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Small Jurassic Pterosaur Had an Opposed Thumb

Life reconstruction of Kunpengopterus antipollicatus in the Tiaojishan paleoforest; opposed pollex depicted as being utilized in handling food items (a palaeontinid) and in clinging to trees (a ginkgo). Image credit: Chuang Zhao.
Apr 13, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Opposed thumbs are adaptations to arboreal life and rare for non-mammal vertebrates; Kunpengopterus antipollicatus, a newly-discovered species of arboreal pterosaur that inhabited a unique forest ecosystem in what is now China during the Jurassic period, shows the oldest record of such a feature. Life reconstruction of Kunpengopterus antipollicatus in the Tiaojishan paleoforest; opposed pollex depicted as being utilized in handling food items (a palaeontinid)...

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_Park_Formation

New Species of Duck-Billed Dinosaur Unearthed in New Mexico

Apr 12, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new genus and species of hadrosaurid (duck-billed) dinosaur, based on the skeletal remains found in New...

Gray wolves take down a horse on the mammoth-steppe habitat of Beringia during the Late Pleistocene, around 25,000 years ago. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi.

Yukon Wolves Survived Ice-Age Extinction Thanks to Changes in Their Diet

Apr 12, 2021 by News Staff

Gray wolves (Canis lupus) from the Yukon Territory, Canada, survived the extinction at the end of the last Ice Age by adapting their diet over thousands...

Two New Species of Cretaceous Mammal Relatives Unearthed in China

Apr 8, 2021 by News Staff

Fossiomanus sinensis and Jueconodon cheni, two distantly related species of mammaliamorphs that lived some 120 million years ago (Early Cretaceous epoch),...

New Measurements of Muon’s Magnetic Moment Strengthen Evidence of New Physics

Apr 8, 2021 by News Staff

The Standard Model, scientists’ best description of the makeup and behavior of the Universe yet, very precisely predicts the g-factor of a fundamental...

This image from NASA’s Galileo spacecraft shows a volcanic explosion on Io. Image credit: NASA / JPL / University of Arizon.

ALMA Detects Volcanic Gases in Atmosphere of Io

Apr 7, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Using data from the Atacama Large Millimeter/Submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers from India have detected acetone, disulfur monoxide, and carbon monoxide...

This artist’s conception shows the brilliant light of two quasars residing in the cores of two galaxies that are in the chaotic process of merging. Image credit: NASA / ESA / J. Olmsted, STScI.

Astronomers Discover Two Very Distant Double Quasars

Apr 7, 2021 by News Staff

The two newly-discovered pairs of quasars, J0749+2255 and J0841+4825, existed 10 billion years ago and resided in the cores of merging galaxies, according...

The black-throated trogon (Trogon rufus). Image credit: Moisés Silva Lima / CC BY 2.0.

New Species of Bird Discovered in Brazil

Apr 6, 2021 by Natali Anderson

A team of ornithologists from the United States, Canada, Brazil, and Paraguay has described a new species of trogon from the Atlantic Forest of north-eastern...

New Exotic Isotope of Fluorine Discovered: Fluorine-13

Apr 5, 2021 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of U.S. physicists has created a new isotope of fluorine, fluorine-13 (13F), via a charge-exchange reaction between a beam of oxygen-13 (13O) and...

The Walter’s duiker (Philantomba walteri). Image credit: Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, University of Oxford.

Walter’s Duiker Photographed for First Time in the Wild

Apr 5, 2021 by News Staff

An international team of zoologists led by scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Research Unit (WildCRU) at the University of Oxford has snapped an...

Trapped antihydrogen atoms being cooled. Image credit: Chukman So.

CERN Physicists Cool Antimatter Using Laser Light for First Time

Apr 5, 2021 by News Staff

Physicists from the ALPHA (Antihydrogen Laser Physics Apparatus) Collaboration at CERN have successfully demonstrated laser cooling of antihydrogen, the...

Trilobite fossil preserved in pyrite. Image credit: Jin-Bo Hou / University of California, Riverside.

Trilobites were Leg Breathers, New Research Shows

Apr 2, 2021 by News Staff

Trilobites had well-developed gill-like structures in their upper leg branches, according to a new imaging study led by the University of California, Riverside. Trilobite...

This composite image shows a Chandra X-ray image of Uranus from 2002 (pink) superimposed on an optical image from the Keck-I Telescope obtained in 2004. Image credit: NASA / CXO / University College London / Dunn et al.

Chandra Detects X-Ray Emission from Uranus

Apr 1, 2021 by News Staff

Uranus, the seventh planet from the Sun, and its ring system appear to mainly produce X-ray emission by scattering solar X-rays, but some may also come...

Life reconstruction of Llukalkan aliocranianus. Image credit: Jorge Blanco.

New Species of Carnivorous Dinosaur Unearthed in Argentina

Mar 31, 2021 by News Staff

A new genus and species of furileusaurian (stiff-backed lizard) abelisaurid dinosaur being named Llukalkan aliocranianus has been discovered by a team...

An artist’s impression of what the surface of the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov might look like. Image credit: ESO / M. Kormesser.

Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov is One of Most Pristine Comets Known

Mar 31, 2021 by News Staff

Two teams of astronomers have performed polarimetric observations of 2I/Borisov, the first active extrasolar comet ever detected in our Solar System, using...

The Indus river dolphin (Platanista minor). Image credit: WWF-Pakistan / Braulik et al., doi: 10.1111/mms.12801.

Indus and Ganges River Dolphins are Separate Species, New Study Shows

Mar 30, 2021 by Natali Anderson

The two subspecies of the South Asian river dolphin (Platanista gangetica) — the Indus river dolphin (Platanista gangetica minor) and the Ganges...

Maratus nemo. Image credit: Joseph Schubert.

New Species of Dancing Peacock Spider Discovered

Mar 30, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Arachnologists have discovered a new species of peacock spider (genus Maratus) in the vicinities of Mount McIntyre and Nangwarry in Australia. Maratus...

An artist’s impression of the ultra-short-period sub-Neptune exoplanet TOI-1634b. Image credit: Sci-News.com.

Ultra-Short-Period Sub-Neptune Found Orbiting TOI-1634

Mar 29, 2021 by Natali Anderson

Using data from NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and the HARPS-N spectrograph at the 3.6-m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo, astronomers...

This artist’s illustration depicts how, centuries ago, people believed that small worms living within the tooth caused excruciating pain via their cold breath. Proof of tooth worms came when an inflamed tooth was ripped out and small stringy structures -- the nerves and blood vessels -- were visible within the disintegrating pulp and dentin. The tooth worms are actually odontoblasts, cells that form the dentin layer of the tooth, which encases the soft tooth pulp. Bernal et al. demonstrated that the cold sensation in our teeth is mediated by the odontoblast (green structures) and transmitted to the brain via nerves (red), where pain is perceived. Image credit: Katharina Zimmermann.

Scientists Figure Out How Teeth Sense Cold

Mar 29, 2021 by News Staff

Odontoblasts, cells that form dentin, the shell beneath the tooth’s enamel that encases the soft dental pulp containing nerves and blood vessels, contain...

The Alagoas screech owl (Megascops alagoensis) in Brazil. Image credit: Gustavo Malacco.

Two New Species of Screech Owls Identified

Mar 29, 2021 by News Staff

Ornithologists from the United States, Brazil and Finland have described two new species of the owl genus Megascops from the Amazon and Atlantic forests. The...

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