Some fossils of long-extinct sea creatures display brilliant rainbow colors. Known as ammolite, these gems come from the fossilized shells of ammonites, squid-like marine animals that vanished with ...

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Researchers have discovered the oldest known example of a predator-prey “arms race,” based on their study of ancient fossils. This ancient predator-prey relationship took place 517 million years ago ...

At the end of the Paleocene and beginning of the Eocene epochs, between 59 to 51 million years ago, Earth experienced dramatic warming periods, both gradual periods stretching millions of years and ...

Ammolite is a rare kind of gemstone, valued for its vibrant iridescent colors, which shift rapidly between red, green, and blue hues. The most famous specimens come from the curled shells of ammonites ...

Snail shells are often colorful and strikingly patterned. This is due to pigments that are produced in special cells of the snail and stored in the shell in varying concentrations. Fossil shells, on ...

Skeleton season may be just around the corner, but the skeleton age dawned with the early Cambrian Period, about 538 million to 506 million years ago. In this time span, most major animal groups ...

An 11-year-old rock hunter has uncovered an almost complete turtle shell dating to roughly 48 million years ago. That intact shell secured a rare glimpse into a vanished river world before weather ...

In a quiet part of what is now South Australia, more than half a billion years ago, life was locked in battle. The ocean floor teemed with small shelled creatures trying to stay alive as newly evolved ...