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A coelacanth. Image credit: Laurent Ballesta, Gombessa expeditions, Andromede Oceanology Lt.

Coelacanth Reveals Secrets of Vertebrate Skull Evolution

Apr 23, 2019 by News Staff

A new study into one of the world’s oldest types of fish, the coelacanth, illuminates for the first time the development of the brain and skull of this...

Large (left), medium (center), and small (right) fabellae (a small bone to the right of each image) in the right knees of three female subjects. Image credit: Berthaume et al, doi: 10.1111/joa.12994.

Fabella: Humans Were Losing Osteoarthritis-Linked Knee Bone, Now It’s Making Comeback

Apr 23, 2019 by News Staff

The fabella (Latin for ‘little bean’), a small bone in a tendon behind the knee, was once rare in humans. Now, a team of researchers from the Department...

This Hubble image shows the ultra-diffuse galaxy NGC1052-DF4. Image credit: van Dokkum et al, doi: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab0d92.

Astronomers Find Second Galaxy with No Dark Matter

Apr 22, 2019 by News Staff

In 2018, a team of astronomers from the United States and Canada discovered that an ultra-diffuse galaxy called NGC 1052-DF2 (DF2 for short) contains virtually...

This incredible image of the Southern Crab Nebula was taken to mark Hubble’s 29th anniversary in space. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI.

Hubble Celebrates Its 29th Anniversary with Stunning View of Southern Crab Nebula

Apr 19, 2019 by News Staff

In celebration of the 29th anniversary of the launch of the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers captured this colorful look at the hourglass-shaped...

Simbakubwa kutokaafrika, a hyaenodont that was larger than a polar bear. Image credit: Mauricio Anton.

Carnivorous Mammal Larger than Polar Bear Once Roamed Kenya

Apr 19, 2019 by News Staff

A gigantic meat-eating mammal has been discovered — after its jaw, portions of its skull, and parts of its skeleton spent several decades sitting...

Güsten et al detected the first type of molecule that ever formed in the Universe -- HeH+. This discovery confirms a key part of our basic understanding of the early Universe and how it evolved over billions of years into the complex chemistry of today. Image credit: NASA’s Ames Research Center.

Helium Hydride Ion Spotted in Space for First Time

Apr 19, 2019 by News Staff

When the Universe was still very young, only a few kinds of atoms existed. Astrophysicists believe that around 100,000 years after the Big Bang, ionized...

A fireball. Image credit: NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance / Sci-News.com.

Meteor of Interstellar Origin May Have Slammed into Earth in 2014

Apr 18, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

A meteor seen over the South Pacific, off the northern coast of Papua New Guinea, in 2014 likely came from interstellar space, according to new research...

Mercury. Image credit: NASA / Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory / Carnegie Institution of Washington.

Mercury Has Solid Inner Core, Planetary Scientists Say

Apr 18, 2019 by News Staff

Planetary researchers have long known that Earth and Mercury have metallic cores. Mercury’s core fills nearly 85% of the volume of the planet —...

An artist’s conception of HD 21749c, the first Earth-sized planet found by NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS), as well as its sibling, HD 21749b, a warm sub-Neptune-sized world. Image credit: Robin Dienel / Carnegie Institution for Science.

HD 21749c: TESS Discovers Its First Earth-Sized Exoplanet

Apr 17, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanets Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-sized planet — HD 21749c. An artist’s conception of HD 21749c,...

An illustration showing how a sliver of cometary building block material was swallowed by an asteroid and preserved inside a meteorite. Image credit: Larry Nittler / NASA.

Scientists Find Cometary Fragment in Primitive Asteroidal Meteorite

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

A cometary building block has been discovered inside the LaPaz Icefield (LAP) 02342, a carbonaceous chondrite meteorite found in Antarctica in the 2000s. An...

An artist’s rendering of the surface of Saturn’s largest moon, Titan. Image credit: Benjamin de Bivort, debivort.org / CC BY-SA 3.0.

Titan’s Lakes are Surprisingly Deep, Have Methane-Dominated Composition, Says Cassini Team

Apr 16, 2019 by News Staff

Radar data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft have revealed that small lakes in the northern hemisphere of Saturn’s hazy moon Titan are surprisingly deep...

Denisovans were probably dark-skinned, unlike the pale Neandertals. The picture shows a Neanderthal man. Image credit: Mauro Cutrona.

Two Independent Denisovan Lineages Contributed to Modern Papuan Genomes: Study

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

According to a new study published in the journal Cell, modern Papuans carry hundreds of gene variants from two Denisovan lineages — distinct from...

Fossils of Silurian Sea Cucumber Found in UK

Apr 12, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of paleontologists has found the remains of an extinct sea cucumber in 430 million-year-old (Silurian period) fossil-rich deposits...

An archaic hominin. Image credit: Ninara / CC BY 2.0.

Homo luzonensis: New Species of Ancient Human Discovered

Apr 11, 2019 by News Staff

An early human species with a unique mix of primitive (that is, Australopithecus-like) and derived (that is, Homo sapiens-like) morphological features...

Potassium pearls under paraffin oil. Image credit: Images of Elements / CC BY 3.0.

Physicists Confirm Existence of Chain-Melted State of Matter

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Until now, atoms in physical matter were understood to exist typically in one of three states — solid, liquid or gas. An international team of physicists...

The EHT Collaboration unveiled the first direct visual evidence of the supermassive black hole in the center of the elliptical galaxy Messier 87 and its shadow. The shadow of a black hole seen here is the closest we can come to an image of the black hole itself, a completely dark object from which light cannot escape. The black hole’s boundary -- the event horizon from which the EHT takes its name -- is around 2.5 times smaller than the shadow it casts and measures just under 25 billion miles (40 billion km) across. Image credit: EHT Collaboration.

Event Horizon Telescope Captures First Image of Black Hole

Apr 10, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) — a planet-scale array of eight ground-based radio telescopes (ALMA, APEX, the IRAM 30-m telescope,...

Durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum). Image credit: Christine Dautin.

Durum Wheat Genome Sequenced

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

A multinational team of researchers has successfully sequenced and analyzed the genome of durum wheat (Triticum turgidum ssp. durum), a cereal grain mainly...

New Species of Extinct Pig-Footed Bandicoot Discovered

Apr 9, 2019 by News Staff

An international team of researchers from Australia and the United Kingdom has discovered a new species of pig-footed bandicoot which has been extinct...

The view from the bottom of ‘Menara.’ Image credit: Unding Jami / University of Oxford.

World’s Tallest Tropical Tree Found in Malaysia

Apr 8, 2019 by News Staff

The world’s tallest known tropical tree, and possibly the tallest flowering plant, has been discovered in the Danum Valley Conservation Area in the Malaysian...