Tag: Fossils

  • Nation & World

    500-million-year-old fossil reveals new secrets

    A new discovery, named Megasiphon thylakos, offers surprising insights on the evolution of tunicates.

    5 minutes
    Tunicate fossil.
  • Nation & World

    A big discovery of a tiny critter

    Discovery in 16-million-year-old amber is the third species of water bear ever found.

    4 minutes
    Amber specimen.
  • Nation & World

    Researcher connects the dots in fin-to-limb evolution

    With an innovative technique called anatomical network analysis, clear patterns emerge that help solve the puzzle of how fins became limbs 420 million years ago.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Breaking down backbones

    Harvard scientists are using the fossil record and a close examination of the vertebrae of thousands of modern animals to understand how and when specialized regions in the spines of mammals developed.

    4 minutes
    Fossil-vertebrae
  • Nation & World

    Retracing Romer’s footsteps

    A Harvard team finds a rare fossil in Nova Scotia while retracing the footsteps of Alfred Romer, the paleontologist who identified a gap in the record from the period when animals first crawled out of the ocean and began to walk on four legs.

    4 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Digitization uncovers pre-WWII fossil loan

    Digitization of Harvard’s fossil insect collection produced a surprising twist: The return to Germany of hundreds of Eocene insects frozen in amber.

    7 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Teeth marks

    A sophisticated examination of teeth from 11 Neanderthal and early human fossils suggests that modern humans’ slow development and long childhood are recent and unique to our own species, and may have given early humans an evolutionary advantage over Neanderthals.

    3 minutes
  • Nation & World

    Renaissance man

    A veteran Italian-American chef, Rosario Del Nero rediscovers the joys of learning at the Extension School, and wins an academic prize.

    3 minutes