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Union, Kentucky

Diorama Pit at Big Bone Lick State Historic Site

A life-sized recreation of the megafauna that once roamed this region is a feature at the birthplace of American paleontology.
If the bones aren’t taken care of correctly, the spirit could put a curse on the family.
bones

Meet the Man Who Digs Up Graves to Lift Curses

Families hire a bone collector in Taiwan to fix problematic tombs—and sometimes deal with ghosts.
Clarissa Wei October 5, 2023
A large bone hangs from a chain in a church.
Warsaw, Poland

The Mammoth Bone

A massive mammoth bone has been on display inside this church since the 18th century.
The true reasoning behind this undead-decapitating sickle burial is likely lost to time.
cemeteries

The Truth Behind Poland's 'Anti-Vampire' Graves

Can recent excavations answer questions about death and demonology in the 1600s?
Sam O'Brien August 14, 2023
Designed by English sculptor Benjamin Waterhouse Hawkins, models of dinosaurs and other prehistoric animals were destined for Central Park's never-realized Paleozoic Museum.
dinosaurs

The Bizarre True Story of Central Park’s Doomed Victorian Dinosaur Museum

For centuries, the infamous Boss Tweed was blamed for destroying its dino-models—but what really happened is even weirder.
Sarah Durn August 3, 2023
A reconstruction of <em>P. colossus</em> shows it in its coastal habitat. The head is an educated guess because a skull has not been found yet.
science

Paleontologists in Peru Discover What Might Be the 'Chonkiest Whale Ever'

And maybe the heaviest animal the world has ever seen.
Roxanne Hoorn August 2, 2023
skulls

Podcast: Dmanisi

An archaeological site in Georgia challenges what we think we know about the deep human past.
The Podcast Team August 2, 2023
dinosaurs

Podcast: Bone Wars

How a feud broke new ground for fossil history.
The Podcast Team June 23, 2023
The Anchisaurus cast in its display case.
East Windsor, Connecticut

The Bones from the Well

A replica of fossils believed to be the first scientifically-described dinosaur bones found in North America.
The limestone cave of Paviland, in southern Wales, where an ancient, ochre-stained skeleton was discovered in 1823.
caves

Who Was the Red Lady of Paviland?

The 33,000-year-old skeleton was taken from Wales two centuries ago—is it time for the bones to go home?
Ffion Reynolds and Jacqui Mulville March 20, 2023
Researchers found the remains of the frontal skulls of 35 large game animals in Des-Cubierta cave near Madrid, Spain.
skulls

Did Neanderthals Collect Impressive Animal Skulls?

Researchers found something "very strange" in a Spanish cave.
Alyssa McMurtry March 16, 2023
relics

Podcast: Galileo’s Middle Finger

Investigating a renowned scientist's iconic digit.
The Podcast Team January 31, 2023
During the last ice age, people moved across Beringia, a massive landform connecting Asia and North America. Seasonal hunters left behind a trove of valuable evidence of their presence at the northern Canadian site known as the Bluefish Caves.
caves

Investigating Ice Age America’s Ancient Abattoir

Scientists know people were in Yukon 24,000 years ago. But what were they doing there?
Devon Bidal January 30, 2023
Cesare Lombroso, a prominent 19th-century Italian scientist, based his life's work on the skull of a man he called "brigand Villella"—but little was known about Giuseppe Villella until recently.
skulls

Why is Everyone Fighting Over the Skull of 'Brigand Villella'?

The answer involves pseudoscience, politics, and a burglary at a windmill.
Dania Rodrigues November 4, 2022
This 1833 painting by Alexandre Hesse in the Louvre in Paris depicts the funeral rites of the painter Titian after his death from plague.
plague

Venice Is Almost One Big Plague Graveyard

A city built on water was always going to struggle with burials—especially when a deadly pandemic came to town.
Vittoria Traverso October 27, 2022
The catacombs.
List

19 Catacombs Sure to Tingle Your Spine

These underground galleries bring the living to the world of the dead.
Jonathan Carey October 14, 2022
Maltese bone cookies are a tradition with a murky past.
bones

In Malta, ‘Dead Men’s Bones’ Are a Sweet, Spiritual Tradition

The cookies are just one way that the island nation remembers the dead.
Alice Levitt October 11, 2022
Magdeburg, Germany

Guericke-Einhorn (Magdeburg Unicorn)

This 17th-century "unicorn" was cobbled together from the skull of a rhinoceros, the legs of a mammoth, and the horn of a narwhal.