Articles for category: Fossils & Fieldwork

Dinosaur skeleton exhibit under blue and purple lighting at the Museum of Mongolian Dinosaurs. The setting is dramatic and educational.

How Fossils Get Lost in Museum Basements for Decades

In the vast network of museum collections worldwide, millions of precious fossils lie carefully preserved – yet many remain unstudied and essentially lost to science for decades or even centuries. Behind the gleaming public exhibits that draw visitors, museums house enormous research collections in their basement storage areas, containing specimens that often outnumber displayed items ...

Ancient Earth Held Secrets of Evolution That Still Astound Scientists

Ancient Earth Held Secrets of Evolution That Still Astound Scientists

Think about all the discoveries happening right now. In 2026, we stand at an exciting intersection of technology and paleontology, where artificial intelligence can detect life signatures hidden for over three billion years. The history of our planet reads like a thriller, full of unexpected twists, hidden clues, and revelations that change everything we thought ...

Close-up of a dinosaur footprint fossil embedded in rocky ground. The texture is rugged, with shades of brown and green, conveying an ancient, historical feel.

What Fossil Footprints Reveal About Dinosaur Stampedes

Across the ancient landscapes of our planet, dinosaurs once thundered in massive herds, leaving behind only their fossilized footprints as evidence of these dramatic events. These trace fossils, preserved in stone for millions of years, provide paleontologists with a remarkable window into dinosaur behavior that skeletal remains alone cannot offer. Unlike bones, which reveal information ...

Implications Beyond Paleontology

The Truth About Soft Tissue in Dinosaur Fossils – And Why It’s Not DNA

When Mary Schweitzer first announced in 2005 that she had found soft tissue inside a 68-million-year-old T. rex bone, the scientific world erupted into controversy. This discovery seemed to contradict everything we knew about fossilization and the preservation of ancient organic material. Yet nearly two decades later, these findings have not only held up to ...

Dinosaur skeleton displayed in a glass case against a textured wall. The bones are arranged on a sandy surface, conveying an ancient, historical tone.

How Scientists Tell the Age of a Dinosaur Bone

When we marvel at dinosaur skeletons in museums, we’re looking at remains that are millions of years old. But how exactly do scientists determine the age of these ancient bones? Dating dinosaur fossils is a fascinating blend of chemistry, physics, geology, and paleontology that allows researchers to peer back into Earth’s distant past. The methods ...

Black and white image of a dinosaur fossil skull, with intricate details of the jaw and teeth. The texture is weathered, conveying ancient history.

The Dinosaur Fossil That Was Assembled Backwards

The field of paleontology has been punctuated by moments of brilliance and occasional blunders that have shaped our understanding of prehistoric life. Among these fascinating stories of scientific discovery and misinterpretation, few are as intriguing as the case of Iguanodon—a dinosaur whose initial reconstruction became one of paleontology’s most famous mistakes. This remarkable tale of ...

Dinosaur skeleton exhibit in a museum, featuring a partial view of a long-necked fossil against a colorful, informative background display.

Have We Found Fossils With Soft Tissue Preserved?

For centuries, our understanding of prehistoric life has been built on the study of fossilized bones and other mineralized remains. The conventional wisdom held that soft tissues—muscles, blood vessels, skin, and internal organs—could never survive the fossilization process. However, remarkable discoveries over the past few decades have challenged this assumption, opening exciting new windows into ...

If the Stars Wrote Our Fossils: Archetypes That Would Leave the Best Imprints

If the Stars Wrote Our Fossils: Archetypes That Would Leave the Best Imprints

Picture a world where your personality doesn’t just shape your daily interactions or career choices, but actually determines how well your essence would be preserved in stone for future generations to discover. What if the cosmic patterns embedded in our psyches had physical weight, creating lasting imprints that could survive millions of years? This fascinating ...