The evolutionary history of the mock viper, a mildly venomous, widely distributed Asian snake that mimics highly venomous vipers for self-defense, has been solved. The mock viper represents a ...

WASHINGTON — Scientists in Australia have identified the oldest known fossil footprints of a reptilelike animal, dated to around 350 million years ago. The discovery suggests that after the first ...

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 ...

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 ...

Following careful study of a prehistoric skull of a new species unearthed in Madagascar, Azendohsaurus madagaskarensis, it turns out Azendohsaurus is not an early dinosaur as long assumed, but rather ...

This piece first appeared in the Front Matter section of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A small but fierce jawbone sits in Argentina’s natural science museum in Buenos Aires. Six ...

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

Lizards and snakes may look very different at first. Lizards have legs, eyelids, and ears that you can see. Snakes, on the other hand, have long, limb.

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 ...