Prehistory
Charnia: The Precambrian Fossil Found by an English Schoolboy
The fossil, named Charnia masoni in 1958, was the first complex fossil found in rocks already known to be Precambrian, proving that large organisms lived before the Cambrian.
Region
Europe
Prehistory
Dickinsonia: The Ediacaran Fossil Confirmed as an Early Animal
Molecular traces of cholesterol showed that Dickinsonia was an animal, one of the oldest known in the fossil record.
Prehistory
Caledonian Orogeny: The Closing of the Iapetus Ocean
The Iapetus Ocean closed and Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia fused into the continent of Laurussia, raising a long mountain belt.
Prehistory
Arthropleura: The Giant Millipede of the Carboniferous Period
The largest known land arthropod lived for over 50 million years before dying out in the early Permian.
Prehistory
Meganeura: Giant Insects of the Oxygen-Rich Carboniferous
One of the largest flying insects ever known, Meganeura became the classic example in the debate over oxygen levels and insect size.
Prehistory
Messel Pit: Germany's Eocene Fossil Treasure Trove
A former oil shale mine saved from becoming a landfill, now a World Heritage Site famous for exceptionally preserved Eocene animals and plants.
Prehistory
Messinian Salinity Crisis: When the Mediterranean Sea Dried Up
The Mediterranean was isolated from the Atlantic, deposited vast layers of salt and gypsum, and was refilled through the Strait of Gibraltar about 5.33 million years ago.
Prehistory
Dmanisi Hominins: Earliest Humans Outside Africa in Georgia
Five skulls and other remains showed that small-brained early Homo had left Africa by about 1.8 million years ago, before the invention of the hand axe.
Prehistory
Homo antecessor: The Gran Dolina Fossils of Atapuerca, Spain
Fossils from level TD6 of Gran Dolina were named Homo antecessor in 1997, showing that humans lived in western Europe more than 780,000 years ago.
Prehistory
Homo heidelbergensis: The Mauer Jaw and Europe's Early Humans
The Mauer mandible became the type specimen of Homo heidelbergensis, a species often seen as a possible common ancestor of Neanderthals and modern humans.
Prehistory
Sima de los Huesos: The Pit of Bones at Atapuerca, Spain
The site produced the largest collection of Middle Pleistocene human fossils in the world and DNA showing these people were early relatives of the Neanderthals.
Prehistory
Neanderthals: Life and Legacy of Europe's Ice Age Humans
Neanderthals died out about 40,000 years ago, but interbreeding left roughly 1-2 per cent Neanderthal DNA in the genomes of people with ancestry outside Africa.