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Heavy rains that poured down on 70,000 Burning Man attendees have also awoken hundreds of three-eyed 'dinosaur shrimp' from their slumber. The small creatures, known as fairy shrimp, were encased in a thick shell for years until rainstorms drenched the Nevada festival, typically a dry wasteland, and provided an optimal environment to hatch. The crustaceans were spotted emerging from the mud pits as revelers escaped the flooded desert and will start laying more eggs over the next week. Fairy shrimp are known as 'living fossils' as similar forms date back to the Cambrian Period, more than 500 million years ago....

Creatures get trapped in amber all the time, but most prehistoric finds are insects. Amber is a great material for preserving arthropods because of their already tough shells that will hold on even if the insides disintegrate. But what about a lizard? Retinosaurus hkamentiensis is a new extinct species of lizard that was unexpectedly found trapped in Burmese amber. No one expected an entire reptile to be preserved so well, from its scaly skin down to its skeleton.

An Ice Age cavern in Devon which could hold vital untapped clues about the history of man is being used for barbecues and parties. Ashhole Cavern in Brixham, where ancient elephant and rhinoceros bones have been found, is listed as a scheduled monument by Historic England.

The bizarre creature was discovered in Island Beach State Park, New Jersey on May 4. Stephanie Hall discovered the body of the six-foot animal while she was returning from a run. She’d encountered a seal on the way out and – wanting to give it a bit more room on the way back – she went further up the beach and found the fish. “I saw this head of something scary in the sand just over a dune,” said Mrs Hall. “I thought it was bizarre and cool looking so I took some pictures.“Anyway I had no idea what it...

Warner Bros has dropped the first trailer for summer shark pic The Meg. The Jason Statham-starrer is a sci-fi thriller about a prehistoric 75-foot-long predator, the Megalodon, who threatens the lives of a research team trapped underwater — and, yes, the fate of the ocean itself. As far as summer popcorn fare, the tagline says it all: “Chomp On This.”

More than 2,000 remarkably well-preserved hunting artefacts have emerged from melting ice in Norway's highest mountains, dating as far back as 4000 BC. The incredible finds were made by 'glacial archaeologists' in Jotunheimen and the surrounding areas of Oppland, which include Norway’s highest mountains. They looked at the edge of the contracting ice and recovered artefacts of wood, textile, hide and other organic materials. Included in the archaeologists' haul is a ski with preserved binding from 700 AD - only the second one to be preserved globally - as well as a Bronze Age shoe from 1300 BC.

The last time anyone looked on Dawn's face was 9,000 years ago. Now the teenager can be seen again, after scientists reconstructed her face to show what people looked like in the Mesolithic period, around 7,000 BC. And, according to the experts, this included more 'masculine features' – for both men and women. It's thought that Dawn (known as Avgi, in Greek) was around 15-18 years old when she died.

With a roar loud enough to shake a forest and a green, scaly skin, it has long been regarded as the slickest villain of the prehistoric world. But according to a new TV programme, Tyrannosaurus Rex looked entirely different to the terrifying image so familiar from depictions on the silver screen. According to a new documentary, Tyrannosaurus Rex may not have been as terrifying as its depictions on the silver screen According to a new documentary, Tyrannosaurus Rex may not have been as terrifying as its depictions on the silver screen The dinosaur had black, bristly tufts of feathers and...

 The Israeli military on Sunday said it has destroyed a tunnel built by the Hamas militant group that stretched from the Gaza Strip several hundred meters (yards) into Israeli territory, declaring a breakthrough in its war against underground threats from the Palestinian enclave. Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, a military spokesman, told reporters that Israel had used a new set of “tools” developed since a 2014 war with Hamas in order to destroy the tunnel. He said forces had detected the tunnel months ago and continued to monitor construction efforts by Hamas militants before demolishing it. ... Conricus said a new...

It looks like a rather cute fluffy toy. But, in fact, this is an artist's impression of a dinosaur that lived 160 million years ago. Latest research suggests the crow-sized dinosaur Anchiornis had feathers on its four wings that fluffed up rather than lying flat like those of modern birds. The primitive feathers may have actually hampered in its early attempts at flight. They would probably have caused drag when the creature tried to glide between trees, say scientists.

