First discovered 20 years ago, the rare fossil combo reveals a Cretaceous meal in the making. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A rare dinosaur fossil on display at the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman, Montana, tells a gory story. The skull from a large plant-eating has a tooth lodged into it, indicating that it may have met its final moments as a meal. The tooth in question belongs to one of the most famous dinosaurs on earth-- .

A 20,000 year old fossil uncovered in a tarantula-filled cave has paleontologists stunned. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Bees are frequently associated with large queen-serving colonies featuring hundreds if not thousands of insects . They lay their eggs in small cavities, and they leave pollen for the larvae to eat," explained paleontologist Lazasro Viñola López . "Some bee species burrow holes in wood or in the ground, or use empty structures for nests." Viñola López, a researcher at Chicago's Field Museum, added that some European and African species even construct nests inside vacant snail shells. That said, a beehive inside a bone is a new one even for seasoned researchers. Estimated to be around 20,000 years old, this newly discovered specimen is also the first known example of such a home, past or present. The findings are detailed in a study published on December 16 in the journal . Researchers located the unique find while exploring the many limestone caves that dot the southern Dominican Republic. Sinkholes are common across the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, and are often so well sheltered from the elements that they function like underground time capsules. These windows into the past are largely thanks to the work of the island's owls . The predatory birds often make their nests inside these caves, where they regularly cough up owl pellets filled with the undigested bones of their prey. Over thousands of years, these layers of bones fossilize atop one another across carbonate layers created from rainy periods. "The initial descent into the cave isn't too deep-we would tie a rope to the side and then rappel down," Viñola López said. "If you go in at night, you see the eyes of the tarantulas that live inside." After proceeding past the large spiders through about 33 feet of underground tunnel, the paleontologists began finding various fossils. Many belonged to rodents, but there were also bones from birds, reptiles, and even sloths for a total of over 50 different animal species. "We think that this was a cave where owls lived for many generations, maybe for hundreds or thousands of years," said Viñola López. "The owls would go out and hunt, and then come back to the cave and throw up pellets.

Were there any venomous dinosaurs? There's been speculation, but no solid proof. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. It's one of the most memorable scenes in the original movie: the dinosaur spreads the frill around its neck and sprays deadly venom from its jaws. The frill (inspired by Australia's frilled lizard) is pure Hollywood fantasy.

Science Biology This tiny T. rex is actually a new species Nanotyrannus settles a big and'acrimonius' paleontology debate. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. For decades, paleontologists have argued about size. Specifically, whether or not certain fossils found in Montana belonged to a young or a completely separate, smaller species. Researchers at North Carolina State University and Ohio University now say they can settle the debate.

Amazon Prime Day is live. See the best deals HERE. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Mammoths were not the only enormous beasts ancient humans hunted. Elephant ancestors were also on the menu.

'Breugnathair elgolensis' also sported stubby gecko legs. The ancient animal may have been on a distinct evolutionary path separate to snakes and lizards. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. What do you get when you cross a snake with a lizard? It's a newly discovered creature from the Jurassic Period, whose name is a tribute to its confusing physical characteristics.

'Joaquinraptor casali' was one of the Cretaceous Era's last apex predators. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Paleontologists have discovered a carnivorous dinosaur in central Patagonia that they believe occupied the top of the Late Cretacean food chain. For additional proof, they point to its likely final meal. According to new analysis published on September 23 in the journal, appears to have died with an ancient, nearly 8-inch-long crocodile leg next to its jaws.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. More than 180 million years ago, ichthyosaurs ruled the early Jurassic oceans. The carnivorous marine reptiles ranged from the size of a briefcase to larger than a school bus. The biggest of these whale-like creatures were apex predators, hunting ancient fish, ammonites, and even their smaller reptile relatives. As they searched for prey, some may have swum with surprising stealth.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. For 20 years, the remains of a giant lizard that lived alongside dinosaurs were tucked away in a jar at the Natural History Museum of Utah. Simply labeled "lizard," the fragmented and several millennia-old bones actually belonged to an entirely new species of giant lizard dug up from the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah in 2005. Bolg amondol was a raccoon-sized armored mostesaurian lizard that lived about 77 million years ago, similar to today's Gila monsters (Heloderma horridum). It is named after the goblin prince from The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien and is described in a study published June 17 in the open-access journal Royal Society Open Science.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Archaeopteryx represents a pivotal point in the grand evolutionary journey linking dinosaurs to their avian descendants. But paleontologists still have questions about the Jurassic era animal's anatomy and behavior roughly 165 years after its discovery. One of the most pressing lingering mysteries is how Archaeopteryx managed to fly above its fellow feathered dinosaur relatives. After more than two decades spent in a private collection, one of the most detailed and complete fossil sets arrived at the Chicago's Field Museum in 2022.