Mudstone

Presence of long-chain alkanes in rock raises new questions about possible existence of life billions of years ago

Explore the latest find from NASA's Curiosity rover and what it reveals about organic matter beyond our planet.

In Colombia, a fossil-collecting rancher has found a giant, flightless killer from 13 million years ago — and a missing link to the region's evolutionary history.

NASA has announced the first detection of possible biosignatures in a rock on the surface of Mars. The rock contains the first martian organic matter to be detected by the Perseverance rover, as well as curious discolored spots that could indicate the past activity of microorganisms.

These samples are uniquely important for return to Earth for further study.

It's a sign of the Anthropocene.

For nearly 190 years, scientists have searched for the origins of ancient sea-going reptiles from the Age of Dinosaurs. Now a team of Swedish and Norwegian palaeontologists has discovered remains of the earliest known ichthyosaur or 'fish-lizard' on the remote Arctic island of Spitsbergen. Ichthy

Current state-of-the-art instrumentation being sent to Mars to collect and analyze evidence of ancient life on the Red Planet may not be sensitive enough to make accurate assessments, according to an international research team co-led by a Cornell astrobiologist.

Nearly 100 million years ago, the Earth experienced an extreme environmental disruption that choked oxygen from the oceans and led to elevated marine extinction levels that affected the entire globe.

The National Guard was deployed to assist the city.

In the not-too-distant future, a planetary scientist will open up a tube of rocks that came from Mars.

For many people, the phrase "tropical rainforest" might conjure the image of a landscape teeming with vegetation, exotic animals and extraordinary beauty.

Atractosteus grandei lived less than 1,500-2,500 years after the Chicxulub asteroid impact, an event that is widely accepted as a major cause behind the end-Cretaceous mass extinction.

A new scenario suggests how a rare form of quartz came to be found in a dried lake bed by the Curiosity rover.

NASA's Curiosity rover has discovered the most complex organic molecules ever seen on Mars, the remains of fatty acids up to an incredible 12 carbon atoms long. The post Surprisingly big organic molecules on Mars: A hint of life? first appeared on EarthSky.

A new genus and species of monofenestratan pterosaur has been identified from partial cranial and postcranial remains found in Chubut Province, Patagonia, Argentina.

Zealandia, Earth's eighth continent, was mostly lost to the sea. Geologists say they've now mapped the entirety of the underwater land mass.

Paleontologists have described a new species of snake from the Early Oligocene of Wyoming based on four nearly complete and articulated specimens found curled together in a burrow.

Giant ichthyosaurs with body length estimates exceeding 20 m were present in the latest Triassic of the UK. Here we report on the discovery of a second surangular from the lower jaw of a giant ichthyosaur from Somerset, UK. The new find is comparable ...