Nature

Researchers have been able to use an analysis of ancient rock crystals – and the magnetism records locked inside them – to trace back the history of Earth’s inner core across hundreds of millions of years. Earth’s core, a dense hot blob of iron and nickel, is actually made up of two layers – the

Pollination is the trademark of flowering plants, with animal pollinators such as bees and birds sustaining the world’s food supplies – not to mention our cravings for coffee, honey, and macadamia nuts. But new research raises the possibility that animal-assisted pollination may have emerged in the sea, long before plants moved ashore. The study, conducted by

There’s something curious in the blood of black bears that allows them to hibernate for seven months a year while still remaining fit and healthy. Scientists aren’t sure what that something is, but a new study has helped close in on the mystery. If we humans tried to lie dormant for as long as a

The fungus Entomophthora muscae has a survival strategy that’s both fascinating and potentially going to put you off your next meal: it infects and ‘zombifies’ female houseflies before sending out irresistible chemical signals encouraging male houseflies into necrophilia. By luring these male flies into mating with zombified females, the fungus can transfer to the male fly

From sniffing out diabetes, cancers and positive COVID-19 cases to being disgustingly interested in poop, we all know dogs have a mighty powerful sense of smell. Yet researchers were surprised to see the sheer extent of the smell wiring within dog brains. Veterinary neuroimaging researcher Erica Andrews of Cornell University and colleagues have just mapped domestic dogs’

When you’re barely the size of an eyelash and on the hunt for fast-moving prey, having a bear trap strapped to your head might seem like a good idea. Of course, it’s all fun and games until it actually goes off. Even the slightest wobble in that trap’s arc could send your face on a

Microbes are the smallest known living organisms on Earth and can be found just about everywhere, even in the cold, Mars-like conditions of lava caves. On the island of Hawai’i, scientists recently found a marvelous assortment of novel microbes thriving in geothermal caves, lava tubes, and volcanic vents. These underground structures were formed 65 and 800

Earth’s deepest sources of water may not be as old as we once assumed. Based on samples taken from deep below the Colorado Plateau, the briny remnants of ancient seas that make up the base of many groundwater systems might not be so perfectly isolated from the world above. When researchers attempted to date the region’s Paradox

Colonies of ants can act a lot like neural networks, new research has revealed, with groups of the insects weighing up both external inputs and internal principles when making decisions about what to do as a collective. In this particular study, the team behind it looked at when and how ant colonies evacuated their nests

Approximately 365 million years ago, one group of fishes left the water to live on land. These animals were early tetrapods, a lineage that would radiate to include many thousands of species including amphibians, birds, lizards and mammals. Human beings are descendants of those early tetrapods, and we share the legacy of their water-to-land transition.

Penguins are no strangers to climate change. Their life history has been shaped by rising and falling temperatures, and their bodies are highly specialized for some of Earth’s most extreme conditions. And yet, scientists are concerned the evolutionary path of the penguin may be grinding to a halt, thanks to what appears to be the

As the first dinosaurs were finding their feet around 230 million years ago, the ancestors of modern mammals were also emerging. Somewhere along the way they developed a remarkable ability: to generate their own warmth.  This decisive evolutionary step towards endothermy – the ability to generate heat from within and keep a near-constant core body temperature even when

Beneath the Andes mountains in South America, Earth’s crust is dripping into the planet’s interior. Moreover, this has been occurring for millions of years – a long geological process that has produced telltale wrinkling and other features on the surface that scientists have discerned through modeling and experimentation. This might help us identify interior geological

Rare deep-sea brine pools discovered in the Red Sea may hold clues to environmental upheavals in the region that span millennia, and could even shed light on the origins of life on Earth, a new study finds. Deep-sea brine pools are extraordinarily salty or “hypersaline” lakes that form on the seafloor. They are among the

It might surprise you to know that even during the depths of sleep, your brain cycles through brief bouts of wakefulness.   These ‘micro-arousals’, as they are known, are too short to be remembered the next morning, but together they could help your brain consolidate your memories from the day before. Among sleeping mice, researchers publishing in

For more than 100 years, paleontologists have thought that a fossil discovered in South Australia was a powerful grave eagle (Taphaetus lacertosus). Now, new research has revealed its true taxonomy: it’s a vulture, and it’s the first one discovered in the country. The fossil is that of a Cryptogyps lacertosus (meaning powerful hidden vulture) and this

