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
Mega volcanoes, asteroid impacts and 'the great dying' – 5 deadly mass extinctions that changed life on Earth forever
What is a mass extinction – and how many of them have there been? Will Newton takes a look the 'big five' extinction events
7 animals that could kill the deadliest predator that ever lived - the infamous T.rex
T.rex was perhaps the deadliest dinosaur that ever lived. However, that doesn’t mean it didn’t face threats from other animals…
"After getting the go-ahead, it will drop its act and use its large canines to tear chunks of flesh off its unsuspecting client." Nature's 10 biggest, greatest liars and con artists
Not everything is quite as it seems with these master manipulators…
"It terrorised the seas 90 to 80 million years ago just a few million years before its equally ferocious two-legged namesake did the same thing on land..."
It might share its name with the largest meat-eating dinosaur that ever lived, but this isn’t the T.rex we all know and recognise…
5 extraordinary, ancient human species that lived BEFORE we did: 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…
Imagine if dinosaurs hadn't gone extinct. Here's what scientists think may have happened next
66 million years ago, a city-sized asteroid hurtled toward Earth – then sailed straight past…
"He may have had his leg grabbed by a crocodile and his head pulled by a leopard" 10 gruesome deaths and brutal moments preserved forever as fossils
To become a fossil, an animal has to die. However, not all deaths are equal and some are a lot more gruesome than others…
Why are ocean creatures so darned big?
We take a look at the reasons why marine animals typically grow much larger than land animals
"100,000 individuals can make up a single raft..." 10 gobsmacking, bizarre, animal-made structures. You won't believe number 8 can float...
We’re not the only animals capable of impressive feats of engineering…
This gigantic tusk and more than 70 bones were dug up at a construction site in Germany. Here's why the discovery is so exceptional
After several years of detailed study, scientists from Germany have cracked a cold case that has been on ice since the Last Glacial Maximum.
Biggest scorpion to ever live revealed from 415-million-year-old fossils. It was 1m long and had pincers larger than table knives
These UK fossils have puzzled palaeontologists for more than a century. Now they’ve been re-examined and identified as an ancient scorpion that was larger than a cat
This cave lion was unearthed from Siberian permafrost. Scientists analysed its DNA – and made an unexpected discovery
It turns out there’s a lot more to extinct cave lions than scientists first thought…
"Imagine a scorpion that was the same size as a house cat." 10 gigantic, deadly, prehistoric insects that are the most terrifying to have ever lived
Entomophobes look away now! Here are some of the largest, deadliest, and most terrifying bugs to ever live…
"These specialised teeth allowed them to crack, crush, and chew bones." 10 fearsome, deadly prehistoric dogs that roamed Earth millions of years ago
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
Bizarre ‘witch croc’ that looks just like a dinosaur discovered in New Mexico
It might look like a dinosaur, but this strange, newly-discovered Triassic reptile belongs to the evolutionary lineage that led to crocodiles…
Will it ever be possible to ‘resurrect’ dinosaurs?
What would it take to bring back dinosaurs? Will newton explains
They interbred – but could humans and neanderthals actually talk to each other?
Our ancestors lived alongside Neanderthals for nearly 200,000 years, often interbreeding with them. But could they understand one another?
"It stood nearly 20m tall, measured 40m from head to tail, and tipped the scales at a whopping 80 tons..." Could humans live alongside dinosaurs?
Imagine a world where herds of Triceratops roamed our national parks and packs of Velociraptors raced across our streets…
T.rex had absolutely tiny arms. We may finally know why – and it's all to do with its massive head
As the heads of giant, carnivorous dinosaurs got larger and stronger, their arms got smaller and smaller…
Colossal dinosaur discovered in Thailand. The 27-tonne giant was as long as a blue whale
A team of palaeontologists led by University College London have just announced the discovery of a brand-new species of dinosaur – the largest ever discovered in Southeast Asia
It's been confirmed – the kraken monster really did exist, 84 million years ago...
This giant cephalopod dwarfed mosasaurs and other massive marine reptiles that lived during the time of the dinosaurs…
"Any animals standing within 1,500km of the impact would have been instantly vaporised." 10 deadly, terrifying times to be alive...
Over the course of its 4.5-billion-year history, the Earth has witnessed its fair share of terrible times…
"It looked more like something from Alien than an animal." 10 weirdest prehistoric bugs, including a car-sized one that weighed the same as a Labrador
If you thought there were some strange bugs living today, wait until you meet these oddballs from prehistory…
"They wore clothes, wielded fire, and created art; they may have even been smarter than us..." Just who were our closest cousins?
From ice-age hunters to our closest extinct relatives, this essential guide uncovers who the Neanderthals really were — and what they reveal about us.
