Lampreys look very much like ordinary eels. They have a slender body with exposed skin without scales. There is a long dorsal fin on its back, which extends back to the tail end and surrounds the tail to form a caudal fin. In addition, it has no other parts on its body. No other fins are pres...
Foraminifera are a type of tiny single-cell protozoa with pseudopods. Most of them have a hard shell made of minerals. There are many openings in the shell and many small holes in the shell wall. The body of a foraminifera is composed of a mass of cytoplasm, which is divided into two layers....
Paleontologists call the impressions and replicas of paleontological remains left in rock formations or surrounding rocks called cast fossils. They can be divided into five types based on their relationship with the surrounding rocks: impression fossils, impression fossils, and core fossils....
When the American paleobotanist Letariak was analyzing and studying the Late Ordovician ancient soil in Pennsylvania, he discovered the fossilized footprints of some annelids or arthropods that entered deep into the soil from the surface. Based on these fossils, it is inferred that the terres...
As the largest mammal on land, the image of elephants has long been deeply rooted in people's hearts: huge size, long trunk and teeth, and big ears like cattail leaves. However, paleontologists have discovered through fossils that prehistoric elephants did not exactly look like this....
Modern whales have smooth skin and streamlined body shapes. Their huge tails create huge waves in the sea water, pushing their bodies to swim freely in the sea. But did you know that in the distant geological time, whales were once terrestrial animals with well-developed limbs? The discovery...
Millions of years ago, Earth looked very different from what we know today. Dramatic changes in climate shaped unique and diverse forms of life, many of which have since vanished. Today, thanks to fossil records formed by heat and pressure over millions of years, we can reconstruct what prehistoric...
How birds, the descendants of dinosaurs, escaped the mass extinction event 65 million years ago has always been a question that scientists are eager to answer. A large amount of volcanic ash caused by meteorites impacting the earth and frequent volcanic activities filled the atmosphere, causi...