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Paleontologists have described a new species of the extant bee genus Leioproctus from a fossil specimen found in southern New Zealand.Named Leioproctus barrydonovani, the new species lived during the Middle Miocene epoch, some 14.6 million years ago.The ancient insect belongs to Leioproctus, a large genus within the plasterer bee family Colletidae.Extant Leioproctus species are small, black, hairy bees between 4 and 16 mm in length.They are found in Australasia and South America, and include the most common native bees in New Zealand...The specimen (total length of the body is 6.4 mm) was recovered from the Middle Miocene deposits of the...

There is no single answer to this puzzle. Dinosaurs dominated the planet for around 179 million years and during that time, evolved into an enormous array of different shapes and sizes. Some were tiny, like the diminutive Albinykus, which weighed under a kilogram (2.2lbs) and was probably less than 2ft (60cm) long. Others were among the biggest animals to have ever lived on land, such as the titanosaur Patagotitan mayorum, which may have weighed up to 72 tonnes. They ran on two legs, or plodded on four. And along with these diverse body shapes, they would have produced an equally...

“Why is it that man ever chooses to sin? The answer is that man has fallen away from God (and) his whole nature has become perverted and sinful. Man’s whole bias is away from God. By nature he hates God and feels that God is opposed to him. His god is himself…his own abilities and powers and desires (Man) likes and covets the things which God prohibits, and dislikes the things and kind of life to which God calls him. These are no mere dogmatic statements. They are facts (that) alone explain the moral muddle and the ugliness that characterize...

Meet Mosura fentoni, a bizarre 506-million-year-old “sea-moth” with three eyes, claws, and an abdomen full of gills. This ancient predator sheds light on arthropod evolution and reveals stunning internal anatomy from a fossil site like no other. Credit: Danielle Dufault, © ROM, edited A newly uncovered 506-million-year-old creature called Mosura fentoni is rewriting the story of early ocean life. With three eyes, tooth-lined jaws, and gill-lined abdominal segments, it’s a strange but telling fossil from the Burgess Shale. A New Predator Emerges From Deep Time Paleontologists from the Manitoba Museum and the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) have uncovered an extraordinary...

Scientists have been wondering for years which dinosaur could run the fastest. Now, new simulation models are offering a fresh look at dinosaur speed. This renewed interest has roots in a major discovery from 1964, when paleontologist John Ostrom and his team uncovered Deinonychus—a dinosaur with a lightweight body, long claws, and strong legs. Its features challenged the long-held image of dinosaurs as sluggish reptiles and instead pointed to an active, fast-moving predator. This discovery helped launch what scientists call the “dinosaur renaissance,” a major shift in how experts understood dinosaur behavior. Instead of slow-moving reptiles, some dinosaurs began to...

A new survey has found that more than half of Americans do not believe God exists or that He “affects lives,” prompting one prominent researcher to highlight the need for “sweeping national repentance and spiritual renewal.” The Cultural Research Center at Arizona Christian University released the second installment of its American Worldview Inventory 2025 on Wednesday. The research found that overall, 60% of Americans do not believe God exists or that He “affects lives.” Nearly half of self-identified Christians (47%) and a slightly smaller share of theologically identified born-again Christians (40%) said the same. George Barna, director of research at...

Extremely rare fossil of an ancient scorpion unearthed at China's Jehol Biota. The scorpion would've been a key species in the Cretaceous ecosystem, scientists say.A known treasure trove of Early Cretaceous fossils has turned up a never-before-seen species of scorpion that lived around 125 million years ago.The venomous scorpion was larger than many ancient -- and modern -- scorpion species. Researchers believe it would’ve been a key species in the food chain, gobbling up spiders, lizards and even small mammals that lived in its ancient ecosystem.It is just the fourth terrestrial scorpion fossil to be found in China and the...

Beloved, our dear friends at "Word of Truth Production" have created this amazing video which causes us to use our God-given common sense as we look at man's inventions versus Almighty God's highly complex creation and design (Gen. 1:1-3, Neh. 9:6; Prov. 3:19, Isa. 45:18, John 1:1-3, Rom. 1:18-32, 1 Cor. 8:6, Rev. 4-5)! The question that we need to ask ourselves is this, "Are we a product of time and chance or have we been designed by our ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS Creator with an ETERNAL RIGHTEOUS calling, vocation, and purpose (Matt. 4:19, John 1:12, 2 Cor. 5:17-21)?" As you watch...

A bizarre new genus and species of ornithomimid dinosaur has been identified from the fossilized remains found in 2014 in Coahuila, Mexico. Life reconstruction of Mexidracon longimanus. Image credit: Ddinodan / CC BY 4.0. The newly-identified dinosaur species roamed Earth during the Late Cretaceous epoch, some 73 million years ago. Named Mexidracon longimanus, the ancient creature was around 3 m (10 feet) in length. It belongs to Ornithomimidae, a family of theropod dinosaur that evolved a toothless beak and were likely omnivorous or herbivorous, superficially resembling living ostriches. “Ornithomimosaurs are a clade of ostrich-like theropod dinosaurs characterized by relatively small...

