In a recent paper, two UCMP scientists used fossils to show that North American mammal diversity was much higher before humans arrived on the continent.

Last week, two University of California Museum of Paleontology alums, Sterling Nesbitt and Randall Irmis, described a new species of dinosaur in the journal Science. The new species, Tawa hallae, sheds light on early dinosaur evolution — and the importance of the UCMP’s collections.

Ardipithecus ramidus, the oldest homonid skeleton, is Science Magazine’s Breakthrough of theYear! Ardi was discovered and described by an international team of researchers, including the UCMP’s Tim White and Leslea Hlusko.

Judy Scotchmoor, UCMP Assistant Director for Education and Public Programs, was named an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Fellow.

Learn more about the evolution of drug resistant malaria pathogens, and how combination drug therapies help prevent the evolution of drug resistance, in the latest Evo in the News story, Fighting the evolution of malaria in Cambodia.

Erin Meyer, a UCMP and Integrative Biology graduate student, is helping to curate the museum’s Invertebrate Collection. Over 31,000 catalogued specimens of corals, crabs, bivalves, snails, ammonites… both fossil and recent — if it doesn’t have a backbone, it’s in this collection!

Evolution is everywhere — including in the news! That’s why each month we publish a new Evo in the News feature on our Understanding Evolution website.

UCMP Curator Mark Goodwin and colleague Jack Horner argue that there were fewer species of pachycephalosaurs — dome-headed dinosaurs — than we thought. Watch this video to see why!