Palaeontology

A fossil site in Yunnan province, China, has yielded over 700 specimens dating from 554 to 537 million years ago, challenging the notion of a sudden diversification of complex life during the Cambrian explosion. The Jiangchuan biota includes bilaterians, deuterostomes, and previously unknown forms from the Ediacaran period. Researchers say these findings indicate animal communities had foundations before the Cambrian.

March 25, 2026 Iniulat ng AI

Researchers have re-examined a 125,000-year-old straight-tusked elephant skeleton found in Germany in 1948, confirming that Neanderthals hunted and butchered the animal with a wooden spear lodged in its ribs. The findings, detailed in a recent Scientific Reports study, provide vivid evidence of Neanderthal big-game hunting skills. The elephant, a prime male over 3.5 metres tall, shows clear cut marks from flint tools.

A newly discovered 230-million-year-old dinosaur fossil from Argentina suggests that the evolution of long necks in sauropods began much earlier than previously thought. Named Huayracursor jaguensis, the specimen shows early signs of neck elongation in a small, bipedal dinosaur. This finding challenges the idea of a gradual transition in sauropodomorph evolution.