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Researchers found crocodilians, bats, raccoons and other creatures prowling a Florida town's storm drains, ''like something out of 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,''' one said. An enduring urban legend has it [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The long structures seen in manta rays and their relatives function as an early warning system, rather than a defensive weapon. With hornlike facial fins and diamond-shape [...]

The long structures seen in manta rays and their relatives function as an early warning system, rather than a defensive weapon. With hornlike facial fins and diamond-shape bodies that can [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea It was not always easy being a dinosaur. When they scampered onto the scene 230 million years ago, these 'terrible lizards' were prehistoric pipsqueaks among a slew [...]

It was not always easy being a dinosaur. When they scampered onto the scene 230 million years ago, these ''terrible lizards'' were prehistoric pipsqueaks among a slew of bigger, badder [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea With gargoyle-like faces, razor-sharp fangs and an insatiable thirst for blood, vampire bats are nightmare fuel. And that's before they start running. Unlike most bats, which largely [...]

With gargoyle-like faces, razor-sharp fangs and an insatiable thirst for blood, vampire bats are nightmare fuel. And that's before they start running. Unlike most bats, which largely avoid the ground, [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Fossils reveal that prehistoric cicadas' wings evolved to help them evade hungry predators with feathers and beaks, scientists say. Today, few critters are as abundant as cicadas. [...]

Fossils reveal that prehistoric cicadas' wings evolved to help them evade hungry predators with feathers and beaks, scientists say. Today, few critters are as abundant as cicadas. Thousands of different [...]

Con caras de gárgola, colmillos afilados y una insaciable sed de sangre, los murciélagos vampiro son combustible de pesadillas. Y eso es antes de que empiecen a correr. A diferencia [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The Tsavo man-eaters terrorized railroad workers in British East Africa in the 19th century, but their tastes went well beyond human flesh. In British East Africa in [...]

The Tsavo man-eaters terrorized railroad workers in British East Africa in the 19th century, but their tastes went well beyond human flesh. In British East Africa in 1898, two lions [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The artwork suggests that the San people of South Africa have an Indigenous knowledge of paleontology that predated Western approaches to the field. On a sandstone cliff [...]

The artwork suggests that the San people of South Africa have an Indigenous knowledge of paleontology that predated Western approaches to the field. On a sandstone cliff in South Africa, [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The aquatic reptiles cannot resist eating invasive toads that are toxic, so scientists gave the crocodiles a dose of nonlethal food poisoning to adjust their behavior. When [...]

The aquatic reptiles cannot resist eating invasive toads that are toxic, so scientists gave the crocodiles a dose of nonlethal food poisoning to adjust their behavior. When Dr. Seuss compared [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Scientists found an unexpected aging pattern in a mostly intact juvenile mammal skeleton from the paleontological period. Small mammals often live fast and die young. Rodents and [...]

Scientists found an unexpected aging pattern in a mostly intact juvenile mammal skeleton from the paleontological period. Small mammals often live fast and die young. Rodents and shrews mature quickly, [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea These fossilized 'blobs' were a puzzle 310 million years old. Paleontologists decided that they were odd jellyfish named Essexella asherae. But the creature's anatomy was unlike that [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea A fossil bed in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco is allowing new insights into the anatomies of arthropods that lived a half-billion years ago. Hundreds of [...]

A fossil bed in the High Atlas Mountains of Morocco is allowing new insights into the anatomies of arthropods that lived a half-billion years ago. Hundreds of millions of years [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The brittle star specimen suggests that the sea creatures have been splitting themselves in two to reproduce for more than 150 million years. Some brittle stars give [...]

The brittle star specimen suggests that the sea creatures have been splitting themselves in two to reproduce for more than 150 million years. Some brittle stars give an arm and [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea A series of foot tracks in southeastern China points to the discovery of a giant velociraptor relative, paleontologists suggest in a new study. Thanks to their reign [...]

