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ECOLOGY Huge icefish colony found Scientists aboard an Antarctic research cruise have discovered the most extensive breeding colony of fish anywhere. In February 2021, while towing video cameras and other instruments close to the sea floor in the Weddell Sea, the RV Polarstern came upon thousands of 75-centimeter-wide nests, each occupied by a single adult … Read more
Astrophysicists hope a map created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument will help answer questions about the expansion of the universe Space 13 January 2022 By Jason Arunn Murugesu The telescope where DESI is mounted at Kitt Peak National Observatory, Arizona KPNO/NOIRLab/NSF/AURA/P. Marenfeld The largest 3D map of the universe has been created by a … Read more
The most extensive and densely populated breeding colony of fish anywhere lurks deep underneath the ice of the Weddell Sea, scientists aboard an Antarctic research cruise have discovered. The 240 square kilometers of regularly spaced icefish nests, east of the Antarctic Peninsula, has astonished marine ecologists. “We had no idea that it would be just … Read more
An astonishing fossil of an extinct ‘sea dragon’ discovered by a wetland conservationist one day at work has been hailed as the largest and most complete fossil of its kind ever found in Britain. The fossil, identified as an ichthyosaur, an ancient marine reptile that swam in Earth’s prehistoric oceans when dinosaurs walked on … Read more
The largest ichthyosaur fossil ever found in the UK has been unearthed in the Rutland Water Nature Reserve Life 10 January 2022 By Jason Arunn Murugesu The ichthyosaur skeleton found at Rutland Water Nature Reserve MATTHEW POWER PHOTOGRAPHY Gigantic dolphin-like marine reptiles once swam the seas. Now, a near complete fossilised skeleton of a 180-million-year-old … Read more
Dominik Hülse, an Earth system modeler based at University of California Riverside, worked on a November 2021 study that explored how ancient microbes may have prolonged the Permian extinction by producing a toxic gas. Here, Hülse poses with a finger to his nose to highlight the toxic “rotten egg” scent of hydrogen sulfide. (Image credit: … Read more
The pterosaur Quetzalcoatlus northropi is the largest known flying animal to have ever existed, living on Earth more than 67 million years ago. Now new research on the creature and its newly discovered smaller relative, Quetzalcoatlus lawsoni, gives us a better idea of how Q. northropi flew and got airborne to begin with. Our knowledge of Q. … Read more
The magnetosphere of Jupiter’s moon Ganymede sounds like a dial-up modem in a newly released audio clip from NASA. This month the team behind the space agency’s Juno mission published new data from the spacecraft, which has been pirouetting around Jupiter and its many moons since July 2016. One of the most fascinating new troves … Read more
Arthropleura was the largest millipede ever to live, and palaeontologists have just found the fossilised remains of the longest specimen yet on a beach in northern England Life 21 December 2021 By Chen Ly Reconstruction of the giant millipede Arthropleura, which lived 326 million years ago Neil Davies The remains of a 326-million-year-old giant millipede, … Read more
After a decade of documenting and observing Indonesian shrews on the island of Sulawesi, researchers have published their findings and detailed 14 new species – the biggest discovery of new mammals listed in a single paper since 1931. Specifically, we’re talking about 14 new endemic species of the shrew genus Crocidura. Using genetic and … Read more