News
Tiny alien-like blue octopus discovered lurking off the Galapagos Islands
3+ hour, 53+ min ago (166+ words) This teensy creature was discovered along a deep-sea mountain By Jeanna Bryner edited by Claire Cameron The new species, a golf ball-size octopus, was discovered on the deep seafloor of the Pacific Ocean. Courtesy of the Charles Darwin Foundation It's…...
These bizarre fossils represent some of the earliest moving, sexually reproducing life ever discovered
4+ day, 10+ hour ago (368+ words) New trove of fossils reveals that ancestral animals likely emerged in the deep sea By Jack Tamisiea edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier A paleoartist's interpretation of what a newfound fossil site's deep-sea ecosystem looked like during the Ediacaran period around…...
Did the last common ancestor of humans and apes walk like a gorilla? A new study offers a clue
4+ day, 20+ hour ago (472+ words) Some extinct human ancestors and modern-day apes appear to share wrist traits that raise the question of whether our last common ancestor walked on its knuckles A western lowland gorilla. Human evolutionary science has long been caught up in a…...
Poop, stomach oil and ostrich eggshells keep records of Earth's ancient climate
2+ week, 3+ day ago (412+ words) Peering into Earth's climate past is getting ever more bizarre By Hannah Richter edited by Sarah Lewin Frasier Erin Mc Clymont's laboratory has six kitchen freezers, each alarmed. This is for self-preservation: when the power goes out or an appliance…...
Meet the real-life "Kraken" that ruled the Cretaceous seas
1+ mon, 1+ day ago (455+ words) Kraken" fossils show enormous, intelligent octopuses were top predators in Cretaceous seas'Scientific American Kraken" fossils show enormous, intelligent octopuses were top predators in Cretaceous seas Fossil jaws from colossal octopuses place them at the top of a prehistoric marine food…...
For predatory dinosaurs, the Late Jurassic was an all-you-can-eat sauropod buffet
3+ mon, 3+ week ago (281+ words) Some 150 million years ago sauropods dramatically shaped the dinosaur ecosystem in what is now the western U. S. , according to a new study Sauropods'humongous reptiles with a long neck and tail and thick, elephantlike legs'played a starring role in the dinosaur ecosystem,…...
Only one group of dinosaurs survived an asteroid impact. You can probably see them from your window
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (1499+ words) The dinosaurs at your window: How birds survived the asteroid that killed all other dinosaurs How a few unique traits helped modern-style birds'the last living dinosaurs'survive the asteroid apocalypse that took out T. rex and other mighty beasts By Kendra Pierre-Louis,…...
10 books that will make you see dinosaurs differently
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (239+ words) 10 best dinosaur books, according to a paleontologist Steve Brusatte, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs and The Story of Birds, recommends 10 dinosaur books to dig into By Steve Brusatte edited by Brianne Kane The Dinosaur Heresies: New…...
Why birds were the only dinosaurs to survive mass extinction
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (676+ words) How birds survived the dinosaurs" doomsday Scientists finally understand why birds were the only dinosaurs to pull through the end-Cretaceous mass extinction By Steve Brusatte edited by Kate Wong An early modern bird, Asteriornis, eats seeds in the aftermath of…...
How DNA forensics is transforming studies of ancient manuscripts
1+ mon, 1+ week ago (799+ words) Scientists are exposing the biological information hidden in ancient parchments without leaving a mark By Marla Broadfoot & Nature magazine Specks of eraser dust contain enough DNA to identify the animal products used to in books. The John Rylands Research Institute…...