Ammonites are a tale of two textures. The prehistoric cephalopods were composed of fleshy soft tissue (the living bit of the animals) and hard external shells, which, according to a paper published ...

The fossil was hidden in a museum drawer for decades before researchers reexamined it to uncover a story about prehistoric life — and death. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an ...

Ninety-nine million years ago in what's now Myanmar, a glob of tree resin oozed onto a beach. Today, the resulting fossilized lump of amber is giving scientists an astonishing glimpse into life on a ...

A few weeks ago I wrote about how mosasaurs deftly cracked into the coiled shells of ammonites. The immense, seagoing lizards had a well-honed technique for breaking open the outer defenses of ...

These extinct shelled cephalopods ruled the ocean for 300 million years. But how they swam and shaped the seas remains a mystery. "Snake stones" or ancient sea creature? Credit: opacity/flickr/CC ...

If you’ve ever been in a shop that sells fossils — the natural history museum gift shop, the nature store in the mall, and so on — you’ve probably seen an ammonite. Its chambered coils make a distinct ...