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Paleontologists Find Massive Marine Reptile in Stomach of Triassic Ichthyosaur

Aug 24, 2020 by News Staff

A new fossil of Guizhouichthyosaurus, a 5-m- (16.4-foot) long ichthyosaur that swam in Middle Triassic oceans some 240 million years ago, contains the...

Platymantis navjoti male in life. Image credit: Cameron Siler, University of Oklahoma.

New Species of Forest Frog Discovered in Philippines

Aug 24, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of field biologists has described a new species of the frog genus Platymantis from Leyte and Samar islands, the Philippines. The...

This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) was taken by Hubble on August 8, 2020. Image credit: NASA / ESA / A. Pagan, STScI / Q. Zhang, Caltech.

Hubble Captures Close-Up Image of Comet NEOWISE

Aug 21, 2020 by News Staff

A new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows the coma of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE) and its dusty output. This image of comet C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE)...

Honey is more effective than usual care alternatives and avoids causing harm through antimicrobial resistance. Image credit: PollyDot.

Honey is More Effective than Usual Care Alternatives for Improving Respiratory Symptoms

Aug 21, 2020 by News Staff

Honey is more effective and less harmful than usual care for improving symptoms of upper respiratory tract infections, particularly cough frequency and...

Will Universe End with ‘Black Dwarf’ Supernova Explosions?

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

A series of ‘black dwarf’ supernovae will be the last astrophysical events to occur in our Universe prior to the so-called heat death, when the Universe...

A Somali sengi (Galegeeska revoilii) at the Assamo locality in Djibouti. As is observed in other sengi species, Somali sengis have some variation in pelage colors. These differences seem to correspond to the color variation of substrates between occurrence localities. At the Assamo site, in the extreme southeastern corner of Djibouti, sengi habitats are comprised of rocks with more rusty coloration than elsewhere in the country. Compared to other Djiboutian sites, sengis from Assamo have dorsal pelage hairs with more pronounced reds. Image credit: Steven Heritage.

Scientists Rediscover Long-Lost Species of Mammal: Somali Sengi

Aug 20, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A team of researchers from the United States and the Republic of Djibouti has rediscovered the elusive Somali sengi (‘Elephantulus’ revoilii) over...

Chandra Spots High-Velocity Knots of Stellar Debris in Kepler’s Supernova Remnant

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

New images from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory show small knots of metal-rich debris in the remnant of Kepler’s supernova, also known as SN 1604,...

Mother-pup pair of the greater sac-winged bat (Saccopteryx bilineata) in their daytime roost. The pup (dark fur color) is holding on to the mother’s belly (light fur color). Image credit: Michael Stifter.

Mother Bats Use ‘Baby Talk’ to Speak to Their Offspring, New Study Shows

Aug 20, 2020 by News Staff

A special form of vocal feedback in humans, infant-directed speech — also known as motherese or ‘baby talk’ — facilitates language learning...

An artist’s conception of a potential solar companion, which theorists believe was developed in the Sun’s birth cluster and later lost. If proven, the solar companion theory would provide additional credence to theories that the Oort Cloud formed as we see it today, and that Planet Nine was captured rather than formed in place. Image credit: M. Weiss.

Early Solar System May Have Had Two Suns

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, Harvard University astrophysicists Avi Loeb and Amir Siraj show that an equal-mass stellar companion...

An artist’s rendition of a supernova explosion. Image credit: ESA / Hubble / L. Calcada / NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Nearby Supernovae Caused Late Devonian Extinctions, Scientists Say

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

Multiple supernova explosions about 65 light-years away may have contributed to the ozone depletion and several subsequent extinction events at the Devonian-Carboniferous...

An artist’s impression of one of the team’s discoveries -- the oldest known wide-separation white dwarf plus cold brown dwarf pair. Image credit: NOIRLab / NSF / AURA / P. Marenfeld / William Pendrill.

Astronomers Find 95 New Brown Dwarfs in Solar Neighborhood

Aug 19, 2020 by News Staff

A team of professional astronomers and citizen scientists from the Backyard Worlds: Planet 9 project has spotted 95 new brown dwarfs near the Sun. An artist’s...

Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri). Image credit: Michael Van Woert / NOAA NESDIS / ORA.

Genetic Researchers Reconstruct Evolutionary History of Penguins

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

In a new study, an international team of scientists used 22 newly-sequenced genomes from 18 extant species of penguins to reconstruct the history of their...

This artist’s impression shows ‘Oumuamua, the first interstellar object discovered in our Solar System. Recent observations show that the object is moving faster than predicted while leaving the Solar System. Astronomers assume that venting material from its surface due to solar heating is responsible for this behavior. This outgassing can be seen in this artist’s impression as a subtle cloud being ejected from the side of the object facing the Sun. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / ESO / M. Kornmesser.

Interstellar Object Oumuamua Isn’t Made of Hydrogen Ice, Study Says

Aug 18, 2020 by News Staff

‘Oumuamua, a recently-discovered cigar-shaped object of extrasolar origin, is not made of molecular hydrogen ice after all, according to a new study...

A British Pleistocene landscape during an interglacial with cave lion (Panthera spelaea), straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), narrow-nosed rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), steppe bison (Bison priscus), aurochs (Bison primigenius) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius). Image credit: Roman Uchytel, via the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

Two Subspecies of Cave Lion Identified

Aug 17, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

An international team of researchers led by the Swedish Centre for Palaeogenetics has analyzed 31 mitochondrial genome sequences from the cave lion (Panthera...

Vertical field section of 43,000-year-old bedding grass from Border Cave, South Africa. Scale bar - 10 mm. Image credit: Wadley et al, doi: 10.1126/science.abc7239.

Archaeologists Find 200,000-Year-Old Grass Beds in South African Cave

Aug 17, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

An international team of archaeologists reports the discovery of grass bedding used to create comfortable areas for sleeping and working by Paleolithic...

Left eye of Aulacopleura koninckii. Image credit: Choenemann & Clarkson, doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-69219-0.

Silurian Trilobite Had Modern Type of Compound Eye

Aug 17, 2020 by Natali Anderson

Paleontologists have found that Aulacopleura koninckii, a species of trilobite that lived around 429 million years ago (Silurian period), was equipped...

This image depicts a Pleistocene landscape in northern Spain with woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius), a woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis), and European cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea) with a reindeer carcass. Image credit: Mauricio Antón.

Climate Change Drove Woolly Rhinoceros to Extinction: DNA Study

Aug 14, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of researchers has sequenced and analyzed a complete nuclear genome and 14 mitochondrial genomes from the extinct woolly rhinoceros...

This artist’s impression was generated using an image of Betelgeuse from 2019 taken with the SPHERE instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope. Image credit: ESO / NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Betelgeuse’s Mysterious Dimming Likely Caused by Huge Outburst

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

The red supergiant Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the night sky and appears even more luminous because it is so close to Earth, only 650 light-years...

Terraced banana cultivation site at Wagadagam, Mabuyag Island, Australia. Image credit: Australian National University.

Torres Strait Islanders Cultivated Bananas 2,145 Years Ago

Aug 13, 2020 by News Staff

New research suggests Indigenous people on the tiny island of Mabuyag in the western Torres Strait, Australia, practiced banana (Musa cultivars) cultivation...