Articles

• Sail-back dinosaur got flashier with age

  Detailed examination of this cousin of Iguanodon shows that its big sail evolved to show off to mates and rivals.

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• Pterosaurs maintained high diversity until the end

  Two Moroccan phosphate mines have yielded dozens of specimens from at least seven different pterosaur species in three different families. The high diversity of sizes and ecological roles found there suggests that pterosaurs remained competitive with birds at medium and large body sizes until the mass extinction at the close of the Mesozoic Era.

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• Ice cream cone with a trapdoor finds its place on the Tree of Life

  Hyoliths, an enigmatic group of Paleozoic invertebrates have long puzzled paleontologists. A new analysis of hundreds of specimens shows that they are close relatives of brachiopods or lamp shells.

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• The evolution of filter-feeding in whales

  Baleen whales underwent a number of evolutionary transitions on the journey from small hunters to giant filter-feeders. Recent research shows that there were a large number of experimental methods of feeding, including the origin of filter feeding long before the origin of baleen.

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• The dinosaurs that dug their own grave

  Recent discoveries in Montana and Idaho have uncovered a previously unknown behavior in dinosaurs: digging. These creatures, known as orodromines, had robust and muscular arms, shoulders, and hips that were well-suited to digging out burrows. Fossil remains of adults and juveniles suggest that these peculiar dinosaurs took care of their young.

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