The beautiful sea stars (“starfish”), classified as echinoderms, are one of the most easily identifiable marine invertebrates, with their characteristic radiating arms and stony skin of calcium carbonate. The sea star’s water vascular system is one of the more amazing and complex arrangements in the animal world.

In 2002, Professor Michel Brunet of the University of Poitiers, France, described a tiny fossil ape skull nicknamed Toumaï as an upright-walking human ancestor.¹ This ancient skull and other possibly associated partial bones from Chad belong to the Sahelanthropus kind.

In 2020, an interesting evaluation of human evolution was made by a Scientific American science writer. 

In 2021, a fossil of an evidently beautiful bird the size of a bluejay was unearthed from sedimentary deposits in northeastern China. The bird—named Yuanchuavis—had a unique combination of different types of tail feathers not seen before.