Yale anthropology professor Andrew Hill and graduate student Faysal Bibi are studying elephant footprints and other fossils near oil-rich Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. In this formerly lush and verdant area, the scientists’ fascinating finds fit well with the biblical model.

In a recent issue of the journal BioScience, ecologist Jeffrey Levinton of Stony Brook University, New York, offered a well-written review of the current status of the “Cambrian Explosion” hypothesis and presented at least two enigmas in evolutionary thinking.¹

Have “primitive fingers” really been discovered in a fossil fish?¹ Many fish, fossilized or live, show bone structure in their fins, and evolutionary scientists have believed this to be evidence that land creatures evolved from fish.

Analysis of an unusual Brazilian fossil has led U.S. researchers to link microscopic fossil features to bird feather colors. The fossil has dramatic black and white banding patterns that have been interpreted as post-fossilization bacterial activity. However, there are structures in the rock in which it was found that are the same size and shape as cells from living dark feathers.