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palaeontology

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Ancient reptiles' long necks made them vulnerable to decapitation

Extremely long necks probably helped ancient marine reptiles ambush prey in murky waters, but also made them easy targets for decapitation by predators

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Extinct lizard was a bizarrely supersized version of modern skinks

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Woolly mammoths had testosterone surges like those of male elephants

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Broad-nosed ancient shark was one of earliest fish to smell in stereo

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Longest dinosaur neck on record was six times longer than a giraffe's

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Longest dinosaur neck on record was six times longer than a giraffe's

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Oldest ichthyosaur fossil hints they evolved before mass extinction

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Caption: New fossils of Protomelission from the Xiaoshiba biota, showing attachment of the alga to a brachiopod shell. Credit: Zhang Xiguang

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Fossil thought to be earliest bryozoan animal may actually be seaweed

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Tiktaalik, an early fish that crawled on land

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Spine of early crawling fish was becoming more like a land animal's

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This is an artistic reconstruction of the Guiyang Biota. Guiyang Biota represents the oldest known Mesozoic lagerst?tte found so far. Guiyang Biota represents one of the earliest complete marine ecosystems after the great dying in Earth history. Guiyang Biota contains representatives of all trophic levels, especially abundant fish and decapod fossils, including about 1 m length coelacanths, and the earliest occurrences of lobsters and shrimps, extending the earliest record forward by 1.5 million years.

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Sea life recovered from Permian mass extinction faster than we thought

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Early relatives of primates lived in the Arctic 52 million years ago

Analysis of fossilised teeth from Ellesmere Island, Canada, reveals that extinct relatives of monkeys and apes reached the Arctic during a period when the climate was hotter

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Illustratoin of Ignacius dawsonae, a squirrel-like animal in a tree

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Treasure trove of fossil eggs hints titanosaurs nested in colonies

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Trilobites used trident-like horns to fight over mates like stags

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The ozone layer was destroyed during Earth's biggest mass extinction

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Largest ever animal may have been Triassic ichthyosaur super-predator

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