Category Archives: News & Archives

Study sheds light on the evolution of the earliest dinosaurs

The classic dinosaur family tree has two subdivisions of early dinosaurs at its base: the Ornithischians, or bird-hipped dinosaurs, which include the later Triceratops and Stegosaurus; and the Saurischians, or lizard-hipped dinosaurs, such as Brontosaurus and Tyrannosaurus. In 2017, however, this classical view of dinosaur evolution was thrown into question with evidence that perhaps the…

Meet the super salamander that nearly ate your ancestors for breakfast

Say hello to one of the strangest creatures to ever call our planet home: a giant salamander-like amphibian that lurked in the waters of Europe more than 200m years ago. My colleagues and I recently discovered this new beast, whose fossils we found in Portugal. Its scientific name is Metoposaurus algarvensis, a nod to the sunny…

Exploding stars may have caused mass extinction on Earth, study shows

Imagine reading by the light of an exploded star, brighter than a full moon -- it might be fun to think about, but this scene is the prelude to a disaster when the radiation devastates life as we know it. Killer cosmic rays from nearby supernovae could be the culprit behind at least one mass…

Inexpensive, accessible device provides visual proof that masks block droplets

Duke physician Eric Westman was one of the first champions of masking as a means to curtail the spread of coronavirus, working with a local non-profit to provide free masks to at-risk and under-served populations in the greater Durham community. But he needed to know whether the virus-blocking claims mask suppliers made were true, to…

Ancient genomes suggest woolly rhinos went extinct due to climate change, not overhunting

The extinction of prehistoric megafauna like the woolly mammoth, cave lion, and woolly rhinoceros at the end of the last ice age has often been attributed to the spread of early humans across the globe. Although overhunting led to the demise of some species, a study appearing August 13 in the journal Current Biology found that the…

How does Earth sustain its magnetic field?

How did the chemical makeup of our planet's core shape its geologic history and habitability? Life as we know it could not exist without Earth's magnetic field and its ability to deflect dangerous ionizing particles from the solar wind and more far-flung cosmic rays. It is continuously generated by the motion of liquid iron in…

Like humans, beluga whales form social networks beyond family ties

A groundbreaking study using molecular genetic techniques and field studies brings together decades of research into the complex relationships among beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) that spans 10 locations across the Arctic from Alaska to Canada and Russia to Norway. The behavior of these highly gregarious whales, which include sophisticated vocal repertoires, suggest that this marine…

Humans and monkeys show similar thinking patterns

Humans and monkeys may not speak the same lingo, but our ways of thinking are a lot more similar than previously thought, according to new research from UC Berkeley, Harvard University and Carnegie Mellon University. In experiments on 100 study participants across age groups, cultures and species, researchers found that indigenous Tsimane' people in Bolivia's…

Indigenous Americans had contact with Polynesians 800 years ago, DNA study confirms

Indigenous Americans and Polynesians crossed thousands of miles of open ocean and made contact with each other as early as 1200 A.D., centuries before the arrival of Europeans, a new study has found. Archeologists have long believed the two regions made early contact, pointing to the early, widespread cultivation of a South American plant in…

New University of Otago research sheds light on guinea pig domestication and how and why the small, furry animals became distributed around the world. Just published in the international science journal, Scientific Reports, the researchers use ancient DNA from archaeological guinea pig remains which reveals the transition from the animals being used as a wild food…