Events

A Yale team using machine learning and thousands of fossil measurements reports evidence that Spinosaurus spent most of its life underwater, part of a broader pattern of land animals returning to the sea. Separately, a 150-million-year-old fossil from China describes an early bird with sharp teeth and a dinosaur-like claw, interpreted as the earliest known case of flight loss in birds.

In Wyoming, researchers have identified the "fattest" belemnite yet found — a barrel-shaped squid relative from 160-million-year-old seas, described as unlike anything previously known. A 120-million-year-old fossil long forgotten in a museum has been named as a tiger-sized, giant-clawed predator and the first megaraptoran evidence from Europe.

From Zimbabwe, a newly identified 210-million-year-old dinosaur points to a distinct southern African ecosystem shaped by ancient climate differences. On the human side, dating of the 'Ubeidiya site in the Jordan Valley suggests early humans arrived there at least 1.9 million years ago, far earlier than previously thought.

These summaries are brief and based only on the excerpts provided, so details are thin in places. Readers should open the source links for full context and verification before relying on any of these findings.