Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. I write about biodiversity and the hidden quirks of the natural world. The ancient oceans of the Eocene epoch teemed with ...

Imagine swimming in shallow turquoise water and realizing the shadow under you is not a sandbank but a snake as long as a city bus. That chilling scene is not movie fiction. It is roughly what ...

Long before the rise of whales and great white sharks, a massive serpent prowled the tropical seas that once covered northern Africa. Known as Palaeophis colossaeus, this extraordinary marine snake ...

The concept of enormous animals has historically been associated mostly with terrestrial dinosaurs. Oceans conceal their own rich past, but they feel different and quieter. Sometimes, in ways that are ...

Scientists have unveiled two major fossil discoveries — a giant Early Jurassic dinosaur in China and a massive ancient sea snake from Mali — that fill key evolutionary gaps. The new dinosaur species, ...