The oceans are full of magical marine life that have spawned ecosystems brimming with biodiversity. Corals, which come in all shapes, sizes and colors, are no exception. Some species even glow in the dark. Now a team of Israeli scientists have figured out why that might be so. With glowing green and yellow tentacles, deep-reef

A massive field of hydrothermal vents on the seafloor in the dark depths of the East Pacific ocean is the hottest and largest discovered in the region yet. Not only that, but it’s in a place scientists didn’t expect to find active vents, never mind an entire system of them, hundreds of meters from the

How life originated on Earth continues to fascinate scientists, but it’s not easy peering back billions of years into the past. Now, evidence is growing for a relatively new hypothesis of how life began: with a very precise mix of RNA and DNA. RNA and DNA both determine the genetic make-up of all biological life, with

Studying the sleep patterns of wolves in comparison to dogs can give us an insight into how evolution and domestication may have affected sleep – and that’s exactly the point of a new study. The study involved seven hand-raised, socialized wolves, which meant that they could be calmly and safely coaxed into natural sleep by

You might find yourself reaching for a painkiller when a headache strikes, and it seems plants do something similar: when under stress from hazards around them, plants are capable of producing their own aspirin. A new study takes a closer look at this particular self-defense mechanism in plants, and how the production of the active

A newly-discovered plant, a recently-discovered wasp, and a developing fly larva have been found trapped in amber, in an exquisitely-preserved moment of prehistoric ecology.  If the image of an insect trapped in amber seems familiar, you have George Poinar, Jr. – the entomologist who made this discovery – to thank. His early work extracting insect DNA from Dominican amber

Forced to spend their days slamming their tiny skulls into the sides of trees in search of buried morsels, woodpeckers should have evolved a trick or two to avoid brain damage. So you’d think. A new study on woodpecker biomechanics has cast doubt on speculations that the small chisel-headed bird avoids turning its brain to

It was thought that humans were unique amongst mammals when it came to farming – but depending on how strict we are with definitions, it turns out we might not be alone when comes to tending the land to grow food. Scientists have discovered that pocket gophers (Geomys pinetis) also practice a form of agriculture.

We have long seen insects as instinctive, mindless creatures with robotic-like reactions to the world and all its impulses. But the closer we look, the more we find surprisingly complex behaviors, from bees communicating through dance to incredible feats of ant cooperation and now we have mounting evidence that these little creatures that run our

Scientists can use various clues to figure out what’s under Earth’s surface without actually having to do any digging – including firing super-fine lasers thinner than a human hair at minerals found in beach sand. This technique has been used in a new study that points to a 4-billion-year-old piece of Earth’s crust about the

It’s a big ol’ scary ocean out there. When you’re just a teeny tiny embryonic squid, there are a lot of things that might like to have you for lunch. One strategy, employed by a variety of squids, is to protect their eggs in a giant ball of gelatinous, slippery mucus. Some deposit their eggs

Researchers have discovered a new species of giant dinosaur that has been called Meraxes gigas: just like the Tyrannosaurus rex, M. gigas has very short forelimbs, and it seems that both of these massive dino theropods evolved the trait separately. Not only are T. rex and M. gigas a long way apart on the evolutionary

Perched at over 1,500 meters above sea level, it is difficult to imagine a time when the mountainside Walcott Quarry in Canada – the first excavation site within the Burgess Shale – was submerged by ocean. And yet, that’s why it has become one of the world’s most famous and unique fossil sites.  508 million

The full fossilized skeleton of a Gorgosaurus dinosaur that roamed 76 million years ago will be auctioned off on July 28, auction house Sotheby’s announced Tuesday.  At nearly 10 feet (3 meters) tall and 22 feet (7 meters) long, the well-preserved specimen is a smaller cousin of the Tyrannosaurus rex. It was discovered in the Judith River Formation

A strange creature that sloshed about in Earth’s oceans over half a billion years ago seems to be the earliest vertebrate relative we’ve found to date. They’re called yunnanozoans, dating to the Early Cambrian some 518 million years ago. Cartilaginous features found in their fossilized remains are comparable to modern vertebrates, paleontologists have discovered. This

The Anthropocene is the name some scientists are giving to the current geological epoch, marked by the point in time when human activity started having a significant impact on the geology and ecosystems of Earth – not least through climate change. Now scientists think they have precisely determined the beginning of the Anthropocene through particular

If you want to lure a bunch of prehistoric frogs to a sticky end, the best way is the promise of amphibian hanky-panky. That’s the conclusion paleontologists have arrived at after studying the remains of hundreds of ancient frogs that died in a swamp around 45 million years ago, in what we now know as Germany.

