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New Zealand’s Extinct Giant Bird Killed Like Eagle, Ate Like Condor

Dec 1, 2021 by News Staff

The Haast’s eagle (Hieraaetus moorei), the largest known eagle, habitually killed prey larger than itself, then applied feeding methods typical of vultures...

Life reconstructions of Kyhytysuka sachicarum. Image credit: Dirley Cortés.

New Species of Hypercarnivorous Ichthyosaur Identified

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

A new species of Cretaceous hypercarnivorous ichthyosaur, Kyhytysuka sachicarum, has been described from a fossil found in Colombia. Life reconstructions...

Kriegman et al. show that clusters of cells, if freed from a developing organism, can similarly find and combine loose cells into clusters that look and move like they do, and that this ability does not have to be specifically evolved or introduced by genetic manipulation. Image credit: Kriegman et al., doi: 10.1073/pnas.2112672118.

Researchers Create Self-Replicating Living Robots

Nov 30, 2021 by News Staff

Professor Joshua Bongard, a computer scientist and robotics expert at the University of Vermont, and his colleagues from Tufts University and Harvard University’s...

Daly et al. used atom probe tomography to directly observe an average ~1 mol% enrichment in water and hydroxyls in the solar-wind-irradiated rim of an olivine grain from the S-type asteroid Itokawa. Image credit: Curtin University.

Part of Earth’s Water Came from the Sun, New Study Suggests

Nov 29, 2021 by News Staff

The solar wind, comprised of solar particles largely made of hydrogen ions, created water on the surface of dust grains carried on asteroids that smashed...

Life reconstruction of Effigia okeeffeae. Image credit: Mark Witton.

Triassic Crocodile Relative was Specialist Herbivore, Study Reveals

Nov 29, 2021 by News Staff

Effigia okeeffeae, a shuvosaurid (an ancient relative of the crocodiles) that lived in North America during the Triassic period, was a specialist herbivore...

Dorsal views of the 41,500-year-old decorated ivory pendant from Stajnia Cave, Poland. Image credit: Antonino Vazzana / BRAVHO Lab, Bologna University.

41,500-Year-Old Mammoth Ivory Pendant Found in Poland

Nov 26, 2021 by News Staff

The 41,500-year-old oval-shaped pendant from Stajnia Cave in Poland is the oldest decorated jewelry found in Eurasia. Dorsal views of the 41,500-year-old...

The Rutland mosaic. Image credit: Historic England Archive.

Ancient Roman Villa with Magnificent Mosaic Unearthed in UK

Nov 25, 2021 by News Staff

The 1,700-year-old mosaic — part of the ruins of the ancient Roman villa complex in Rutland, England — is the first example in the UK displaying...

NASA Successfully Launches DART Mission to Test Asteroid Deflection

Nov 25, 2021 by News Staff

NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission launched November 24, 2021 at 1:21 a.m. EST on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Space Launch Complex...

Life reconstruction of Australopithecus sediba commissioned by the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. Image credit: Elisabeth Daynes / S. Entressangle.

Australopithecus sediba Comfortably Walked on Two Legs, But Could Climb Like Ape

Nov 24, 2021 by News Staff

Paleoanthropologists have discovered and examined the fossil lumbar vertebrae of Australopithecus sediba, a small hominin that lived about 2 million years...

Life reconstruction of Kaririavis mater. Image credit: Divulgação.

Fossil of 115-Million-Year-Old Bird Found in Brazil

Nov 23, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

Paleontologists working in Brazil have uncovered the fossil of an ornithuromorph bird that lived during the Early Cretaceous epoch. Life reconstruction...

This artist’s illustration shows NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft in the outer Solar System. In the background lies the Sun and a glowing band representing Zodiacal Light, caused by sunlight reflecting off of dust. Image credit: Joe Olmsted / STScI.

New Horizons Detects Galactic Lyman-alpha Emissions

Nov 23, 2021 by News Staff

Hydrogen is the most abundant element. When a neutral hydrogen atom gets blasted with energy, its electron can be boosted to a larger orbit with a higher...

Scanning electron micrograph of an HIV-infected H9 T cell. Image credit: NIAID.

Second HIV Patient Naturally Achieved ‘Sterilizing Cure of Infection,’ Researchers Say

Nov 19, 2021 by News Staff

A 30-year-old woman from the city of Esperanza, Argentina — the so-called Esperanza Patient — appears to be the second person whose immune...

Life reconstruction of Berthasaura leopoldinae. Image credit: de Souza et al., doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-01312-4.

New Ceratosaur Species Unearthed in Brazil

Nov 19, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of toothless noasaurid ceratosaur has been identified from an exceptionally complete skeleton found in southern Brazil. Life reconstruction...

This image shows Pisces VI/Tri III, a dwarf galaxy located 3.2 million light-years away in the constellation of Pisces. Image credit: DESI Legacy Imaging Surveys.

Amateur Astronomer Discovers New Dwarf Galaxy

Nov 18, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Named Pisces VII/Triangulum (Tri) III, the newly-discovered galaxy is an ultra-faint dwarf satellite candidate of the Triangulum galaxy (also known as...

The star octopus (Octopus djinda). Image credit: Mark Norman / Amor & Hart, doi: 10.11646/zootaxa.5061.1.7.

Marine Biologists Discover New Species of Octopus

Nov 18, 2021 by Natali Anderson

The newly-discovered octopus species inhabits the shallow waters off southwest Australia and belongs to the Octopus vulgaris group, according to a new...

Cretaceous ‘Four-Limbed Snake’ Turns Out To Be Long-Bodied Lizard

Nov 18, 2021 by News Staff

The origin of snakes remains one of the most contentious evolutionary transitions in vertebrate evolution. The discovery of snake fossils with well-formed...

A 40-million-year-old cone of Pinus cembrifolia in a piece of Eocene Baltic amber. Image credit: George Poinar Jr., Oregon State University.

Germinating Pine Cone Found Encased in Baltic Amber

Nov 17, 2021 by News Staff

Seed germination — a crucial stage in the development of all plants — normally occurs in the soil after the seed has fallen from the mother...

Reconstruction of Mawsonia sp. roaming in the brackish or fresh water costal environment of Texas during the Cenomanian age of the Late Cretaceous epoch. Image credit: Zubin Erik Dutta.

Fossils of Cretaceous-Period Coelacanth Discovered in Texas

Nov 16, 2021 by Sergio Prostak

The fossils are estimated to be around 96 million years old and belong to the first Cretaceous mawsoniid coelacanth from North America. Reconstruction...

Zhang et al. found that drinking coffee and tea separately or in combination were associated with lower risk of stroke and dementia; intake of coffee alone or in combination with tea was associated with lower risk of poststroke dementia. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Study: Coffee and Tea Consumption Lowers Stroke and Dementia Risk

Nov 16, 2021 by News Staff

In a large prospective cohort study published today in the journal PLoS Medicine, a team of researchers from Tianjin Medical University and Yale University...