Evolution Diary

The oldest known dinosaur relative of birds had “bizarre” anatomy, including long, ribbon-like tail feathers that suggest plumage may have first evolved for show rather than for flight, scientists say. (…)

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Scientists have unearthed the remains of a large meat-eating dinosaur with a breathing apparatus much like a modern bird, fortifying the link between birds and dinosaurs and helping to explain the evolution of birds’ unique system of breathing. (…)

A chicken-size dinosaur with a taste for termites was the “anteater” of its day and may be one of the smallest dinosaurs ever discovered in North America, scientists say. (…)

Tetrapods, the first four-legged land animals, are regarded as the first organisms that had fingers and toes. Now researchers at Uppsala University can show that this is wrong. (…)

Stefan Cover, a curatorial assistant at Harvard University’s Museum of Comparative Zoology, recalls the photograph on the computer screen that Christian Rabeling was showing him. (…)