The evolutionary history of the mock viper, a mildly venomous, widely distributed Asian snake that mimics highly venomous vipers for self-defense, has been solved. The mock viper represents a ...

New discoveries of fossil clawed footprints from Australia, published in Nature, push the origin of reptiles back in time by at least 35 million years and change the entire timeline for the origin of ...

A tiny fossil jaw discovered in southern Brazil is helping scientists fill a gap in the early history of reptiles that eventually gave rise to modern lizards, snakes, and the tuatara. The specimen ...

Following careful study of a prehistoric skull of a new species unearthed in Madagascar, Azendohsaurus madagaskarensis, it turns out Azendohsaurus is not an early dinosaur as long assumed, but rather ...

The origin of turtles has always been a bit of a puzzle for scientists who study the evolution of animals. To this day, where they fit in the tree of life remains a highly debated topic. Subscribe to ...

Learn how a 260-million-year-old Permian reptile, once thought to explain turtle evolution, turned out to belong to a different lineage, reshaping the story of turtle origins in the Triassic Period.

A delicate, innocuous little fossil reptile known as Mirasaura grauvogeli – “Grauvogel’s wonder reptile” – is forcing a rethink about the evolution of skin and its appendages such as feathers and hair ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Reconstruction and illustration of Mirasaura grauvogeli in its natural forested environment. Illustration by Gabriel Ugueto, ...

Learn more about archosauromorphs, the early relatives of dinosaurs, that survived inhospitable terrain during the Triassic period. Archosauromorphs walked — across a 10,000-mile hellscape — so ...

A delicate, innocuous little fossil from the reptile known as Mirasaura grauvogeli – “Grauvogel’s wonder reptile” – is forcing a rethink about the evolution of skin and its appendages such as feathers ...

Mock vipers not only look like tree-dwelling vipers but also act like them. Intriguingly, they have a fake ‘fang’ in the front of their mouth, which befools a predator into thinking that they possess ...

"I'm stunned." says Per Ahlberg of Uppsala University, who coordinated the study; "A single track-bearing slab, which one person can lift, calls into question everything we thought we knew about when ...