Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. For more than a century, scientists have been hunting in vain for skull fossils of the thunderbird species Genyornis newtoni. About 50,000 years ago, these titans, also known as mihirungs, from an Aboriginal term for … Read more
Winding through South Carolina’s low country, the Cooper River is a reed-lined haven for sportfish and shorebirds. The waterway originates from Lake Moultrie in Berkeley County. From there it goes all the way to Charleston, where it joins the Ashley and the Wando to form that city’s world-famous harbor. (Ever heard of Fort Sumter?) The … Read more
By Will Dunham (Reuters) – On February 20, 1824, English naturalist and theologian William Buckland addressed the Geological Society of London, describing enormous jaw and limb bones unearthed from a slate quarry in the village of Stonesfield near Oxford. Buckland recognized that these fossils belonged to a huge, bygone reptile, and gave it a formal … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. Trees are believed to have originated hundreds of millions of years ago. Since then, evidence of these ancient plant guardians has been scarce. Now, a new discovery of unique 3D tree fossils has opened a … Read more
Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news about fascinating discoveries, scientific developments and more. Trees are believed to have originated hundreds of millions of years ago. Since then, evidence of these ancient plant guardians has been scarce. Now, a new discovery of unique 3D tree fossils has opened a … Read more
Were dinosaurs already on their way out when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, ending the Cretaceous Period, the geological era that began about 145 million years ago? It’s a question that has plagued paleontologists like us for more than forty years. In the late 1970s, debate began over whether dinosaurs were at … Read more
The bird-like dinosaur *Eoneophron infernalis* was about the size of an adult human. Zubin Erik Dutta Were dinosaurs already on their way out when an asteroid hit Earth 66 million years ago, ending the Cretaceous Period, the geological era that began about 145 million years ago? It’s a question that has plagued paleontologists like us … Read more