A series of foot tracks in southeastern China points to the discovery of a giant velociraptor relative, paleontologists suggest in a new study. Thanks to their reign of terror in [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Extinct foxes and other animals were an important part of early South American communities, a new study has found. When roving bands of hunter-gatherers domesticated the wolves [...]

Extinct foxes and other animals were an important part of early South American communities, a new study has found. When roving bands of hunter-gatherers domesticated the wolves scavenging their scraps [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Researchers examined fossils of the predatory worm and found a new species that persisted for 25 million years after it was believed to have become extinct. With [...]

Researchers examined fossils of the predatory worm and found a new species that persisted for 25 million years after it was believed to have become extinct. With a head covered [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea What paleontologists long believed were long spines on the aptly named Alienacanthus turn out to be an extended lower jaw. Some 375 million years ago, armored fishes [...]

What paleontologists long believed were long spines on the aptly named Alienacanthus turn out to be an extended lower jaw. Some 375 million years ago, armored fishes ruled a watery [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Fossil teeth reveal Gigantopithecus was doomed by a changing environment and an inflexible diet. Standing nearly as tall as a basketball hoop and weighing as much as [...]

Fossil teeth reveal Gigantopithecus was doomed by a changing environment and an inflexible diet. Standing nearly as tall as a basketball hoop and weighing as much as a grizzly bear, [...]

Fossils collected more than 150 years ago show that the techniques some creatures use for defensive curling have not changed in millions of years. When the going got tough in [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea This study has everything: jumping spiders; insects donning striped and solid patterns; and evolutionary lessons about predators and prey. The researchers started by collecting plain-looking termites from [...]

This study has everything: jumping spiders; insects donning striped and solid patterns; and evolutionary lessons about predators and prey. The researchers started by collecting plain-looking termites from the wild. Then [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea While the extinction affected some flower species, most lineages survived and the catastrophe may have helped them become a dominant form of plant life. When a mountain-size [...]

While the extinction affected some flower species, most lineages survived and the catastrophe may have helped them become a dominant form of plant life. When a mountain-size slab of space [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The specimens are evidence of how little the squishy, tentacled predators have changed over the history of life on Earth. Jellyfish have been floating through Earth's oceans [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The snaggletoothed cetacean used teeth projected from its snout to stun prey, much like modern sawfish do. The waters off New Zealand 25 million years ago were [...]

The snaggletoothed cetacean used teeth projected from its snout to stun prey, much like modern sawfish do. The waters off New Zealand 25 million years ago were home to early [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Scientists were able to unlock the identity of an ichthyosaur that had been reduced to a two-dimension jumble of bones. While exploring an Arctic mountaintop in 2008, [...]

Scientists were able to unlock the identity of an ichthyosaur that had been reduced to a two-dimension jumble of bones. While exploring an Arctic mountaintop in 2008, paleontologists unearthed a [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea The apex dinosaur's terrifying teeth were sheathed in lip-like tissue, some paleontologists say. Imagine them more akin to Komodo dragons than crocodiles. Brimming with serrated teeth bigger [...]

The apex dinosaur's terrifying teeth were sheathed in lip-like tissue, some paleontologists say. Imagine them more akin to Komodo dragons than crocodiles. Brimming with serrated teeth bigger than bananas, Tyrannosaurus [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Researchers developed a new estimate of the neck length of Mamenchisaurus, which foraged for foliage more than 150 million years ago in what is now China. Few [...]

Researchers developed a new estimate of the neck length of Mamenchisaurus, which foraged for foliage more than 150 million years ago in what is now China. Few creatures have pushed [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea A fossil fish called Dunkleosteus was less svelte shark and more rotund tuna, but that only made it a fiercer predator in the seas of the Devonian [...]

A fossil fish called Dunkleosteus was less svelte shark and more rotund tuna, but that only made it a fiercer predator in the seas of the Devonian Period. With a [...]

Byline: Jack Tamisiea Fossils found in New Zealand highlight an era after the dinosaurs when giant flightless birds prowled the seas for prey. New Zealand has been a haven for [...]