The process of turning water, carbon dioxide, and sunlight into oxygen and energy helps plants to grow naturally – and it’s a process that scientists are looking to harness and adapt in order to produce food, fuel, and more besides. In a new study, scientists outline an experimental artificial photosynthesis technique, which deploys a two-step

Experts at London’s Kew Gardens on Monday revealed they have discovered the first new giant waterlily species since the mid-19th century – after it was initially mistaken for another. Specimens of the new species had lain undiscovered at the botanical garden for 177 years and in the National Herbarium of Bolivia for 34 years. It

There is no sea creature whose name inspires terror – rightly or wrongly – as much as the great white shark. With its sleek body optimized for hunting, its sharp teeth, and its (somewhat undeserved) reputation for enjoying human flesh, the great white (Carcharodon carcharias) is widely regarded as one of the ocean’s top predators.

Living as a microbe on the Tibetan Plateau isn’t easy. Frigid temperatures, high levels of solar radiation, not a lot to eat, and you’d regularly get frozen and then thawed depending on the time of year. So, it’s a bit of a surprise that in these ‘extreme environmental conditions’ scientists have discovered 968 species featuring

Over tens of millions of years, the wingless midge Belgica antarctica has perfected the art of freezing itself to push through the darkest and coldest of Antarctica’s winter months, carving out an exclusive niche as the continent’s only native insect.  As climate change nudges polar temperatures ever higher, this hard-earned set of survival skills could

Scientists discovered the “fingerprints” of mysterious viruses hidden in an ancient group of microbes that may have helped fuel the rise of all complex life on Earth: from fungi to plants to humans. These microbes – known as Asgard archaea after the abode of the gods in Norse mythology – lurk in the frigid sediments

Most of our knowledge about what sits at the center of our planet comes from the study of seismic waves rolling out from earthquakes. Careful analysis of these waves can reveal the composition of rocks and metal below Earth’s surface. A new study of seismic waves propagating from two different earthquakes – in similar locations

The Permian–Triassic extinction event, which happened roughly 252 million years ago, is colloquially known as the Great Dying because of the way it obliterated life on Earth – almost ending it completely. It’s the most severe extinction event in history. Life did recover however, and new research identifies that deposit feeders like worms and shrimps

The massive eruption from the underwater Tonga volcano in the Pacific earlier this year generated a blast so powerful, it sent massive pressure waves rippling through the atmosphere and around the globe. These waves were the fastest ever observed within our atmosphere, reaching speeds of 720 miles (1,158 kilometers) per hour, a new study finds.

We often think of plants as sedate, tranquil organisms that can’t help but keep to themselves. But not all plants are harmless wallflowers. Carnivorous plants, as the name suggests, eat prey – mostly bugs, but also small animals, and other nutrient-rich matter. While the whole idea seems vaguely nightmarish at first, these “ecologically unique” plants need our

The beloved pooch snoring on your couch or sticking a snoot under your arm at dinner time came from a much wilder origin. At some point, dogs diverged from gray wolves under the guidance of domestication, to become the diverse fuzzbutts that fill our homes and hearts with such joy today. Exactly when and how

Spotting a wispy sea dragon, floating amongst the seaweed, embellished with leaf-like adornments ruffling in swaying ocean currents, is truly a sight to behold. But there is more to sea dragons than meets the diver’s eye. Bedazzled as they may be, sea dragons are also missing teeth, lacking ribs, and their spines are curved and

Long ago, almost up until the end of the last ice age, a peculiar giant kangaroo roamed the mountainous rainforests of New Guinea. Now, research published by myself and colleagues suggests this kangaroo was not closely related to modern Australian kangaroos. Rather, it represents a previously unknown type of primitive kangaroo unique to New Guinea.

Scientists have already established that octopuses are smarter than your average invertebrate, but a new discovery suggests one of the reasons why: a specific molecular analogy with the human brain. Both the human genome and the octopus genome contain a high number of ‘jumping genes’ or transposons, which are able to duplicate themselves or move

A gold miner found a mummified baby woolly mammoth in the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin Traditional Territory in Yukon, Canada.  According to a press release from the local government, the female baby mammoth has been named Nun cho ga by the First Nation Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in elders, which translates to “big baby animal” in the Hän language.  Nun cho ga