LONDON — The mystery of dinosaur origins has taken an unexpected turn toward the equator. While paleontologists have long searched southern regions for clues about where these magnificent creatures first evolved, new research suggests we may have been looking in the wrong latitude altogether. A new study indicates that the first dinosaurs may have emerged in Earth’s ancient tropics, forcing scientists to reconsider long-held theories about their origins. For years, paleontologists believed dinosaurs originated in what is now southern South America and southern Africa, since the oldest unequivocal dinosaur fossils come from late Carnian rock formations (around 230 million years...

Early humans of Homo juluensis had a large head shape, with measurements notably larger than those of Neanderthals and Homo sapiens. Scientists have announced the discovery of a new human species, Homo juluensis, following extensive research published in Nature Communications. Professor Christopher J. Bae from the University of Hawaii and Xiujie Wu from the Chinese Academy of Sciences led the study, which sheds light on the diversity of ancient human populations in East Asia.

The human ability to walk and run efficiently on two feet arose around 2 million years ago with our Homo erectus ancestors. But our earlier relatives, the australopithecines, were also bipedal around 4 million years ago. Given the long arms and different body proportions of species like Australopithecus afarensis, though, researchers have assumed that australopithecines were less capable of walking on two legs than modern humans. In a study published online Dec. 18 in the journal Current Biology, a team of researchers modeled the skeletal and muscular anatomy of Lucy to determine her maximum running speed, the energetic costs associated...

Scientists identified the specimen as a horned lark, which they believe could be an ancestor to two lark species alive now. Love Dalén - An intact 46,000-year-old bird was found for the first time in the Siberian permafrost. Archaeologists have uncovered many remarkable, ancient specimens from the Siberian permafrost. This time they found the mummified remains of a whole bird — and it still had its feathers and talons intact. According to CNN, the 46,000-year-old bird has been identified as a horned lark, or Eremophila alpestris, and scientists believe it could be a prehistoric predecessor to two subspecies alive today,...

In 2018, a female Neanderthal was discovered in the Shanidar Cave in Iraqi Kurdistan. Now, archaeologists from The University of Cambridge have unveiled the reconstructed face of the 75,000-year-old woman, based on the assembly of hundreds of individual bone fragments recovered during excavations. “Neanderthals have had a bad press ever since the first ones were found over 150 years ago,” said Professor Graeme Barker from Cambridge’s McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, who led the excavation at the cave where the woman’s remains were discovered. Neanderthals are believed to have become extinct around 40,000 years ago, and discoveries of their remains...

Tails are useful in many ways, but — unlike these vervet monkeys pictured in Lake Mburo National Park in Uganda — humans' closest primate relatives lost the appendages about 25 million years ago. (Photo credit: imageBROKER/Shutterstock via CNN Newsource) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Humans have many wonderful qualities, but we lack something that’s a common feature among most animals with backbones: a tail. Exactly why that is has been something of a mystery. Tails are useful for balance, propulsion, communication and defense against biting insects. However, humans and our closest primate relatives — the great apes — said farewell to tails about 25...

A team of international scientists have discovered 240-million-year-old fossils from the Triassic period in China that one scientist described as a "long and snake-like, mythical Chinese dragon." The 16-foot-long aquatic reptile, called Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, has 32 separate neck vertebrae – an extremely long neck, according to the National Museums of Scotland, which announced the news on Friday. The new fossil has a snake-like appearance and flippers and was found in the Guizhou Province of southern China. Dinocephalosaurus orientalis was first identified in 2003 when its skull was found, but this more complete fossil discovery has "allowed scientists to depict the...

In 2022, researchers stumbled upon the footprint site near the northern tip of North Africa while examining boulders at a nearby pocket beach. A team of archaeologists have unveiled the discovery of the oldest human footprints ever recorded in North Africa and the southern Mediterranean. The footprints, dating back an astonishing 90,000 years, were found on a beach in Larache, Morocco, by a multinational team led by Moncef Essedrati, a research professor and laboratory director at the French University of Southern Brittany. "Between tides, I said to my team that we should go north to explore another beach," Essedrati told...

Dr Valentina Rossi of University College Cork, Ireland, who led the research team which discovered that a 280-million-year-old lizard fossil is, in part, a forgery. (Image credit: Zixiao Yang) A 280-million-year-old fossil that has baffled researchers for decades has been shown to be, in part, a forgery following new examination of the remnants. The discovery has led the team led by Dr Valentina Rossi of University College Cork, Ireland (UCC) to urge caution in how the fossil is used in future research. Tridentinosaurus antiquus was discovered in the Italian alps in 1931 and was thought to be an important specimen...

A newly described fossil suggests that the ancestor of humans and apes arose in Europe, not in Africa...In the new study, the researchers analyzed a newly identified ape fossil from the 8.7 million-year-old site of Çorakyerler in central Anatolia. They dubbed the species Anadoluvius turkae. "Anadolu" is the modern Turkish word for Anatolia, and "turk" refers to Turkey.The fossil suggests that A. turkae likely weighed about 110 to 130 pounds (50 to 60 kilograms), or about the weight of a large male chimpanzee.Based on the fossils of other animals found alongside it — such as giraffes, warthogs, rhinos, antelope, zebras,...

Prof. Begun said: "Our findings further suggest that hominines [bonobos, chimpanzees, and gorillas] not only evolved in western and central Europe - but spent over five million years evolving there and spreading to the eastern Mediterranean before eventually dispersing into Africa."....This migration, he added, was "probably a consequence of changing environments and diminishing forests."