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One of 1.43-million-year-old footprints found at the GaJi10 site in the Koobi Fora Formation in northern Kenya; a 15-cm (6-inch) ruler is shown for scale. Image credit: Kay Behrensmeyer.

Ancient Footprints in Kenya Hint at Bigger Bodies and Group Behavior among Early Human Relatives

Jul 28, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A set of 1.43-million-year-old fossil footprints preserved along the margin of an ancient lake in northern Kenya is offering paleoanthropologists new evidence...

This VLT/SPHERE image shows the clearest image ever of what likely is Betelgeuse B. Image credit: ESO / Montargès et al.

Astronomers Directly Image Betelgeuse’s Long-Suspected Stellar Companion

Jul 28, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

After a century of speculation, astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have captured the clearest evidence yet that the red supergiant Betelgeuse...

Apis aibai. Image credit: Y. Takahashi & J-ichi Takahashi, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1255.162389.

Japanese Fossil Bee Fills Two-Million-Year Gap in Honeybee History

Jul 27, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new fossil honeybee species that fills a long-standing gap in the evolutionary record of the genus Apis. Apis...

This illustration shows the stellar system CD-35 2722, with the newly found exomoon at the center; the star has about half the mass of our Sun, and it is orbited by a brown dwarf, the reddish-brown object seen here in the foreground (right). Image credit: ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Planetary-Mass Exomoon Found Circling Brown Dwarf

Jul 26, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT) have discovered a gas giant around a brown dwarf in the stellar system CD-35 2722. The discovery blurs...

An artist’s reconstruction of Miyumba chrisdickmani in the Early Miocene rainforests of northern Australia. Image credit: Nellie Pease.

Early Miocene Fossil Rewrites Family Tree of Little Carnivorous Marsupials

Jul 24, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists at the University of New South Wales have described a new genus and species of dasyurid marsupial from the Early Miocene of Australia,...

The north polar region of Io was captured by NASA’s Juno spacecraft on December 30, 2023. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI / MSSS / Gerald Eichstädt.

Juno’s Microwave Vision Peers beneath Surface of Jupiter’s Volcanic Moon Io

Jul 23, 2026 by Natali Anderson

New data from NASA’s Juno spacecraft show temperatures spike more than 20 degrees Celsius just a few meters under Io’s surface, providing the first...

An artist’s impression of the Kimmeridge Clay pliosaur. Image credit: Megan Jacobs, University of Portsmouth.

Jurassic Pliosaur Liopleurodon Was Big, but Not as Big as Once Feared

Jul 22, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

For several decades, Liopleurodon ferox — a short-necked marine reptile that patrolled the seas of what is now England and France some 163 million...

Life reconstruction of Ceratocaudia antiqua, the earliest-known macronarian neosauropod species from India. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

Small Sauropod Dinosaur from Jurassic Period Discovered in India

Jul 21, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in India have unearthed a partial skeleton of a diminutive, previously unknown neosauropod dinosaur from the Middle Jurassic rocks of Gujarat’s...

Carinasquama rusmithii. Image credit: Daza et al., doi: 10.3897/sjp.145.188227.

Oldest Known Male Gecko Found Preserved in Kachin Amber

Jul 20, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new genus and species of ancient gecko found in two pieces of amber from the 99-million-year-old (mid-Cretaceous) amber...

The Middle Devonian Hujiersite amber. Image credit: Lu et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aeh1266.

385-Million-Year-Old Amber Found in China

Jul 17, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists in China have discovered what they say is the earliest confirmed pieces of amber ever found, a fossilized resin roughly 385 million years...

Colobus congoensis. Image credit: Daniel Rosengren, Frankfurt Zoological Society.

Scientists Discover New Monkey Species in Democratic Republic of Congo

Jul 16, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Researchers have identified and formally described a new species of the African monkey genus Colobus living in the remote interior of the Democratic Republic...

This artist’s concept shows the Beta Pictoris system with the discovered giant exoplanet Beta Pictoris d at the right. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / Ralf Crawford, STScI.

Astronomers Discover and Directly Image Third Planet in Beta Pictoris System

Jul 15, 2026 by News Staff

Named Beta Pictoris d, the newly-discovered world is 100 times fainter than Beta Pictoris b — the first planet discovered around the A5-type star...

Life reconstruction of Plesiolophus warnerensis. Image credit: Connor Ashbridge / CC BY 4.0.

New Crested Dinosaur Species Identified in Canada

Jul 14, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of lambeosaurine hadrosaurid dinosaur has been identified in southern Alberta, Canada, dating back 77 million years to the Campanian...

Mesetasaurus protector. Image credit: Merlina Ramírez.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Titanosaur in Uruguay

Jul 13, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in Uruguay have identified a new species of aeolosaurine titanosaur from a pair of remarkably well-preserved tailbones unearthed in the...

This composite image of the Milky Way’s central region shows the location of the molecular cloud G+0.693-0.027. Image credit: Ashley Barnes / Izaskun Jiménez-Serra / Juan García de la Concepción.

Astronomers Detect Sugar in Interstellar Space for First Time

Jul 13, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Using the Yebes 40-m and IRAM 30-m radio telescopes, astronomers have discovered erythrulose, a four-carbon sugar commonly found in raspberries and sunless...

Paliki peninsula on the island of Kefalonia, Ionian Islands, Greece. Image credit: Christos Vittoratos / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Was Odysseus’ Ithaca Never an Island? Scholars Challenge Centuries-Old Assumption

Jul 13, 2026 by Sergio Prostak

For as long as readers have pored over Homer’s Odyssey they have pictured Ithaca, the homeland Odysseus fights for ten years to reach, as an island unto...

A landscape from the Late Triassic of southern Brazil showing Cargninia enigmatica being observed by the sauropodomorph dinosaur Macrocollum itaquii. Image credit: Marcio L. Castro.

Tiny Triassic Reptile Sheds Light on Early Lizard Evolution

Jul 10, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Today, lepidosaurs — the reptile group that includes lizards, snakes and New Zealand’s tuatara — are among the most diverse vertebrates on...

Life reconstruction of a herd of five individuals of Uragasaurus kalasinensis inhabiting a Late Jurassic forest in Thailand, accompanied by a pair of rhamphorhynchoid pterosaurs and a metriacanthosaurid theropod. Image credit: Pakorn Chotchaiyaporn.

New Species of Long-Necked Dinosaur Identified in Thailand

Jul 9, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists working in northeastern Thailand have identified a new species of mamenchisaurid sauropod dinosaur, offering fresh evidence that a group...

Life reconstruction of Zhengheornis buyu. Image credit: Chung-Tat Cheung.

New Jurassic Fossil Reveals How Birds Lost Their Dinosaur Tails

Jul 7, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have described a small, previously unknown Jurassic bird whose short tail offers new evidence for how the earliest birds traded...