Primordial bestiary gets an annex
Burgess shale site expands to include thinner deposits

Oldest dog debated
Fossil jaw may, or may not, come from oldest known example of man's best friend

Apes and Old World monkeys may have split later than thought
Fossil find resets timing of major event in primate evolution

Moby Dick meets Jaws
Extinct whale had teeth bigger than T. rex's

Ancient marine reptiles losing their cool
Study suggests creatures might have been warm-blooded

Octopus origins
Tiny, ancestral cephalopod had just two tentacles

Earliest birds didn't make a flap
Archaeopteryx, Confuciusornis plumage probably not strong enough to support sustained flight

Archaeopteryx fossil seen in new light
X-ray fluorescence reveals startling details, remains of some soft tissues in 150-million-year-old specimen

Dinos molted for a new look
In one species, feathers change with age

Tyrannosaurs lived in the Southern Hemisphere, too
Australian fossils suggest the kin of T. rex dispersed globally

Fossilized poop bears tooth marks
Shark-bitten fecal matter probably came from assault on ancient croc

Ancient DNA suggests polar bears evolved recently
Rare fossil shows creatures are most closely related to modern-day brown bears in Alaska

Sail-backed dinos had semiaquatic lifestyle
Isotopic analyses of fossils suggest crocodile-like habits

Oldest feathered dino shows its colors
Finding suggests plumage first evolved for display, not flight

Deleted Scenes: Reverbs of bat echolocation studies
Ancient bat may well have used sound waves to sense the world, Sid Perkins reports in the latest Deleted Scenes blog