Featured News | Sci.News

773,000-Year-Old Hominin Fossils from Morocco Offer New Clues to Roots of Homo sapiens

Jan 7, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

The hominin fossils discovered in the Grotte à Hominidés at Thomas Quarry I in Casablanca, Morocco, are providing new evidence about the deep origins...

The Beni greenlet (Hylophilus moxensis) in habitat near San Ramón, Beni, Bolivia, on January 10, 2024. Notice the pale brownish gray auriculars, combined with dark lores, dark base of commissure, rufous on the entire crown and frons, and dark irides. Image credit: Tini Wijpkema.

New Songbird Species Discovered in Bolivia

Jan 5, 2026 by Natali Anderson

Deep in the seasonally flooded savannas of Bolivia, a small, olive-green songbird has been quietly eluding science. Now, after six decades of confusion...

An artist’s concept of a Penghu Denisovan walking under the bright Sun during the Pleistocene of Taiwan. Image credit: Cheng-Han Sun.

Researchers Sequence Genome of 200,000-Year-Old Denisovan

Jan 2, 2026 by Enrico de Lazaro

A research team led by Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology scientists has generated the high-quality genome assembly of a Denisovan using...

An individual of Tinamus resonans at Morro Queimado, Serra do Divisor National Park, Mâncio Lima, Acre, Brazil. Image credit: Luis A. Morais.

New Species of Tinamou Discovered in Brazil

Dec 29, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists have discovered a new species of tinamou living in the montane forests of the Serra do Divisor, western Amazonia, Brazil. An individual...

Reconstruction of Mezhirich’s mammoth bone structure in the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, Japan. Image credit: Momotarou2012.

18,000-Year-Old Circular Dwellings Made of Mammoth Bones Unearthed in Ukraine

Dec 25, 2025 by Sergio Prostak

The Upper Paleolithic site of Mezhyrich, located in Cherkasy oblast, central Ukraine, is home to four remarkable mammoth bone structures. Ranging from...

Male of Ptilorrhoa urrissia photographed on January 15, 2020. Image credit: Woxvold et al., doi: 10.1111/ibi.70016.

New Species of Bird Discovered in Papua New Guinea

Dec 22, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Using camera traps, ornithologists have photographed a previously unknown species of jewel-babbler in the forested karst of the Southern Fold Mountains...

This composite image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was captured on November 6, 2025 by the UVS instrument on board NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft from a distance of around 164 million km (103 million miles). Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / SwRI.

Europa Clipper Captures Unique View of 3I/ATLAS

Dec 18, 2025 by News Staff

Scientists using the Ultraviolet Spectrograph (UVS) instrument aboard NASA’s Europa Clipper spacecraft have observed 3I/ATLAS, only the third confirmed...

Life reconstruction of Taotienimravus songi in Chinese painting style. Image credit: Yuefeng Song.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of False Saber-Toothed Cat

Dec 15, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of nimravid from the middle Oligocene epoch has been identified from the fossilized remains found in northern China. The discovery...

A primordial supermassive star in the early Universe. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Astronomers Find Direct Evidence for Supermassive Stars in Early Universe

Dec 15, 2025 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have discovered chemical fingerprints of primordial stars weighing between 1,000 and 10,000...

Saad et al. show that the reported beneficial links between theobromine intake on health and aging extend to the molecular epigenetic level in humans. Image credit: Sci.News.

Theobromine: Chemical Found in Dark Chocolate Could Have Anti-Aging Properties

Dec 15, 2025 by Natali Anderson

Scientists at King’s College London have identified strong links between theobromine, a common plant compound that comes from cocoa, and measures of...

An artist’s impression of fire at Barnham around 400,000 years ago. Image credit: Craig Williams / The Trustees of the British Museum.

Archaeologists Discover Earliest Evidence of Fire-Making

Dec 10, 2025 by News Staff

Archaeologists have unearthed 400,000-year-old heated sediments and fire-cracked flint handaxes alongside two fragments of pyrite — a mineral used...

Reconstruction of Homo floresiensis. Image credit: Kinez Riza / Atelier Elisabeth Daynes, Sangiran Museum.

Climate Change Played Key Role in Extinction of Homo floresiensis

Dec 9, 2025 by News Staff

Homo floresiensis abandoned Liang Bua — a cave this small-bodied human species had occupied for around 140,000 years — during severe drought...

Hypothetical reconstruction of Mirischia asymmetrica (left) and Santanaraptor placidus (right) disputing a lizard in what is now northeastern Brazil approximately 112 million years ago. Image credit: Guilherme Gehr.

Two Species of Coelurosaurs Co-Existed in Cretaceous-Era Brazil

Dec 8, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have performed a comprehensive anatomical reassessment of the fossilized remains of two coelurosaurian theropod dinosaurs from the Early...

This image of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS was taken by Hubble on November 30, 2025. At the time, the comet was about 286 million km (178 million miles) from Earth. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / D. Jewitt, UCLA / M.-T. Hui, Shanghai Astronomical Observatory / J. DePasquale, STScI.

Hubble Takes New Look at Interstellar Comet 3I/ATLAS

Dec 5, 2025 by Natali Anderson

The Hubble team has released a stunning new image snapped by the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope of the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, which is only the...

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is on a mission to explore the asteroid Bennu and return a sample to Earth. Image credit: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center Conceptual Image Lab.

Scientists Find Extraterrestrial Bio-Essential Sugars in Samples from Asteroid Bennu

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

A team of researchers from the United States and Japan has analyzed an extract from a sample of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu collected by NASA’s...

Mastcam-Z landscape and multispectral images of light-toned float rocks atop the Jezero crater Margin Unit near the Hans Amundson Memorial workspace (Sol 912) demonstrating the spectral diversity of this material. Image credit: Broz et al., doi: 10.1038/s43247-025-02856-3.

Mars Was Warmer, Wetter Millions of Years Ago, Planetary Scientists Say

Dec 3, 2025 by News Staff

NASA’s Perseverance rover has discovered several thousand small, light-toned rock fragments, or float rocks, with some exhibiting spectral signatures...

Life reconstruction of another Mamenchisaurus species, Mamenchisaurus sinocanadorum. Image credit: Júlia d’Oliveira.

Paleontologists Discover New Species of Mamenchisaurid Dinosaur

Dec 1, 2025 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of the sauropod dinosaur genus Mamenchisaurus has been discovered in China dating back to the Late Jurassic epoch. Life reconstruction of...

Detection of electric discharges in dust devils by the SuperCam instrument on board NASA’s Perseverance rover on Mars. Image credit: Nicolas Sarter.

Perseverance Detects Triboelectric Discharges during Martian Dust Devils and Storms

Dec 1, 2025 by News Staff

Using data captured by the SuperCam microphone aboard NASA’s Perseverance rover over two Martian years, planetrary scientists have detected 55 triboelectric...

The genomes of ancient cats from archaeological sites across Europe and Anatolia (circles in the map) revealed that domestic cats were introduced to Europe from North Africa starting at 2,000 years ago, several millennia after the onset of the Neolithic in Europe; African wildcats in Sardinia originate from a distinct wildcat population in Northwest Africa. Image credit: De Martino et al., doi: 10.1126/science.adt2642.

Domestic Cats Were Introduced to Europe around 2,000 Years Ago, Probably from North Africa: Study

Nov 28, 2025 by News Staff

The domestic cat (Felis catus) descends from the African wildcat (Felis lybica lybica). Its global distribution alongside humans testifies to its successful...