News

LAWRENCE — Cycads, a group of gymnosperms that can resemble miniature palm trees (like the popular sago palm houseplant), were long thought to be “living fossils,” a group that had evolved minimally since the time of the dinosaurs. Now, a well-preserved 80-million-year-old pollen cone discovered in…

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas graduate program in paleontology ranks number one among public universities, tied with special education in the 2024 rankings by U.S. News & World Report. KU's local government management program ranked No. 1 among all universities. KU has 37 graduate…

LAWRENCE — The only dinosaur known to have lived in what is now Kansas, Silvisaurus condrayi, was designated the official state land fossil of Kansas, thanks in part to a Kansas rancher and a Goddard schoolteacher and his sixth-grade students. Teacher Joel Condray, his students from Challenger…

LAWRENCE — When the Kinks’ Ray Davies penned the tune “Last of the Steam-Powered Trains,” the vanishing locomotives stood as nostalgic symbols of a simpler English life. But for a paleontologist at the University of Kansas, the replacement of steam-powered trains with diesel and electric engines,…

LAWRENCE — Researchers from the University of Kansas are helping build an international, multidisciplinary center to monitor pathogens in wild mammals and act as an early warning system for pandemic prediction and prevention.

LAWRENCE — The discovery of an 80-million-year-old fossil plant pushes back the known origins of lamiids to the Cretaceous, extending the record of nearly 40,000 species of flowering plants including modern-day staple crops like coffee, tomatoes, potatoes and mint.

LAWRENCE — As humanity tries to find its footing after the COVID-19 pandemic, the University of Kansas is taking steps to help ready the United States and the rest of the world for future global health crises.

LAWRENCE — Two sister species of near-primate, called “primatomorphans,” dating back about 52 million years have been identified by researchers at the University of Kansas as the oldest to have dwelled north of the Arctic Circle.

LAWRENCE — Generations from now, will people still jam into beachside food stands for clam rolls and splurge on trays of oysters at swanky restaurants — or will clams, oysters and many other mollusk species soon become victims of human-driven climate change?

LAWRENCE — Bruce Lieberman, professor in the University of Kansas Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and senior curator in the Division of Invertebrate Paleontology at the Biodiversity Institute