Along a river in northern Germany, thousands of men lined up for a pitched battle. Some had come great distances, determined to seize or hold this modest waterway. They went at it mercilessly, leaving hundreds dead, many shot in the back while fleeing. Victory was decisive. [1250 BC]

While the concept of men battling 16–foot prehistoric lizards sounds like something out of a 50’s sci-fi flick, a new discovery in Australia has revealed that such encounters may have occurred. According to a study appearing in Quaternary Science Reviews, researchers from the University of Queensland have found a tiny fossil that belonged to a giant lizard bone 50,000 years ago, indicating that gigantic reptiles and humans once co–existed.

BERLIN (AP) — Scientists say they have found rare evidence of a prehistoric massacre in Europe after discovering a 7,000-year-old mass grave with skeletal remains from some of the continent's first farmers bearing terrible wounds. Archaeologists who painstakingly examined the bones of some 26 men, women and children buried in the Stone Age grave site at Schoeneck-Kilianstaedten, near Frankfurt, say they found blunt force marks to the head, arrow wounds and deliberate efforts to smash at least half of the victims' shins — either to stop them from running away or as a grim message to survivors. [snip] "What is...

A study of DNA from ancient farmers in Europe shows sharp differences from that of modern Europeans — results that are likely to add fuel to the debate over European origins. Researchers led by Wolfgang Haak of Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, argue that their finding supports the belief that modern residents of central Europe descended from Stone Age hunter-gatherers who were present 40,000 years ago, and not the early farmers who arrived thousands of years later. But other anthropologists questioned that conclusion, arguing that the available information isn't sufficient to support it. Haak's team used DNA from 24...

Woolly mammoths are coming back, say cloning scientists In what sounds like it could be the plot for the next Jurassic Park movie, a team of scientists in Siberia says there's a 'high chance' that they will be able to clone a woolly mammoth. The breakthrough comes as a result of last year's discovery of an incredibly well-preserved mammoth carcass, frozen in the permafrost of Siberia's Malolyakhovskiy island. The scientists estimate that the animal is about 43,000 years old, and was 50-60 years old when it died in distress after getting stuck in the ice. In the ten months since...

Beachgoers in New Zealand got a grim look at a toothy, emaciated carcass that washed ashore recently, prompting speculation that the rotting remains belonged to some sort of mysterious sea monster or pre-historic creature. Beachgoers in New Zealand got a grim look at a toothy, emaciated carcass that washed ashore recently, prompting speculation that the rotting remains belonged to some sort of mysterious sea monster or pre-historic creature. The creature was found by a group driving along the beach in four-wheeled vehicles along the Bay of Plenty near Pukehina, about 250 km (155 miles) southeast of the capital Auckland, Discovery...

Ice Age Lion Man is world’s earliest figurative sculpture • Work carved from mammoth ivory has been redated and 1,000 new fragments discovered—but it won’t make it to British Museum show The star exhibit initially promised for the British Museum’s “Ice Age Art” show will not be coming—but for a good reason. New pieces of Ulm’s Lion Man sculpture have been discovered and it has been found to be much older than originally thought, at around 40,000 years. This makes it the world’s earliest figurative sculpture. At the London exhibition, which opens on 7 February, a replica from the Ulm...

Archaeologists in Bulgaria say they have uncovered the oldest prehistoric town found to date in Europe. The walled fortified settlement, near the modern town of Provadia, is thought to have been an important centre for salt production. Its discovery in north-east Bulgaria may explain the huge gold hoard found nearby 40 years ago. Archaeologists believe that the town was home to some 350 people and dates back to between 4700 and 4200 BC. That is about 1,500 years before the start of ancient Greek civilisation. The residents boiled water from a local spring and used it to create salt bricks,...

Striking prehistoric rock art created up to 5,000 years ago has been discovered at almost 100 sites in Somaliland on the Gulf of Aden in eastern Africa. A local team headed by Dr Sada Mire – of the Institute of Archaeology at University College London (UCL) – made the finds which included a man on horseback, painted around 4,000 years ago – one of the earliest known depictions of a mounted hunter.

Los Angeles, CA (AP) -- New research has found that more big earthquakes have hit California's San Andreas Fault in the past several centuries than previously thought. The last major jolt to the Carrizo Plain segment of the San Andreas occurred in 1857 when a magnitude-7.9 quake struck. Using radiocarbon dating, researchers from the University of California, Irvine, and Arizona State University found evidence of five other large quakes that occurred before 1857. They calculated that the interval between the last six quakes was 88 years on average.