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Fossilized ripple marks on the floor of the Calamophyton forest. Image credit: Neil Davies.

Earth’s Oldest Known Fossil Forest Discovered in England

Mar 7, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 390-million-year-old forest landscape, archived within the Eifelian Hangman Sandstone Formation of Somerset and Devon in England, is roughly 4 million...

First peopling of Europe. Image credit: Garba et al., doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07151-3.

1.4-Million-Year-Old Stone Tools Found in Ukraine Document Earliest Hominin Occupation of Europe

Mar 7, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

Archaeologists have dated an assemblage of ancient stone tools excavated from the archaeological site of Korolevo on the Tysa River in western Ukraine...

Qi Zai, the only brown panda living in captivity. Image credit: Ailie HM / CC BY-SA 4.0 Deed.

Scientists Solve Mystery of Brown Giant Pandas

Mar 6, 2024 by Natali Anderson

Brown-and-white giant pandas are distinct coat color mutants found exclusively in the Qinling Mountains of China. Qi Zai, the only brown panda living in...

This illustration shows charged particles from Jupiter impacting Europa’s surface, splitting frozen water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen molecules; scientists believe some of these newly created oxygen gases could migrate toward the moon’s subsurface ocean, as depicted in the inset image. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SWRI / PU.

Europa Produces Less Oxygen than Previously Thought

Mar 4, 2024 by News Staff

Using data from the Jovian Auroral Distributions Experiment (JADE) instrument onboard NASA’s Juno spacecraft, planetary scientists have calculated the...

Reconstruction of Perucetus colossus in its coastal habitat; the associated sawfish, Pristis, was recovered from the same unit in the East Pisco Basin, the Yumaque Member of the Paracas Formation, Peru. Image credit: A. Gennari.

Giant Fossil Whale Perucetus Did Not Exceed Body Mass of Today’s Blue Whales: Study

Mar 4, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists from the University of California, Davis, and Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History estimate that Perucetus colossus,...

Astronomers estimate 50,000 sources of near-infrared light are represented in this Webb image of the galaxy cluster Abell 2744. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / I. Labbe, Swinburne University of Technology / R. Bezanson, University of Pittsburgh / A. Pagan, STScI.

Photons from Dwarf Galaxies Reionized Early Universe, New Research Suggests

Feb 29, 2024 by News Staff

The reionization of the Universe occurred some 500 to 900 million years after the Big Bang. It represents the transformation of neutral hydrogen into ionized...

Danionella cerebrum has a pair of extrinsic, indirect sonic muscles that house the drumming cartilage. When a sonic muscle contracts, the fifth rib is pulled anteriorly and builds tension as it pulls the cartilage. The sudden release of the cartilage causes it to rapidly strike the swim bladder, producing a short, loud pulse. A burst of pulses is generated with either bilaterally alternating or unilateral muscle contractions. In sum, this mechanism enables loud and stereotyped sounds that can be elicited in structured sequences, making it a unique solution for acoustic communication and ultrafast skeletal motion in vertebrates surpassing the limitation of muscle contraction speed. Image credit: Ralf Britz, Senckenberg Natural History Collections.

Miniature Cyprinid Fish Can Produce Sounds over 140 dB, Ichthyologists Say

Feb 27, 2024 by News Staff

Danionella cerebrum, a translucent fish species of only 12 mm length, produces high amplitude sounds exceeding 140 dB (re. 1 µPa, at a distance of one...

The discovery image of the Uranian moon S/2023 U1 using the Magellan telescope on November 4, 2023. Image credit: Scott Sheppard.

Astronomers Discover New Moons around Uranus and Neptune

Feb 26, 2024 by News Staff

The three newly-discovered moons — S/2023 U1, S/2002 N5 and S/2021 N1 — are the faintest ever found around Uranus and Neptune using ground-based...

Restoration of Dinocephalosaurus orientalis depicted among a shoal of the large, predatory actinopterygian fish, Saurichthys. Image credit: Marlene Donnelly.

