The 11ft tall and 20ft long fossil, nicknamed Apex, could fetch up to $6m as it’s celebrated as ‘one of the best unearthed’

The largest and most complete Stegosaurus fossil ever found is expected to fetch up to $6m (£4.7m) when it is sold as the star lot in Sotheby’s “geek week” auction this summer.

At 11ft (3.4 metres) tall and more than 20ft long the “virtually complete” fossil, which has been nicknamed “Apex”, is more than 30% larger than “Sophie”, the previously most intact stegosaurus specimen which was on display in London’s Natural History Museum.

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© Photograph: Matthew Sherman/Sotheby’s

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© Photograph: Matthew Sherman/Sotheby’s

The specimen, found by the paleontologist Jason Cooper, could be auctioned for millions of dollars by Sotheby’s.

© Nina Riggio for The New York Times

Meet the echidnapus: Fossils discovered in museum drawer may point to Australian age of monotremes. The "echidnapus" is one of the newly described ancient monotremes from a fossil hotspot in NSW that could give us more clues about an era when egg-laying mammals diversified.

Palaeontologists have named three new monotreme species, including an "echidnapus", which shares platypus and echidna characteristics.

Palaeontology while using a power wheelchair. Eleanor Beidatsch recently graduated with first-class honours in geoscience at the University of New England (UNE). Eleanor has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) type 1 and has never had use of her legs. Her arm movement is also limited. "I cannot move myself around at all," she said. "When I'm in the wheelchair I can move, thanks to the wonders of technology." The disease, which affects her respiration as well as her mobility, was generally considered fatal by doctors when Eleanor was born. "I'm more of a lab rat than a field mouse," she said. "Palaeontology is very physical, but only if you're out digging. [Information about fossils] essentially then gets put online, that is then accessible for people to do lab work, and you don't need to be able bodied [for that]."

More Than 1000 Fossils, Including Rare Dinosaurs, Given to Brazil's National Museum Following Fire. (Smithsonian Magazine.) The massive donation was made by Burkhard Pohl, a Swiss-German collector, as the museum works to replenish its collections after a devastating blaze in September 2018.

"We felt it was the right thing to do to help rebuild a comprehensive collection of Brazilian fossils,' Pohl tells the Art Newspaper's Gabriella Angeleti. "We hope that this initiative will inspire other collectors to follow suit and join this important effort. I strongly believe that a collection is a living organism that must constantly evolve—a collection locked away in a basement is a dead collection."

Carnivorous predator Radnorscolex latus existed 425m years ago and caught prey with its retractable throat

An ancient worm unearthed in Herefordshire was a carnivorous predator that shoved its throat out to catch and eat prey, according to scientists.

The creature, named Radnorscolex latus, was found at a disused Victorian quarry site in the village of Leintwardine, near the Welsh border.

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© Photograph: Richie Howard/Luke Parry/National History Museum/PA

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© Photograph: Richie Howard/Luke Parry/National History Museum/PA

The brittle star specimen suggests that the sea creatures have been splitting themselves in two to reproduce for more than 150 million years.

By digging into the geologic record, scientists are learning how wildfires shaped — and were shaped by — climate change long ago.

A gift from abroad of more than 1,100 Brazilian fossils aims to step up efforts to rebuild the country’s National Museum, which suffered major fire damage in 2018.

The Cleveland Museum of Natural History is rolling out two new exhibition halls and making its scientists more accessible. And don’t forget the dinosaurs.

© Daniel Lozada for The New York Times

Two creatures unearthed in 2006, and finally on display in North Carolina, might hold the key to a major debate over a certain animal’s identity.

© Cornell Watson for The New York Times

A series of foot tracks in southeastern China points to the discovery of a giant velociraptor relative, paleontologists suggest in a new study.

A new study resets the timing for the emergence of bioluminescence back to millions of years earlier than previously thought.

© NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, Deepwater Wonders of Wake

When Ruby Reynolds and her father found a fossil on an English beach, they didn’t know it belonged to an 82-foot ichthyosaur that swam during the days of the dinosaurs.