Where did it start? How did it grow complex? Why did it get big? Three moments in Earth’s early history when evolution suddenly, inexplicably turned up the dial.

© Photoillustration by Will Warasila for The New York Times

How architects worked with harsh environment to create sustainable building in location where fossils were found

Viewed from afar, the silver-hued Hami Pterosaur Museum almost looks like a space base on Mars. Viewed from above, it resembles a collection of dinosaur eggs in the sand. Nestled in the Gobi desert, in north-west China, the new tourist attraction showcases hundreds of impressive fossils of pterosaurs, ancient flying reptiles related to dinosaurs. But far from reflecting its prehistoric exhibits, the building itself is a modern-day architectural specimen.

Designed with underground exhibition halls, giant light funnels and sprawling solar farms, the museum is able to operate sustainably while withstanding an extremely harsh environment.

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© Photograph: Turenscape

© Photograph: Turenscape

© Photograph: Turenscape

Once upon a time, insects had 24 legs. This ancient oddball fills a major gap in the fossil record. Insects are famous for their six-legged body plan, but that wasn't always the rule. A 324-million-year-old fossil dug up from a shale bed in West Texas had a markedly different setup, sporting a whopping 18 extra legs along its belly — a body plan unlike that of any living insect.

"Rex Junior" is a partial but perfectly preserved Tyrannosaurus skeleton found on the Zerbst Ranch in eastern Wyoming. A paleontologist said that the "extraordinary specimen" could rewrite 100 years of knowledge about how the T. rex looked. No photos of the exact specimen yet, but holy moly, paleontology fans!

Kent Hups, a high school science teacher in Colorado, discovered a 23-foot trackway of fossilized dinosaur footprints, which offer a glimpse of how the apex predator moved 66 million years ago.

A researcher surveying a San Mateo County creek stumbled upon a preserved Pacific mastodon molar estimated to be at least 10,000 years old.