The newly renovated fossil hall at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History features spectacular fossils and includes a theme of human impact on life on Earth.
fossils & paleontology
Posted inNews
Earth’s Eccentric Orbit Helped Preserve Rare Soft-Tissue Fossils
Cyclical changes in Earth’s orbit helped to preserve rare fossils in Morocco.
Posted inNews
King of the Tyrannosaurs Goes on Display
The biggest, oldest T. rex found to date shows how big tyrannosaurs could get.
Posted inAGU News
How Did We Get Here?
With a discovery made from fossils in the seabed, paleoceanographers and paleoclimatologists began tracing the delicate path between ancient eras and our future.
Posted inNews
Scientists Discover Pristine Collection of Soft-Tissue Fossils
The fossils include jellyfish, box jellies, branched algae, and sponges, which are underrepresented in or missing from other deposits.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
More Evidence Humans Migrated to the Americas via Coastal Route
A new chronology shows that ice-free areas existed along the British Columbia coast earlier than previously thought.
Posted inNews
Extinct Megatoothed Shark May Have Been Warm-Blooded
Preliminary results from a recent study may begin to shed light on why megalodons died out before the most recent ice age.
Posted inNews
Neanderthals Likely Ate Rotten Meat
Neanderthals have long been painted as meat-eating machines. But could a new look at a dietary proxy and how it changes when meat rots uncover insights into what these extinct hominids really ate?
Posted inGeoFIZZ
Self-Guided Tour of the Geology in D. C. Buildings
The architecture of the nation’s capital reveals a secret geologic history—take a walking tour to spot the interesting fossils and minerals in the stones used to build the halls of power.
Posted inNews
How Did Life Recover After Earth’s Worst-Ever Mass Extinction?
Ocean animals at the top of the food chain recovered first after a cataclysm at the end of the Permian period. The extinction was triggered by events resembling the changes brewing in today’s oceans.