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Padana, a female orangutan at Leipzig Zoo, continued to use wooden hammers to crack nuts for some time after the end of the study. Image credit: Claudio Tennie.

Orangutans Observed Using Hammer Tools to Crack Nuts

Sep 1, 2021 by Natali Anderson

New research from the University of Tübingen demonstrates that nut-cracking can emerge in Sumatran (Pongo abelii) and Bornean (Pongo pygmaeus) orangutans...

This is an artist’s impression of a free-floating Y-dwarf. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech.

Enigmatic Ancient Brown Dwarf Spotted in Solar Neighborhood

Sep 1, 2021 by News Staff

WISEA J153429.75-104303.3 (WISE 1534-1043 for short) — nicknamed ‘The Accident’ by its discoverer, citizen scientist Dan Caselden — is...

The bowfin (Amia calva). Image credit: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Bowfin Genome Sheds New Light on Evolution of Ray-Finned Fishes

Aug 31, 2021 by News Staff

The bowfin (Amia calva) is a species of ray-finned fish native to North America. Also known as freshwater dogfish, grinnel, and mud pike, this species...

Tusks of straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus) and small objects at the site of Castel di Guido, Italy. Image credit: Villa et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0256090.

400,000-Year-Old Elephant Bone Tools Unearthed in Italy

Aug 31, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Around 400,000 years ago, pre-modern hominids — likely Neanderthals — at a Middle Pleistocene site in Italy appropriated elephant carcasses...

Scientists Discover New Wood Lizard Species in Peru

Aug 31, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has discovered a new species of the lizard genus Enyalioides living in the premontane forest of the Río Huallaga...

A life reconstruction of the plioplatecarpine mosasaur Angolasaurus bocagei, alongside the turtle Angolachelys mbaxi. Image credit: Henry Sharpe / CC BY-SA 4.0.

New Mosasaur Species Uncovered in Kansas

Aug 30, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new species of the mosasaur genus Ectenosaurus has been identified from the fossilized remains found in western Kansas, the United States. A life reconstruction...

Living interpretative reconstruction of Tupandactylus navigans. Image credit: Beccari et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0254789.

Exceptionally Well-Preserved Pterosaur Fossil Found in Brazil

Aug 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A nearly complete skeleton of a tapejarid pterosaur that lived during the Cretaceous period was intercepted during a police raid at Santos Harbour in the...

Life reconstruction of Taytalura alcoberi. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

Paleontologists Find 231-Million-Year-Old Fossil of Tuatara-Like Reptile

Aug 26, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A three-dimensionally preserved skull of a previously unknown Triassic-period reptile from Argentina illuminates the origin of lepidosauromorphs (lizards,...

Tetragonula carbonaria combs. Image credit: Tobias Smith.

Researchers Solve Mystery of How Stingless Bees Produce Trehalulose-Rich Honey

Aug 26, 2021 by News Staff

Organic chemists at the University of Queensland have found that an unusual bioactive disaccharide called trehalulose, which is a feature of stingless...

A paleoartist’s reconstruction of the three extinct species whose genomes were sequenced by Liu et al.: in the foreground is a Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum), and close behind are two Merck’s rhinoceroses (Stephanorhinus kirchbergensis); in the far background is a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis). Image credit: Beth Zaiken.

Ancient and Modern DNA Reveals Evolutionary History of Rhinoceros Family

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

Researhers have sequenced the genomes of two living and three extinct rhinoceros species and compared them to existing data from the remaining three living...

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

New Study Examines Chewing Biomechanics of Homo floresiensis

Aug 25, 2021 by News Staff

The feeding biomechanics of Homo floresiensis, a small-bodied hominin lived until about 50,000 years ago on Flores, Indonesia, closely resembled the patterns...

An artist’s impression of baby nanhsiungchelyid turtles. Image credit: Masato Hattori.

80-Million-Year-Old Turtle Egg with Embryonic Remains Found in China

Aug 24, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

The new specimen from the Upper Cretaceous Xiaguan Formation in the Chinese province of Henan is one of the few known fossilized turtle eggs containing...

The asteroid 2021 PH27 was imaged inside Mercury’s orbit and has been colored red and blue to show the two different times where it was imaged on August 13, 2021 -- just three minutes apart. Image credit: CTIO / NOIRLab / NSF / DOE / DECam / AURA / S.S. Sheppard, Carnegie Institution of Science.

Astronomers Discover Fastest-Orbiting Asteroid Ever Seen

Aug 24, 2021 by News Staff

The newly-discovered asteroid 2021 PH27 has a diameter of about 1 km (3,280 feet) and orbits the Sun in just 113 days — the shortest known orbital...

Sagittarius B2 is a giant molecular cloud of gas and dust that is located about 390 light-years from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy. Sagittarius B2 is the bright orange-red region to the middle left of the image, which is centered on the Galactic center. Image credit: ESO / APEX / MSX / IPAC / NASA.

Propionamide Detected in Space for First Time

Aug 23, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Propionamide (C2H5CONH2), a complex alkyl amide with twelve atoms, is the largest peptide-like molecule detected in space, according to a new study led...

An artist’s reconstruction of Ctenorhabdotus campanelliformis (top) and Thalassostaphylos elegans (bottom). Image credit: Holly Sullivan.

Cambrian Comb Jellies Had More Complex Neuroanatomy than Living Species

Aug 23, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have described two new species from the Cambrian period of Utah, which illuminate the early evolution of nervous and sensory features in...

Left to right: Conacodon hettingeri, Miniconus jeanninae, and Beornus honeyi. Image credit: Banana Art Studio.

Three New Species of Primitive Ungulate Ancestors Identified

Aug 18, 2021 by News Staff

Paleontologists have identified three new species of placental mammals called condylarths (archaic ungulates) from fossils found in Wyoming, the United...

This false-color image shows the dwarf planet Ceres. Image credit: NASA / JPL-Caltech / UCLA / MPS / DLR / IDA.

Crust of Dwarf Planet Ceres is Rich in Water Ice, New Research Confirms

Aug 18, 2021 by News Staff

Using high spatial-resolution data gathered by the Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector (GRaND) aboard NASA’s Dawn spacecraft, planetary researchers have detected...

An illustration of Saturn and its ‘fuzzy’ core. Image credit: R. Hurt, IPAC / Caltech.

Saturn Has Diffuse, Stably Stratified Core, New Study Says

Aug 16, 2021 by News Staff

Astronomers using data from NASA’s Cassini spacecraft on ripples in Saturn’s rings have revealed new information about the gas giant’s mysterious...

Life reconstruction of Silutitan sinensis (left) and Hamititan xinjiangensis (right). Image credit: Chuang Zhao & Xiaolin Wang.

Two New Species of Sauropod Dinosaurs Unearthed in China

Aug 16, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have identified two new species of giant herbivorous dinosaurs from fossils found in the Turpan-Hami Basin, Xinjiang, northwestern China. Life...