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A hominin footprint at the Matalascañas site in Spain. Image credit: Mayoral et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-22524-2.

296,000-Year-Old Hominin Footprints Found in Spain

Nov 11, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The possible track-makers are individuals from the Neanderthal lineage, according to new research led by Universidad de Huelva paleoanthropologists. The...

Life reconstruction of Stenoscelida aurantiacus. Image credit: Matheus Fernandes / Universidade Federal de Santa Maria.

New Species of Triassic Crocodile-Like Reptile Identified in Brazil

Nov 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have discovered a new fossil reptile that lived during the Late Triassic epoch in southern Brazil. Life reconstruction of Stenoscelida...

The 3,700-year-old ivory comb from Tel Lachish, Israel. Image credit: Dafna Gazit, Israel Antiquities Authority.

Archaeologists Find 3,700-Year-Old Ivory Comb Inscribed with Canaanite’s Wish to Eradicate Lice

Nov 9, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

The small inscribed ivory comb was found at Tel Lachish, a key Canaanite city-state in the 2nd millennium BCE, the second most important city in the Judean...

Cymatioa cooki. Image credit: P. Valentich-Scott & J.H.R. Goddard, doi: 10.3897/zookeys.1128.95139.

Fossil Clam Species Found Living Off Southern California

Nov 8, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Cymatioa cooki, a species of small bivalve mollusk previously only known from the Pleistocene period, has been found living intertidally near Santa Barbara,...

TMC-1. Image credit: ESA / Herschel / NASA / JPL-Caltech / R. Hurt, JPL-Caltech.

Astronomers Detect Two New Organic Molecules in Interstellar Medium

Nov 7, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers using the 40-m radio telescope at Yebes Observatory have detected two new complex molecules, butadiynethionyl (HCCCCS) and ethynylbutatrienyliden...

Life reconstruction of the thescelosaurine dinosaur Parksosaurus warreni, a close relative of Nevadadromeus schmitti. Image credit: Steveoc 86 / CC BY-SA 3.0.

New Plant-Eating Dinosaur Species Uncovered in Nevada

Nov 4, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists from the Nevada Science Center, Idaho State University and Montana State University have described a new genus and species of thescelosaurine...

Thismia mantiqueirensis, detail of flower in diagonal view, evidencing the upper disc of the floral tube and perianth lamellae. Image credit: E. Muscat.

New Species of Fairy Lantern Found in Brazilian Rainforest

Nov 3, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Scientists have described a new species of the flowering plant genus Thismia from a forest in the Mantiqueira mountains in southeast Brazil. Thismia mantiqueirensis,...

This Webb image shows the highly-magnified red supergiant candidate Quyllur (white, central circle). Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / Diego et al., arXiv: 2210.06514.

Webb Spots Possible Red Supergiant Star in Early Universe

Nov 2, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Nicknamed Quyllur, the newly-detected red supergiant candidate is so far away that its light has taken 10.7 billion years to reach Earth. This Webb image...

This colorized photo shows American President Theodore Roosevelt standing behind the carcass of a rhinocerous. Image credit: U.S. Library of Congress.

Rhino Horns Have Gradually Decreased in Size over Past Century, Image-Based Study Shows

Nov 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Rhinos are among the most charismatic and well-known mammals on Earth, but they face extinction because of human activities. To learn how to save rhinos,...

UV light-induced fluorescence revealing residual color patterns in Pleuronectites laevigatus: (A-B) left valve with broad radial color bands showing continuation of bands after a growth line only under UV light, Upper Muschelkalk, Trochitenkalk Formation, Germany; (C-D) left valve with zigzag pattern, Upper Muschelkalk, Germany; (A, C) specimens under normal light; (B, D) specimens under UV light; note that in adult specimens of the species auricles are often not preserved. Scale bars - 1 cm. Image credit: Klaus Wolkenstein, doi: 10.1111/pala.12625.

240-Million-Year-Old Scallop Shells Glow under Ultraviolet Light

Nov 2, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

University of Bonn researcher Klaus Wolkenstein has examined the fossilized specimens of the Triassic scallop species Pleuronectites laevigatus with preserved...

Several business premises were uncovered in the Byzantine quarter in Ephesus, Turkey. Image credit: OeAW-OeAI / Niki Gail.

Early Byzantine Quarter Unearthed in Ancient City of Ephesus

Nov 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Archaeologists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences have uncovered the 1,400-year-old ruins of the business and gastronomy district in Ephesus, an ancient...

The Principe scops-owl (Otus bikegila): an adult rufous morph (left) in the typical posture and an adult gray-brown morph (right) in a stress posture, when it raises the ear tufts to increase the efficiency of camouflage. Image credit: Marco N. Correia.

New Species of Scops-Owl Discovered in Africa

Nov 1, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists have discovered a new species of the scops-owl genus Otus inhabiting the forests of Príncipe Island, part of the Democratic Republic of...

An artist’s impression of an asteroid that orbits closer to the Sun than Earth’s orbit. Image credit: DOE / FNAL / DECam / CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / J. da Silva / Spaceengine.

Astronomers Discover Three Large Near-Earth Asteroids

Nov 1, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Astronomers using the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the Víctor M. Blanco 4-m telescope at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory have discovered two...

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis). Image credit: David Harin / Duke Lemur Center.

Aye-Ayes Use Their Elongated Fingers to Pick Their Nose, Scientists Say

Oct 31, 2022 by News Staff

The aye-aye (Daubentonia madagascariensis) is a species of strepsirrhine primate closely related to lemurs and the largest nocturnal primate in the world. The...

Ball-rolling action by a buff-tailed bumblebee (Bombus terrestris). Image credit: Dona et al., doi: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2022.08.013.

Behavioral Phenomenon in Bumblebees Resembles Object Play

Oct 28, 2022 by Natali Anderson

New research led by Queen Mary University of London shows that rolling of wooden balls by buff-tailed bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) fulfils behavioral...

Benjamin Cardenas & Michael Lamb show definitive evidence of a roughly 3.5-billion-year-old shoreline with substantial sedimentary accumulation, at least 900 m thick, that covered hundreds of thousands of square kilometers. Image credit: Benjamin Cardenas / Penn State.

New Evidence for Northern Ocean on Early Mars

Oct 28, 2022 by News Staff

A major question in Mars history is whether the planet had an ocean in its northern hemisphere. New research provides evidence for a northern ocean or...

Archaeocyclotus brevivillosus. Image credit: Senckenberg Research Institute and Natural History Museum.

Cretaceous-Period Land Snail Had Hairy Shell

Oct 26, 2022 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have described a new species of cyclophorid snail found in a piece of mid-Cretaceous amber excavated from a mine in Myanmar (formerly known...

The MACS0647-JD galaxy system. Image credit: NASA / ESA / CSA / Webb / STScI / Tiger Hsiao, Johns Hopkins University / Alyssa Pagan, STScI.

Webb Spots Possible Galaxy Merger in Early Universe

Oct 26, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Astronomers say we may be witnessing a merger of two small galaxies just 400 million years after the Big Bang. The galaxy cluster MACS0647 acts as a cosmic...

A male Wakatobi sunbird. Image credit: Nicola Marples & David Kelly, Trinity College Dublin.

Scientists Discover Several New Species of Sunbirds

Oct 25, 2022 by Natali Anderson

Ornithologists from Trinity College Dublin and the Universitas Halu Oleo have identified several cryptic species in two sunbird genera, Cinnyris and Leptocoma. A...