7,733 results
- Oceans
Underwater city was built by microbes, not people
Submerged stoneworklike formations near the Greek island of Zakynthos were built by methane-munching microbes, not ancient Greeks.
- Paleontology
First known fossilized dinosaur brain unearthed, scientists claim
A dinosaur fossil that preserves brain tissue has been discovered for the first time, researchers announce.
- Oceans
First U.S. ocean monument named in the Atlantic
A region of ocean off the coast of Cape Cod has become the first U.S. marine national monument in the Atlantic Ocean, President Barack Obama announced.
- Earth
China’s mythical ‘Great Flood’ possibly rooted in real disaster
Folktales of an ancient flood that helped kick off Chinese civilization may reference a nearly 4,000-year-old deluge.
- Earth
Oxygen flooded Earth’s atmosphere earlier than thought
The Great Oxidation Event that enabled the eventual evolution of complex life began 100 million years earlier than once thought, new dating of South African rock suggests.
- Earth
Primordial continental crust re‑created in lab
Compressing rocks from an ocean plateau at high temperatures and pressures re-creates the formation of Earth’s first continental crust.
- Animals
Barnacles track whale migration
The mix of oxygen isotopes in the shells of barnacles that latch on to baleen whales may divulge how whale migration routes have changed over millions of years.
- Ecosystems
Oyster deaths linked to ‘atmospheric rivers’
Atmospheric rivers bring strong storms that could have been behind a 2011 California oyster die-off.
- Life
California’s goby is actually two different fish
One fish, two fish: California’s tidewater goby is two species.
- Earth
Ancient air bubbles could revise history of Earth’s oxygen
Pockets of ancient air trapped in rock salt for around 815 million years suggest that oxygen was abundant well before the first animals appear in the fossil record.
- Earth
Glass bits, charcoal hint at 56-million-year-old space rock impact
Glassy debris and the burnt remains of wildfires suggest that a large space rock hit Earth near the start of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum warming event around 56 million years ago.
- Planetary Science
Mercury’s surface still changing
A population of small cliffs on Mercury suggests that the planet might have been tectonically active in the last 50 million years.
