughly 3.5 miles per hour, a pace a healthy human could match without breaking a sweat. A team from Liverpool John Moores University and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science studied a 23-foot trackway preserved in the Hell […] The post A T. rex walked slower than most joggers, new fossil trackway study finds appeared first on American Almanac .
Scientists who analyzed rare Tyrannosaurus rex footprints in North Dakota say the fearsome predator strolled at roughly 3.5 miles per hour, a pace a healthy human could match without breaking a sweat. A team from Liverpool John Moores University and the Denver Museum of Nature & Science studied a 23-foot trackway preserved in the Hell Creek Formation of southwestern North Dakota. The trail holds four three-toed footprints, each about three feet long, spaced at a stride length of roughly 13 feet. Using 3D surface scanning and physical reproductions of the prints, the researchers calculated that the animal moved at between 3.5 and 4.5 miles per hour, barely faster than a brisk walk for a fit adult. Professor Peter Falkingham, who led the…Open
AMERICANALMANAC (Charles McAdams) - Geomorphologist stumbles onto 2.5-million-year-old mastodon molar in California creek bed
A scientist surveying a California creek bed for a frog habitat project accidentally discovered a pristinely preserved Pacific Mastodon tooth estimated to be 2.5 million years old, now headed to Stanford University for research. Brigid Lynch, a geomorphologist with Balance Hydrologics, was picking through rocks in a San Mateo County creek bed when one caught […] The post Geomorphologist stumbles onto 2.5-million-year-old mastodon molar in California creek bed appeared first on American Almanac .
A scientist surveying a California creek bed for a frog habitat project accidentally discovered a pristinely preserved Pacific Mastodon tooth estimated to be 2.5 million years old, now headed to Stanford University for research. Brigid Lynch, a geomorphologist with Balance Hydrologics, was picking through rocks in a San Mateo County creek bed when one caught her eye. She photographed the oddly shaped stone and moved on. The next day, reviewing the image, she realized she wasn't looking at a rock at all. It was a mastodon molar, an upper left third molar from a beast that roamed Ice Age California. The accidental find, The Sun reported , has now been donated to Stanford University's Doerr School of Sustainability, where researchers plan…Open
NYTIMES (Annie Roth) - What Did Jurassic Forests Sound Like? Like This.
Scientists spent over a decade reconstructing the calls of nine species of ancient insects to create the first accurate Jurassic soundscape.
AMERICANALMANAC (Lynn Jenkins) - Researchers reconstruct sounds of Jurassic insects from fossilized wings
Scientists have used fossilized insect wings and advanced modeling to recreate the strange calls that once filled Jurassic forests, offering a glimpse into a long-lost world that challenges our assumptions about the past. A team led by Dr. Fernando Montealegre-Zapata from the University of Lincoln analyzed 20 fossils from nine insect species, all found in […] The post Researchers reconstruct sounds of Jurassic insects from fossilized wings appeared first on American Almanac .
Scientists have used fossilized insect wings and advanced modeling to recreate the strange calls that once filled Jurassic forests, offering a glimpse into a long-lost world that challenges our assumptions about the past. A team led by Dr. Fernando Montealegre-Zapata from the University of Lincoln analyzed 20 fossils from nine insect species, all found in China’s Inner Mongolia region and dating back roughly 165 million years. These ancient bugs, ancestors of today’s grasshoppers and katydids, left behind wing structures with microscopic ridges and a scraper known as a plectrum, clues that helped the team reconstruct their calls. Using microscope scans, laser measurements, computer modeling, and machine learning, the researchers…Open
AMERICANALMANAC (Charles McAdams) - Five extinct shark species unearthed in Egypt's desert from the age of dinosaurs
Scientists digging in Egypt's southwestern desert have uncovered fossilized remains of five extinct shark species dating to the Late Cretaceous period, a find that includes the first fossil record of its kind for Egypt and the African continent. Archaeologists excavating phosphate beds in the Duwi Formation, a geological deposit laid down when sea levels ran […] The post Five extinct shark species unearthed in Egypt's desert from the age of dinosaurs appeared first on American Almanac .
Scientists digging in Egypt's southwestern desert have uncovered fossilized remains of five extinct shark species dating to the Late Cretaceous period, a find that includes the first fossil record of its kind for Egypt and the African continent. Archaeologists excavating phosphate beds in the Duwi Formation, a geological deposit laid down when sea levels ran between 320 and 850 feet higher than they stand today, pulled 14 fossilized shark teeth from what was once a warm, tropical marine environment. The discovery, published in the journal Cretaceous Research , represents a new assemblage of extinct lamniform sharks, an order that includes some of the most formidable predators ever to patrol the world's oceans. The find matters because it…Open