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Archaeologists Discover Largest and Oldest-Known Maya Monument

High-resolution lidar images of Aguada Fénix (main panel) and La Carmelita (inset). Scale bar - 500 m (both images are on the same scale). Image credit: Inomata et al, doi: 10.1038/s41586-020-2343-4.
Jun 4, 2020 by News Staff

An international team of archaeologists has discovered an artificial structure — which is 1,400 m in length, 10-15 m in height, has 9 causeways radiating out from it, and is about 3,000 years old — at the archaeological site of Aguada Fénix in Tabasco, Mexico, near the northwestern border of Guatemala. This is the oldest monumental construction ever found in the Maya area and the largest in the entire pre-Hispanic history of the region. High-resolution...

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Life reconstruction of the armored dinosaur Borealopelta markmitchelli, which lived in what is now Alberta, Canada, some 110 million years ago, eating ferns. Image credit: Julius Csotonyi / Royal Tyrrell Museum.

Armored Herbivorous Dinosaur Preferred Fern Leaves

Jun 4, 2020 by News Staff

Paleontologists in Canada have analyzed the fossilized stomach contents from the exceptionally preserved specimen of Borealopelta markmitchelli, a species...

An artist’s impression of the early Universe. Image credit: NASA / ESA / Hubble / M. Kornmesser.

Astronomers Find No Evidence of Elusive First-Generation Stars in Early Universe

Jun 4, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope have found no evidence of hypothetical first-generation stars — called Population III stars...

Three New Bird Species Discovered in Peru

Jun 3, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of ornithologists has described three new species of the bird genus Scytalopus from the Peruvian Andes. New Scytalopus species from...

Anava et al used ancient DNA extraction from Dead Sea Scroll fragments made of animal skin to determine fragment origin and show unification of scrolls from distinct geological locations, highlighting the potential for genetics to illuminate the history of archaeological objects. Image credit: Anava et al, doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.04.046.

Scientists Unravel Genetic Mysteries of Dead Sea Scrolls

Jun 3, 2020 by News Staff

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had an incomparable impact on the historical understanding of Judaism and Christianity. ‘Piecing together’ scroll...

Kampecaris obanensis. Image credit: British Geological Survey.

Paleontologists Find World’s Oldest Fossil Bug

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

A 425-million-year-old fossil millipede from Scotland is the oldest-known ‘bug’ (an insect, arachnid or other related creature), according to new research...

An artist’s impression of what one of extreme horizontal branch stars, and its giant whitish spot, might look like. The spot is bright, takes up a quarter of the star’s surface and is caused by magnetic fields. As the star rotates, the spot on its surface comes and goes, causing visible changes in brightness. Image credit: ESO / L. Calçada, INAF-Padua / S. Zaggia.

Astronomers Detect Giant Spots on Extremely Hot Stars in Three Globular Clusters

Jun 2, 2020 by News Staff

Using several instruments on ESO’s Very Large Telescope, VLT Survey Telescope and the New Technology Telescope, astronomers have discovered giant spots...

ASKAP Telescope Traces Four Fast Radio Bursts to Massive Galaxies

Jun 1, 2020 by News Staff

Astronomers using the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope at CSIRO’s Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory have tracked four mysterious blasts...

Wightia declivirostris flying over an oxbow lake in the valley of the ancient Wessex River that flowed from Devon to the Isle of Wight. Image credit: Megan Jacobs.

New Pterosaur Species Identified from Fossil Found in England

Jun 1, 2020 by Natali Anderson

A new genus and species of pterosaur has been identified from a partial fossilized jaw collected on Isle of Wight, southern England. Wightia declivirostris...

Heavy Water Has Sweet Taste, New Study Confirms

Jun 1, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Highly purified heavy water has a distinctly sweeter taste than same-purity normal (light) water, according to a study conducted by researchers from the...

This scanning electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (yellow) isolated from a patient in the U.S., emerging from the surface of cells (blue/pink) cultured in the lab. Image credit: NIAID.

