Science

The dinosaurs didn’t rule

When we think of changes in Earth’s history as changes of dynasty we miss out on understanding how life really works

Riley Black

The Rift

Splitting the African continent, it is the only place where our human story can be read continuously from the very start

Tristan McConnell

A dinosaur is a story

As Brontosaurus tells us, in science as in fiction, the stories we tell to understand the world are always being revised

Nathaniel Goldberg & Chris Gavaler

This riotous life

There’s no rhythm to mass extinctions, no pattern to evolutionary recovery. Life bursts forth, in cacophonous adaptation

Riley Black

Investigating Homo floresiensis and the myth of the ebu gogo

Paige Madison

Last hominin standing – charting our rise and the fall of our closest relatives

6 minutes

Why did our sea-dwelling ancestors leap to land? It might have been the view

4 minutes

The shape of life

The ancient Earth was profoundly alien. How do we distinguish between the living and non-living in the fossil record?

Sophia Roosth

What a fossil revolution reveals about the history of ‘big data’

David Sepkoski

The missing fossils matter as much as the ones we have found

Adrian Currie & Derek Turner

What say you, dinosaur?

Did Neanderthals speak? Did dinosaurs roar? And when did birds begin to sing? The soundscape of deep time is coming back

Alex Riley

Anthropology is far from licking the problem of fossil ages

Paige Madison

Great for killing, and for research: the lethal fangs of saber-toothed cats

5 minutes

A tyrannosaur of one’s own

Dinosaur collecting isn’t just for museums any more – film stars and sheikhs do it too. What drives a man to covet big bones?

Laurie Gwen Shapiro

Origins

Paleogenetics is helping to solve the great mystery of prehistory: how did humans spread out over the earth?

Jacob Mikanowski

Once and future cats

Sabercats were magnificent, powerful predators – what does their extinction tell us about the future of life on Earth?

Riley Black