News about PaperPanda, Open Access, and Research
In 2012, evolutionary biologist Catherine Sheard started an ambitious Ph.D. project: measuring the shape of every kind of passerine, or perching bird, in the world. “I thought, ‘This is about 6000 species, that almost seems doable,’” Sheard says. It was, and her project catalyzed an international effort to measure all the world’s birds. Now, a … Read more
While we sleep this spring, billions of birds will be flying through the night from their wintering grounds to their breeding territories. Bird migration is a mind-bendingly astonishing phenomenon: these tiny creatures fly thousands of kilometers with enough precision to return to the same nesting site year after year. They use three types of compass, … Read more
Goose bones from Stone Age China suggest the birds were being domesticated there 7000 years ago, which could mean they were domesticated before chickens Humans 7 March 2022 By Michael Marshall Chinese geese (Anser cygnoides f. domestica) blickwinkel/AGAMI/M. Guyt/Alamy Geese may have been domesticated as early as 7000 years ago in what is now China, … Read more
In May 2020, as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic chewed through Texas, I went to an Austin nature store and bought several bird feeders. The birds, drawn by seed and suet slabs, came soon afterward. They flitted down from the pecan trees and telephone wires: bold Tufted Titmice, bouncing Northern Cardinals and bullying … Read more
Archaeologists have uncovered the largest collection of ancient Egyptian ‘notepads’ found since the beginning of the 20th century. In the long-lost city of Athribis, in central Egypt, researchers have cataloged more than 18,000 inscribed pieces of pottery, some of which seem to have been written by students. The shards of inked pottery are known … Read more
Eurasian reed warblers migrate to sub-Saharan Africa each year – and they seem to use the slope of Earth’s magnetic field to judge when they have reached their European breeding grounds Life 27 January 2022 By Alex Wilkins A Eurasian reed warbler Shutterstock / Rafal Szozda Some birds rely on Earth’s magnetic field to navigate and … Read more
Sardines scatter wildly as a smooth penguin head zooms through their tight swirling mass within blue-green waters of the Wildlife Conservation Society’s footage. One of those silver sardines becomes the penguin’s dinner on the second swoop through. Taken in the Beagle Channel off Isla Martillo, Argentina, the penguin bodycam footage helped clarify the bird’s … Read more
Until recently, one of the biggest myths in science was that all dinosaurs have been extinct for the past 65 million years. But thanks to new fossil discoveries that filled in our knowledge about avian dinosaurs, we now know that only some dinosaurs went extinct following an asteroid collision with Earth – others survived and gave … Read more
A 70 million-year-old oviraptorosaur egg that had been forgotten in a Chinese museum storeroom contains the most well-preserved dinosaur embryo ever discovered Life 21 December 2021 By Alice Klein The fossilised oviraptorosaur dinosaur embryo curled up in its egg Xing et al., 2021 A fossilised dinosaur embryo discovered in southern China may be the most … Read more
The Haast’s eagle had a beak and talons suited for capturing live prey, but its skull was adapted for ripping out organs Life 1 December 2021 By Christa Lesté-Lasserre An artist’s impression of Haast’s eagle Katrina Kenny For more than a century, scientists have wondered whether a huge carnivorous bird that went extinct around 600 … Read more