PBS
The Extinction That Never Happened
Natural history is full of living things that were long thought to have gone extinct only to show up again, alive and well. Paleontologists have a word for these kinds of organisms: They call them Lazarus taxa.
PBS
How Ancient Art Captured Australian Megafauna
Beneath layers of rock art are drawings of animals SO strange that, for a long time, some anthropologists thought they could only have been imagined. But what if these animals really had existed, after all?
PBS
Where Are All The Squid Fossils?
It might surprise you but cephalopods have a pretty good fossil record, with one major exception. If squids were swimming around in the same oceans as their closest cousins, where did all the squids go?
MinuteEarth
Why Most Fossils Are Incomplete
In 1990, fossil collectors in South Dakota stumbled across a dinosaur that turned out to be a really big deal. Not just because it was a T. rex – basically the most popular dino out there – or because it ended up in Chicago’s famous...
SciShow
5 Dinosaur Dinners and What They Told Us
"When it comes to extinct creatures like dinosaurs, it can be tough to know for sure what they actually ate. And we’d like to know because what an animal eats tells you a lot about it. But every now and then, the fossil record gives us a...
Science ABC
Why Are Dinosaur Fossils More Abundant Than Human Remains?
We don’t find as many human remains as dinosaur fossils because dinosaurs lived on the planet for millions of years, while humans have only been around for 200,000 years. Additionally, dinosaurs were not just one species but had hundreds...
Mazz Media
Punctuated Equilibria and Speciation
Darwin saw evolution of new species as a slow process occurring over very long periods of time. Changes that lead to new species usually take place in small populations where genetic changes can accrue rapidly. This video will help...
TED-Ed
How to Fossilize Yourself
Here is an unusual question: How can I become a famous fossil for future generations to examine and adore? It is from this comical perspective that viewers learn how fossilization occurs. Show this for your middle school paleontologists...