Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. Here's why Dickinsonia challenges our previously held ...

One of the earliest known fossil animals, Dickinsonia lived on the sea floor over a half billion years ago. Based on traces of a biochemical marker, coprostanol, UC Davis paleobiologists propose that ...

Fossils are like nature’s time machines, giving us a peek into life on Earth millions of years ago. The oldest animal fossils tell stories about how complex life began and evolved. Be it simple ...

The oldest known animal in the geological record has been identified, in a discovery that scientists are calling "the Holy Grail of palaeontology." Fat molecules discovered on the fossil of a ...