66,000,000 years ago today · Cretaceous–Paleogene boundaryMonday, 14 September 2026 · Strictly scientific. Always sourced.
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New marine reptile? This skull bone matches no known mosasaurWood in Volcanic Debris: This New Species Raises a Mystery!Impossible? This Dinosaur Bone Still Contains Original ProteinFeeding traces on dinosaur bones: Who plundered the carcasses?Long-Necked Dinosaurs: After the Crash Came Another Boom!Feathers in dinosaur poop: This little lump packs a surprise!Medusaceratops: Pus in its bone – and it lived on!New marine reptile? This skull bone matches no known mosasaurWood in Volcanic Debris: This New Species Raises a Mystery!Impossible? This Dinosaur Bone Still Contains Original ProteinFeeding traces on dinosaur bones: Who plundered the carcasses?Long-Necked Dinosaurs: After the Crash Came Another Boom!Feathers in dinosaur poop: This little lump packs a surprise!Medusaceratops: Pus in its bone – and it lived on!

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Latest short on YouTube

Smilodon: huge jaws, but a weaker bite

The short explores three questions about Smilodon: its forelimbs, jaws and tooth wear.

1:48 minGerman audio

Watch, then read further: this page brings together the short’s sources and current articles from the newsroom.

Video preview: Smilodon: huge jaws, but a weaker bite
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Sources for the Smilodon short

These studies are linked in the video description. The animal and reporter scenes in the short are AI-generated reconstructions.

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From the newsroom

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Three recent articles, each with its own subject and sources.

Artistic depiction of a mosasaur in the Late Cretaceous. A generic reconstruction, not the animal from Kaizuka.Sea Reptiles
Sea Reptiles · 1 min ago

New marine reptile? This skull bone matches no known mosasaur

A rock block from Japan sat in a museum for more than three decades — packed with mosasaur bones that nobody had recognised. Researchers found four overlooked bones inside it, including the first confirmed front upper-jaw bone from a mosasaur in Japan. A braincase bone bears a combination of features unlike any described mosasaur. It may represent a new species, but that has not been established.

CheckedSource: www.eurekalert.org
Artistic depiction: three extinct animals from Oligocene Australia – the thunder bird Barawertornis, the giant rat-kangaroo Ekaltadeta and the marsupial Ngapakaldia – flee a volcanic mudflow. Scene and animals are not from the study.Fossil Finds
Fossil Finds · 34 min ago

Wood in Volcanic Debris: This New Species Raises a Mystery!

Fossil wood from Queensland has a new name: *Scalarixylon lahar*. The species comes from Oligocene volcanic deposits near Maidenwell in the south-east of the Australian state. Its wood bears a pattern also seen in fossil protea-family wood from South America. The vegetation at the site grew under permanently moist conditions and was dominated by rainforest plants. One big question remains: which living genus does it belong to?

CheckedSource: DOI: 10.1071/sb26004
AI life reconstruction of Edmontosaurus annectens by a river in the Hell Creek Formation. Body plan after the Tiefenzeit master; colouration and pattern are speculative.Dinosaurs
Dinosaurs · 34 min ago

Impossible? This Dinosaur Bone Still Contains Original Protein

The sacrum of an *Edmontosaurus* still contains remnants of the animal’s own protein. More precisely: fragments of collagen, the structural protein that keeps bones strong and flexible. A team led by Lucien Tuinstra found three independent lines of evidence for it. The fossil comes from the Late Cretaceous of South Dakota — and is fuelling a dispute that has occupied researchers for decades.

CheckedSource: DOI: 10.1021/acs.analchem.4c03115

From our video archive

German audio

A fossil wasp with a gripping apparatus on its abdomen

A short about Sirenobethylus charybdis and its discovery in amber.

Watch the short on YouTube

German audio

Why did this dinosaur have hollow spines?

A short about Haolong dongi and its hollow skin spines.

Watch the short on YouTube
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