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Reconstruction of a hunter-gatherer associated with the Gravettian culture (32,000-24,000 years ago), inspired by the archaeological findings at the Arene Candide site, Italy. Image credit: Tom Bjoerklund.

Scientists Sequence Genomes of Prehistoric Hunter-Gatherers from Different Eurasian Cultures

Mar 2, 2023 by News Staff

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. However, our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers...

This Hubble image captures the breakup of Dimorphos when it was deliberately hit by DART on September 26, 2022. Image credit: NASA / ESA / STScI / Jian-Yang Li, PSI / Joseph DePasquale, STScI.

DART Offers Insight into How Deflection Missions Can Protect Earth from Hazardous Asteroids

Mar 2, 2023 by News Staff

On September 26, 2022, NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) intentionally slammed into the 160-m-wide asteroid moonlet Dimorphos — which...

This image shows Tycho’s SNR, which is located between 8,000 and 10,000 light-years away in the constellation of Cassiopeia. IXPE data (dark purple and white) have been combined with data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory (red and blue) and overlaid with the stars in the field of view as captured by the Digitized Sky Survey. Image credit: IXPE / NASA / ASI / MSFC / INAF / Ferrazzoli et al. / Chandra / CXC / RIKEN / GSFC / Sato et al. / DSS / SAO / K. Arcand, L. Frattare & N. Wolk.

IXPE Detects Polarized X-Rays from Tycho’s Supernova Remnant

Mar 2, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) — a collaboration between NASA and the Italian Space Agency — have observed...

Environmental reconstruction of the Solnhofen Archipelago, showing Protospinax annectans in association with the Late Jurassic ray Asterodermus platypterus. Image credit: Jambura et al., doi: 10.3390/d15030311.

Paleontologists Redescribe Enigmatic Jurassic Shark Species

Mar 1, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists from the University of Vienna and elsewhere have revised a controversial species of the elasmobranch Protospinax annectans based on new...

A digital reconstruction of a humpback whale trap feeding. Image credit: McCarthy et al., doi: 10.1111/mms.13009.

Head-Lifting Feeding Seen in Whales May Be Recorded in Ancient Texts

Mar 1, 2023 by News Staff

Trap feeding and tread-water feeding are whale hunting strategies first recorded in the 2000s in two whale species at opposite sides of the globe. In both...

An artist’s impression of elephant birds in their natural habitat, Madagascar. Image credit: Bonnie Koopmans.

1,000-Year-Old Fossil Eggshells Provide Rare Glimpse into Evolution of Madagascar’s Elephant Birds

Mar 1, 2023 by News Staff

Paleontologists from Curtin University and elsewhere have examined ancient fossil eggshells of Madagascar’s extinct elephant birds and found that genetic...

Life reconstruction of Paralitherizinosaurus japonicus. Image credit: Masato Hattori.

Study: Giant Therizinosaurs Used Their Meter-Long, Sickle-Like Claws for Display

Feb 28, 2023 by News Staff

The dinosaur clade Maniraptora includes the ancestors of birds, and most maniraptoran dinosaurs used their hands for grasping and in flight, but early...

Life reconstruction of the non-marine component of the Waterloo Farm ecosystem: Hyneria udlezinye is shown together with the tetrapods Umzantsia amazana and Tutusius umlambo, the placoderms Groenlandaspis riniensis and Bothriolepis africana, the coelacanth Serenichthys kowiensis, the lungfish Isityumzi mlomomde, and a cyrtoctenid eurypterid. Image credit: Maggie Newman / R.W. Gess.

360-Million-Year-Old Fossils of Giant Predatory Fish Found in South Africa

Feb 24, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-identified species of tristichopterid fish grew up to 3 m (10 feet) long and belongs to the extinct genus Hyneria. Life reconstruction of the...

An artist’s concept of active volcanoes on Venus, depicting a subduction zone where the foreground crust plunges into the planet’s interior at the topographic trench. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / Peter Rubin.

