Body coverings such as hair and feathers have played a central role in evolution. They enabled warm-bloodedness by insulating the body, and were used for courtship, display, deterrence of enemies and, ...

Mock vipers not only look like tree-dwelling vipers but also act like them. Intriguingly, they have a fake ‘fang’ in the front of their mouth, which befools a predator into thinking that they possess ...

“Mirasaura teaches us that a feather is only one of the many wondrous things that reptiles evolved to grow out of their skin,” wrote Yale University evolutionary biologist Richard Prum in an essay ...

A study determines when and how pterosaurs went from tiny tree-climbers to towering terrestrial titans Flying reptiles first came down from the trees in the mid-Jurassic Period, paving the way for ...

Is it possible that feathers weren’t the first extravagant skin appendages in reptiles? The recent discovery of Mirasaura grauvogeli’s remarkable dorsal crest has upended long-held assumptions about ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Reconstruction and illustration of Mirasaura grauvogeli in its natural forested environment. Illustration by Gabriel Ugueto, ...

In a study of fossils, a research team led by evolutionary biologist and Johns Hopkins Medicine assistant professor Matteo Fabbri suggests that a group of giant reptiles alive up to 220 million years ...

Researchers discovered that a 215-million-year-old reptile started life on four legs and switched to two as an adult.

Viviparity, the live-bearing mode of reproduction, has evolved independently in several vertebrate lineages, including squamate reptiles and seahorses. In reptiles, evolutionary transitions from ...

A fossil found over two decades ago on England’s Jurassic Coast has proved to be one of the most significant discoveries of marine reptiles in recent times. The almost complete skeleton of a ...