Dinocephalosaurus was Fully Marine Reptile and Even Gave Birth at Sea, Paleontologists Say

Feb 23, 2024 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Germany, China, the United Kingdom and the United States have described in detail Dinocephalosaurus orientalis, a remarkable marine...

Webb observed the best evidence yet for emission from a neutron star in SN 1987A. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / STScI / C. Fransson, Stockholm University / M. Matsuura, Cardiff University / M.J. Barlow, University College London / P.J. Kavanagh, Maynooth University / J. Larsson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Webb Detects Emission from Neutron Star in Supernova 1987A Remnant

Feb 23, 2024 by News Staff

SN 1987A is the only supernova visible to the naked eye in the last 400 years and the most studied supernova in history. The event was a core-collapse...

This image of the exceptional quasar J0529-4351 is from the Dark Energy Camera Legacy Survey DR10; a neighboring M star appears in red. Image credit: Wolf et al., doi: 10.1038/s41550-024-02195-x.

Astronomers Discover Most Luminous Quasar Ever Observed

Feb 21, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

The black hole in the newly-discovered quasar SMSS J052915.80-435152.0 (hereafter called J0529-4351) accretes around one solar mass per day onto an existing...

Eunectes akayima. Image credit: Rivas et al., doi: 10.3390/d16020127.

New Species of Anaconda Discovered in Orinoco Basin

Feb 20, 2024 by Natali Anderson

An international team of herpetologists led by New Mexico Highlands University and University of Queensland scientists has described a cryptic new species...

Hypothetical reconstruction of Yanbeilong ultimus. Image credit: Ddinodan / Sci.News.

Paleontologists Discover New Stegosaur Species

Feb 19, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a new paper published on January 31, 2024 in the journal Historical Biology, paleontologists announced the discovery of a previously undocumented species...

The 4,750-year-old circular plaza is at center with the modern city of Cajamarca in the background. Image credit: Toohey et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.adl0572.

4,750-Year-Old Monumental Stone Plaza Discovered in Peru

Feb 19, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of anthropologists from the University of Wyoming, the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of New Hampshire has discovered...

Physicists Create Five New Isotopes of Thulium, Ytterbium and Lutetium

Feb 19, 2024 by News Staff

Physicists using the Advanced Rare Isotope Separator (ARIS) at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB) have produced, separated, and identified five...

An artist’s reconstruction of the Blinkerwall in the Bay of Mecklenburg, Germany. Image credit: Michał Grabowski.

Stone Age Hunting Megastructure Discovered in Baltic Sea

Feb 14, 2024 by Sergio Prostak

A team of archaeologists from Germany has discovered a submerged Stone Age megastructure in the Western Baltic Sea at a water depth of about 21 m. The...

Life reconstruction of Jiangxititan ganzhouensis. Image credit: UnexpectedDinoLesson / Sci.News.

New Species of Titanosaur Unearthed in China

Feb 13, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists in China have found fossil fragments from a new genus and species of titanosaurian sauropod dinosaur that walked the Earth during the Cretaceous...

La Prele bone bead showing polished ends (upper) and side view with incisions (lower). Image credit: Surovell et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-53390-9.

12,940-Year-Old Bone Bead Found in Wyoming

Feb 13, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient tube-shaped bead made of hare bone at the La Prele Mammoth site in Wyoming, the United States. This is the oldest...

An artistic reconstruction of the Cabrières Biota: in the foreground, a row of Ampyx (trilobites) and various shelly organisms, including brachiopods and a hyolith (bottom left corner); behind the trilobites, a lobopodian, a chelicerate, cnidarians (blue), sponges (green), thin branching algae (red and green) and hemichordate tubes (purple), along with some mollusks; bivalved arthropods inhabit the water column along with graptolites. Image credit: Christian McCall, Prehistorica Art.

Unique Fossil Site Discovered in France Provides Insights into Ordovician Polar Ecosystems

Feb 9, 2024 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a new paper in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, paleontologists described the diversity of the Cabrières Biota, a new Early Ordovician site...