Squid-like creature that looked like a giant paperclip lived 200 years
An ancient squid-like animal with a shell that looked like a 1.5-metre-long paperclip may have typically lived for 200 years. Image: Linda Invany
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Tag: palaeontology
Your body’s insights into life and cosmos
In The Universe Within, evolutionary biologist Neil Shubin shares the findings of some of the great scientific specialists. But he also explains how a generalist’s appreciation of their work is still possible, simply by looking inside the human body. Within each of us is a multitude of memory aids that, when read correctly, help to tell the stories of our species, planet and universe. Image: Trodel
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Richard Leakey: Passionate, prickly and principled
He looks impatient, like a slightly older, more restless version of Indiana Jones, only trapped in the foyer of a hotel near Edinburgh Castle rather than some exotic citadel. But this is Richard Leakey, a member of the clan whose name is synonymous with palaeoanthropology. And while he may have quit the field some time ago, its rows still touch a nerve. Image: Ryan Somma
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Dinosaur evolutionary tree is unveiled
Dinosaurs may have been the largest land animals of the Cretaceous period, but a new study suggests that they were conspicuously absent from the ‘terrestrial revolution’ of that time, in which the number of land species rose rapidly. Image: Mykl Roventine
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Tree sap makes a formidable underwater insect trap
Getting fossilised in tree sap seems an odd way for an aquatic insect to meet its maker. Biologists have been left scratching their heads over how it happened. “Most previous studies have focused on non-aquatic insects, assuming that most resin solidifies at the tree bark,” says Alexander Schmidt of the Museum of Natural History in Berlin, Germany. Image: Rockman of Zymurgy
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