Will Newton
Science writer
Will Newton is a freelance science writer with a passion for all things prehistoric, from dinosaurs to Ice Age humans. He is also a PhD student at the University of Manchester, where he studies 400-million-year-old, armoured fish known as Ostracoderms. He has written for both BBC Wildlife and BBC Science Focus, as well as several other popular publications. When he's not writing about ancient animals, he can be found with his elbows deep in one of the many fish tanks currently overtaking his home office."
Recent articles by Will Newton
10 petrifying, huge prehistoric beasts that would have utterly terrified early man, from a 3-metre tall primate to massive deadly eagles and the infamous Smilodon
Our time on this planet has been relatively short, yet in this time we’ve come face to face with some of Earth’s most infamous beasts. From giant cats with canines the size of our forearms to killer eagles capable of snatching children, here are 10 creatures that would have made our ancestors run away in terror…
Meet the world's deadliest-ever eagles, including a 18kg mighty raptor that terrified New Zealanders until its extinction in the 15th century
For a time, humans may have been on the menu for giant, killer eagles that soared over New Zealand, Australia, and Africa.
100-year-old mystery of Wyoming’s duck-billed dinosaur ‘mummies’ finally solved
A new study has revealed the exceptionally preserved skin, spikes and hooves of Wyoming’s famous duck-billed dinosaur ‘mummies’ aren’t fossilised flesh, but rather clay moulds formed by microorganisms during decay.
10 horrifying, prehistoric sea monsters: Discover menacing, deadly creatures that once ruled our oceans – and be glad they don't live today...
The seas have been home to some monstrous creatures over the course of the last 500 million years. Here are 10 that you’ll be glad are long extinct…
Rare 'sword dragon' with bite marks on skull found on UK coast. Experts know what killed it
After more than 20 years gathering dust in the bowels of a museum, an ichthyosaur skeleton from the UK’s Jurassic Coast has finally been studied and identified as a new species.
10 gigantic, deadly, prehistoric insects – from acid-spaying ants to cat-sized scorpions – that are among the most terrifying bugs that have ever lived
Entomophobes look away now! Here are some of the largest, deadliest, and most terrifying bugs to ever live…
85-million-year-old dinosaur eggs found in China. What they reveal is wild
What the researchers discovered could change our understanding of not only dinosaur evolution and extinction, but global environmental change too…
10 weirdest dinosaurs ever, from a crazed two-legged hedgehog look-a-like to one that resembled a cross between a duck, camel and giant sloth
For nearly 180 million years, dinosaurs ruled over land on Earth. In that time they evolved into countless different forms, many of which were downright weird…
1.1-million-year-old mammoth discovered in Siberian wilderness. What scientists find in its DNA has got them excited
A groundbreaking study has shed new light on the microbiomes of mammoths by examining hundreds of remains, including those of a steppe mammoth found near the Adycha River in northeastern Russia.
"We’ve never seen anything like this in any animal before": why this armoured dinosaur is one of the strangest ever discovered
A team of scientists working in Morocco have discovered more bones belonging to the bizarre armoured dinosaur Spicomellus…
This prehistoric sea monster was the size of a car, weighed the same as a rhino, had a deadly hooked beak for tearing flesh and swam alongside plesiosaurs
The prehistoric giant that wasn't a whale or a shark
Is the human race truly one species or the lovechild of various prehistoric hook-ups? Just how interbred are we?
Deadliest dinosaurs had a variety of killing methods from slashing and tearing to biting and crushing
New study finds not all giant dinosaurs killed the same way
Mega volcanoes, asteroid impacts and global cooling: The five deadly mass extinctions that changed life on Earth as we know it forever
What is a mass extinction – and how many of them have there been? Will Newton takes a look the 'big five' extinction events
How many species of human have there been?
We aren’t the only humans to have called Earth ‘home’; before us there were dozens of human species and like us they travelled far and wide…
It turns out we aren't as unique as we think we are: Here are 5 ancient human species that once lived alongside us
We may be the only human species alive today, but just a few hundred thousand years ago there was a remarkable diversity of humans living across the world…
Tiny, pea-sized dinosaur bone discovered in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert has scientists gobsmacked at what it means
This tiny, pea-sized bone has the potential to change everything we thought we knew about how flight originated in dinosaurs and their descendants birds…
5 ancient human species that lived BEFORE us: Meet the prehistoric pioneers who changed history forever
We're not the first species of ‘human’ to walk the Earth; thousands of years before us there was a rich diversity of hominins…
What's the difference between humans and apes? And when did we first appear?
We may be part of the same overarching group as chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans, but there are lots of things that set us apart from these other great apes…
Why did dinosaurs have horns and spikes?
Why did dinosaurs have horns and spikes for fighting, or just for show?
Is this the world's most gruesome – and unluckiest – death ever? Ancient human attacked by two deadly predators at once
As far as gruesome, prehistoric deaths go, none are worse than the death experienced by a Homo habilis known as OH 7.
10 gruesome deaths preserved as fossils: Nature’s most brutal final moments frozen in time
To become a fossil, an animal has to die. However, not all deaths are equal and some are a lot more gruesome than others…
Any animals standing within 1,500km of the impact would have been instantly vaporised: 10 terrible times to be alive
Over the course of its 4.5-billion-year history, the Earth has witnessed its fair share of terrible times…
10 fearsome prehistoric dogs that roamed the Earth millions of years ago: Are these the deadliest canine hunters of all time?
They may be closely related to today’s domestic dogs, but you certainly wouldn’t want to pet these extinct canids… Meet 10 deadly prehistoric dogs