Prehistoric life
"Within minutes, the asteroid created a 1.5 km curtain of rock that collapsed into the North Sea, creating a tsunami taller than Big Ben"
Did a huge asteroid really strike the North Sea millions of years ago?
It looked & acted like today’s moles – but this was the first: a Jurassic mammal built with supercharged digging arms for life beneath the dinosaurs
The mole that sheds light on how mammals evolved...
"It terrorised the seas 90 to 80 million years ago just a few million years before its equally ferocious two-legged namesake did the same thing on land..."
It might share its name with the largest meat-eating dinosaur that ever lived, but this isn’t the T.rex we all know and recognise…
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“It would have seen Lucy and thought, ‘Dinner.’” The newly-discovered prehistoric monster croc that would have terrified – and hunted – humans
Researchers have newly identified a huge apex predator that terrorised early humans and laid in wait for its prey
5 extraordinary, ancient human species that lived BEFORE we did: Meet the prehistoric pioneers who changed history forever
We're not the first species of ‘human’ to walk the Earth; thousands of years before us there was a rich diversity of hominins…
"Mothers are known to eat their own newborn babies..." 11 gruesome, grisly cannibal animals that feast on their own kind – you won't believe number 3
It may seem gruesome, but many animals have been recorded feeding on their own species. Here are 11 cannibalistic animals, including some that might surprise you.
"He may have had his leg grabbed by a crocodile and his head pulled by a leopard" 10 gruesome deaths and brutal moments preserved forever as fossils
To become a fossil, an animal has to die. However, not all deaths are equal and some are a lot more gruesome than others…
This gigantic tusk and more than 70 bones were dug up at a construction site in Germany. Here's why the discovery is so exceptional
After several years of detailed study, scientists from Germany have cracked a cold case that has been on ice since the Last Glacial Maximum.
Biggest scorpion to ever live revealed from 415-million-year-old fossils. It was 1m long and had pincers larger than table knives
These UK fossils have puzzled palaeontologists for more than a century. Now they’ve been re-examined and identified as an ancient scorpion that was larger than a cat
This cave lion was unearthed from Siberian permafrost. Scientists analysed its DNA – and made an unexpected discovery
It turns out there’s a lot more to extinct cave lions than scientists first thought…
"Imagine a scorpion that was the same size as a house cat." 10 gigantic, deadly, prehistoric insects that are the most terrifying to have ever lived
Entomophobes look away now! Here are some of the largest, deadliest, and most terrifying bugs to ever live…
"These specialised teeth allowed them to crack, crush, and chew bones." 10 fearsome, deadly prehistoric dogs that roamed Earth millions of years ago
They may be closely related to today’s domestic dogs, but you certainly wouldn’t want to pet these extinct canids… Meet 10 deadly prehistoric dogs
Siberia’s ‘Gateway to Hell’ is getting bigger. And it’s spewing out prehistoric animals
Known by some as the ‘Gateway to Hell’, the Batagay crater in Siberia is the world’s largest megaslump
Bizarre ‘witch croc’ that looks just like a dinosaur discovered in New Mexico
It might look like a dinosaur, but this strange, newly-discovered Triassic reptile belongs to the evolutionary lineage that led to crocodiles…
They interbred – but could humans and neanderthals actually talk to each other?
Our ancestors lived alongside Neanderthals for nearly 200,000 years, often interbreeding with them. But could they understand one another?
This lost ocean vanished millions of years ago – but it may have shaped the ancient mountains of the dinosaurs
A new study suggests the prehistoric Tethys Ocean was driving mountain formation thousands of kilometres away.
T.rex had absolutely tiny arms. We may finally know why – and it's all to do with its massive head
As the heads of giant, carnivorous dinosaurs got larger and stronger, their arms got smaller and smaller…
Colossal dinosaur discovered in Thailand. The 27-tonne giant was as long as a blue whale
A team of palaeontologists led by University College London have just announced the discovery of a brand-new species of dinosaur – the largest ever discovered in Southeast Asia
It's been confirmed – the kraken monster really did exist, 84 million years ago...
This giant cephalopod dwarfed mosasaurs and other massive marine reptiles that lived during the time of the dinosaurs…
"Any animals standing within 1,500km of the impact would have been instantly vaporised." 10 deadly, terrifying times to be alive...
Over the course of its 4.5-billion-year history, the Earth has witnessed its fair share of terrible times…
The prehistoric ‘graffiti’ cave where teenagers spray-painted their hands 9,000 years ago – and no one knows why...
Learn how an Italian priest uncovered the world’s largest and most dramatic display of handprints and rock art
"It looked more like something from Alien than an animal." 10 weirdest prehistoric bugs, including a car-sized one that weighed the same as a Labrador
If you thought there were some strange bugs living today, wait until you meet these oddballs from prehistory…
"They wore clothes, wielded fire, and created art; they may have even been smarter than us..." Just who were our closest cousins?
From ice-age hunters to our closest extinct relatives, this essential guide uncovers who the Neanderthals really were — and what they reveal about us.
"Extremely rare" platypus teeth found in Australian outback. Here's why the discovery has got scientists so excited
A new study describing the discovery of rare platypus fossils has shed some light on the evolutionary history of one of Earth’s most enigmatic mammals…