Up to 81% of COVID-19-Positive Patients are Asymptomatic: Study

Jun 1, 2020 by News Staff

In a paper published in the journal Thorax, a team of Australia researchers described the first instance of complete COVID-19 testing of all passengers...

This artist’s impression shows the first interstellar asteroid -- 1I/2017 U1 (’Oumuamua). Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO.

Interstellar Object Oumuamua Could Be Hydrogen Ice-Rich Body

May 31, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

In a paper to be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, astronomers from the University of Chicago and Yale University show that the odd properties...

The occasional use of stone tools as ‘strike-a-lights’ was a technocultural feature shared among Neanderthals in France.

Study: Women with Neanderthal Progesterone Gene Have Higher Fertility

May 29, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A hormone called progesterone is important for preparing the uterine lining for egg implantation and in maintaining the early stages of pregnancy. Almost...

An artist’s impression of the jeholornithiform avialan Jeholornis. Image credit: Aijuan Shi.

Fossil of Ancient Long-Tailed Bird Found in China

May 27, 2020 by Enrico de Lazaro

A new genus and species of jeholornithiform avialan that lived during the Cretaceous period has been identified from a nearly-complete specimen found in...

Electric currents (blue and red arrows) envelop Mars in a nested, double-loop structure that wraps continuously around the planet from its day side to its night side. These current loops distort the solar wind magnetic field (not pictured), which drapes around Mars to create an induced magnetosphere around the planet. In the process, the currents electrically connect Mars’ upper atmosphere and the induced magnetosphere to the solar wind, transferring electric and magnetic energy generated at the boundary of the induced magnetosphere (faint inner paraboloid) and at the solar wind bow shock (faint outer paraboloid). Image credit: NASA / Goddard / MAVEN / CU Boulder / SVS / Cindy Starr.

Researchers Create Map of Electric Currents in Magnetosphere of Mars

May 27, 2020 by News Staff

Using five years of magnetic field data obtained by NASA’s MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) spacecraft, a team of scientists has created...

An artist’s impression of the collisional ring galaxy R5519. Image credit: James Josephides, Swinburne Astronomy Productions.

Astronomers Find Giant Collisional Ring Galaxy in Early Universe

May 26, 2020 by Sergio Prostak

Astronomers have spotted a giant galaxy with a massive star-forming ring that existed 10.8 billion years ago. An artist’s impression of the collisional...

Reconstruction of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Image credit: Sergio de la Larosa / CC BY-SA 3.0.

European Cave Bears Had Pure Herbivorous Diet

May 26, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An isotopic analysis of fossil collagen from the bones collected in three Romanian caves indicates that the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), an extinct species...

The jojoba (Simmondsia chinensis) in King Canyon Wash, Saguaro National Park West, Arizona, the United States. Image credit: Katja Schulz / CC BY 2.0.

Researchers Sequence Genome of Jojoba Plant

May 26, 2020 by Natali Anderson

An international team of scientists has for the first time mapped the entire genome of the jojoba plant (Simmondsia chinensis). The jojoba (Simmondsia...

Bumblebee workers facing pollen scarcity use their proboscises and mandibles to cut distinctively shaped holes in plant leaves, with each damage event taking only a few seconds. Image credit: Hannier Pulido / ETH Zurich.

Bumblebees Bite Leaves of Flowerless Plants to Stimulate Earlier Flowering

May 25, 2020 by News Staff

Bumblebees rely heavily on pollen resources for essential nutrients as they build their summer colonies. Therefore, annual differences in the availability...

This image shows the Jupiter trojan asteroid 2019 LD2. Image credit: ATLAS.

Astronomers Spot First Trojan Asteroid with Comet-Like Tail: 2019 LD2

May 22, 2020 by News Staff

2019 LD2 is the first known Jupiter trojan asteroid to display cometary activity with a visible coma and tail, according to a team of astronomers from...

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