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An adult female Visayan warty pig uses a piece of bark as a digging tool. Image credit: Root-Bernstein et al, doi: 10.1016/j.mambio.2019.08.003.

Visayan Warty Pigs Join Tool-Users Club

Oct 9, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Scientists have uncovered the first evidence of tool use by the Visayan warty pig (Sus cebifrons), a critically endangered species native to the Philippines. An...

Mold Pigs: Strange Creatures with Features of Mites and Tardigrades Found in Amber

Oct 9, 2019 by News Staff

A previously unknown family, genus and species of microinvertebrates has been found in amber from the Dominican Republic. Nicknamed ‘mold pigs,’ these...

An artist’s conception of the 20 newly-discovered Saturnian moons. Image credit: Carnegie Institution for Science.

Astronomers Discover Twenty New Saturnian Moons and You Can Help Name Them

Oct 8, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Subaru Telescope in Hawaii have found 20 new moons orbiting Saturn. The discovery brings the total number of known Saturnian moons...

An artist’s impression of TOI-503b and its star. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

TESS Discovers Its First Brown Dwarf

Oct 7, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) have discovered an intermediate-mass brown dwarf orbiting a young star about 841...

New Bird Species Discovered in Indonesia: Alor Myzomela

Oct 7, 2019 by Natali Anderson

An international team of ornithologists has discovered a new species of the honeyeater genus Myzomela in the highlands of the Lesser Sunda island of Alor,...

This ALMA image shows the binary protostar [BHB2007] 11. Image credit: ALMA / ESO / NAOJ / NRAO / Alves et al.

Double Protostar Caught in Process of Forming

Oct 4, 2019 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) have captured a stunning image of two circumstellar disks in which two protostars...

New Cretaceous Pterosaur Discovered in Australia

Oct 4, 2019 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 96 million-year-old fossilized bones discovered in Queensland, Australia, have been identified as a new genus and species of ornithocheirid pterosaur,...

Baumgartner et al provide exceptional evidence for the biogenicity of some of Earth’s oldest stromatolites through preservation of organic matter, including microbial remains, by sulfidization. Image credit: Paul Harrison.

Organic Matter Found in 3.5-Billion-Year-Old Stromatolites

Oct 3, 2019 by News Staff

Researchers have found exceptionally preserved organic matter inside samples of rock from the 3.5-billion-year-old Dresser Formation in the Pilbara region...

Fastest-Orbiting Hot Jupiter Zips around Its Star in Just 18.4 Hours

Oct 3, 2019 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers have discovered a hot-Jupiter exoplanet so close to its host star, called NGTS-10, that a year on that planet lasts only 18.4 hours, making...

This artist’s painting of the south polar region of Enceladus shows massive jets of water ice being blasted into space. Image credit: Karl Kofoed / NASA.

Scientists Find Low-Mass Organic Compounds in Ice Grains from Enceladus’ Plume

Oct 3, 2019 by News Staff

Saturn’s moon Enceladus is erupting a plume of gas and ice grains from its south pole. According to new research using data from NASA’s Cassini mission,...

Dorsal view of the left hand of a 10-week old human embryo. The dorsometacarpales are highlighted: these muscles are present in adults of many other limbed animals, while in humans they normally disappear or become fused with other muscles before birth. Image credit: Diogo et al, doi: 10.1242/dev.180349.

Human Embryos Have ‘Lizard-Like’ Limb Muscles: Study

Oct 2, 2019 by News Staff

A new study, published in the journal Development, has confirmed the transient presence of atavistic muscles — present in our ancestors, but normally...

The Hall’s New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylus halli) at St. Augustine Alligator Farm Zoological Park. Image credit: Murray et al, doi: 10.1643/CG-19-240.

New Freshwater Crocodile Species Found in New Guinea

Oct 1, 2019 by News Staff

Scientists had known that New Guinea was home to a unique species of crocodile since the New Guinea crocodile (Crocodylus novaeguineae) was officially...

The z66OD protocluster: the blue shading shows the calculated extent of the protocluster, and the bluer color indicates higher density of galaxies in the protocluster; the red objects in zoom-in figures are the 12 galaxies found in it. Image credit: NAOJ / Harikane et al.

13-Billion-Year-Old Galaxy Protocluster Found

Oct 1, 2019 by News Staff

Using the Subaru, Keck, and Gemini telescopes, astronomers have discovered a young cluster of galaxies in the early Universe. Named z66OD, the protocluster...

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov Probably Came from Double Red Dwarf Kruger 60

Sep 30, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

A new study by astronomers from the A. Mickiewicz University and the Space Research Centre of the Polish Academy of Sciences suggests that the interstellar...

This composite image, obtained by the Gemini North Multi-Object Spectrograph on the 8.2-m Gemini North telescope, shows the interstellar comet C/2019 Q4. Image credit: Gemini Observatory / NSF / AURA / Travis Rector.

Astronomers Detect Cyanide Gas in Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov

Sep 28, 2019 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have for the first time detected cyanide (CN) gas — a common ingredient of solar system comets — in the coma of an interstellar...

When a star strays too close to a black hole, intense tides break it apart into a stream of gas. The tail of the stream escapes the system, while the rest of it swings back around, surrounding the black hole with a disk of debris. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

TESS Spots Its First Tidal Disruption Event

Sep 27, 2019 by News Staff

NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) gave astronomers an unexpected glimpse at a black hole violently ripping apart a Sun-sized star....

Denisova Cave in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Image credit: Alex Demin / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Research Sheds Light on Everyday Life in Denisova Cave

Sep 27, 2019 by News Staff

At least three hominins (Denisovans, Neanderthals, and early Homo sapiens) and large cave-dwelling carnivores (hyena, wolves, and even bears) used Denisova...

An artist’s impression of a blazar. Image credit: DESY / Science Communication Lab.

Do Gamma-Ray Jets Really Achieve Superluminal Speeds?

Sep 26, 2019 by News Staff

High-speed particle jets from gamma-ray bursts may exceed the speed of light in surrounding gas clouds, but do so without violating Einstein’s theory...

Reconstruction of the Trypillian giant-settlement Maidanetske, Ukraine. Image credit: Kenny Arne Lang Antonsen / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Mega-Structures of Ukraine’s Trypillia Culture Served as Community Centers

Sep 26, 2019 by News Staff

Mega-structures of the Trypillia culture, which was part of the larger Cucuteni-Trypillia culture, were public buildings that served a variety of economic...