Venus’ Outer Shell is Shaping Planet’s Surface, Study Suggests

Feb 24, 2023 by News Staff

Earth has a hot core that heats the surrounding mantle, which carries that heat up to the planet’s lithosphere. The heat is then lost to space, cooling...

This candidate massive galaxy could contain as many stars as our present-day Milky Way. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / I. Labbe, Swinburne University of Technology / G. Brammer, Niels Bohr Institute’s Cosmic Dawn Center, University of Copenhagen.

Webb Discovers Impossibly Massive Galaxies in Early Universe

Feb 22, 2023 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope have observed six candidate galaxies with stellar masses as high as 1011 solar masses about...

Life reconstruction of Patagorhynchus pascuali. Image credit: Gabriel Lio.

Ancient Relative of Platypus Lived in South America 70 Million Years Ago

Feb 21, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Patagorhynchus pascuali represents the first Cretaceous toothed monotreme from the supercontinent Gondwana. Life reconstruction of Patagorhynchus pascuali....

Horaglanis populi. Image credit: C.P. Arjun.

Strange New Species of Aquifer-Dwelling Catfish Discovered in India

Feb 20, 2023 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered species belongs to Horaglanis, a genus of rarely-collected, tiny, blind, pigment less, and strictly aquifer-residing catfish. Horaglanis...

The 166-million-year-old theropod dinosaur footprint from the Cleveland Basin, Yorkshire, UK. Image credit: Hudson et al., doi: 10.1144/pygs2022-008.

Giant Footprint of Jurassic Carnivorous Dinosaur Found in UK

Feb 17, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The 80-cm- (31.5-inch) long footprint was possibly made by a Megalosaurus-like theropod dinosaur, and is assigned to the ichnogenus Megalosauripus. The...

The Río Negro stream frog (Hyloscirtus tolkieni). Image credit: Juan Carlos Sánchez-Nivicela / Archive Museo de Zoología, Universidad San Francisco de Quito.

Magnificent New Species of Treefrog Discovered in Ecuador

Feb 17, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

The newly-discovered species, Hyloscirtus tolkieni, belongs to the stream-breeding treefrog genus Hyloscirtus; its specific epithet, tolkieni, is in honor...

Life reconstruction of the eurypterid Brachyopterus. Image credit: Nix Illustration / CC BY 4.0.

Earliest Sea Scorpion Tracks on Land

Feb 16, 2023 by Simon Braddy

Palmichnium gallowayi, a 460-million-year-old fossil trackway of a sea scorpion, from upstate New York, is one of the earliest signs of animal life on...

Miracinonyx trumani probably deployed a unique predatory behavior without modern analogues. Image credit: Sheatherius / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Extinct American Cheetah Had Unique Predatory Behavior, Research Suggests

Feb 15, 2023 by Enrico de Lazaro

Miracinonyx trumani is an extinct species of cheetah-like cat that roamed the North American prairies and steppe terrains more than 13,000 years ago. Miracinonyx...

An artist’s impression of Ceratosuchops inferodios and the orientation of the endocast in the skull. Image credit: Anthony Hutchings.

Paleontologists Reconstruct Brains of Two Spinosaur Species

Feb 14, 2023 by News Staff

Using X-ray computed tomography scan data, paleontologists reconstructed the braincase endocasts of Baryonyx walkeri and Ceratosuchops inferodios from...

Coradion calendula. Image credit: Matsunuma et al., doi: 10.5281/zenodo.7504828.

New Species of Butterflyfish Discovered

Feb 14, 2023 by Natali Anderson

Scientists from the Kyoto University Museum and elsewhere have described a new species of the fish genus Coradion from Australian waters. Coradion calendula....

Spatula praeclypeata is a stem taxon of the living species Spatula smithii (depicted here). Image credit: C.G. Finch-Davies.

Paleontologist Discovers New Species of Prehistoric Duck in Ukraine

Feb 13, 2023 by Sergio Prostak

Spatula praeclypeata lived in the Northern Black Sea region between 1.9 and 1.5 million years ago. Spatula praeclypeata is a stem taxon of the living species...