9+ hour, 43+ min ago   (437+ words) Physics-based earthquake simulations are showing promise for improving estimates of building damage and ground shaking, but researchers say wider engineering use will depend on stronger validation and shared standards. Most earthquake hazard models rely on statistical relationships drawn from recordings…...

1+ week, 12+ hour ago   (559+ words) The return of woolly mammoths has been proposed as a way to restore parts of the ancient Arctic landscape and potentially slow some effects of climate change. Supporters of mammoth de-extinction suggest that large grazers could help recreate grasslands, influence…...

1+ week, 12+ hour ago   (487+ words) More than 10 million years ago, South America wetlands were home to enormous mammals, giant snakes, terror birds, turtles, and some of the largest prehistoric crocodilians ever known. Among them was Purussaurus neivensis, a massive caiman relative that may have reached…...

3+ week, 21+ hour ago   (474+ words) Scientists have identified a new extinct Ice Age spadefoot toad, Spea labreae, from fossils at Los Angeles' La Brea Tar Pits, marking only the second known extinct Pleistocene amphibian ever found in North America. The newly described species was recognized…...

3+ week, 2+ day ago   (354+ words) Antarctica's Blood Falls is one of the continent's strangest sights. The red waterfall flows from Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, with its unusual color coming from iron-rich brine. The salty water is not ordinary glacier meltwater. When the…...

3+ week, 3+ day ago   (462+ words) Human evolution has become even more complex after a new study uncovered evidence of two previously unknown ancestral groups hidden within modern human DNA. By examining the human genome, researchers found genetic traces of ancient populations known as ghost ancestors....

1+ mon, 2+ day ago   (460+ words) The Arctic and Antarctic are often grouped together because both are icy Polar regions, but they are very different. The North Pole and South Pole differ in geography, climate, and the animals that call these frozen environments home. One is…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (362+ words) NASA satellites are closely monitoring an underwater volcano in the Central Bismarck Sea that could eventually create a new island. The eruption has drawn attention because it may produce Earth's newest island if volcanic material continues rising above sea level....

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (376+ words) Scientists have identified the earliest known evidence of animal "right-handedness" in 550-million-year-old Spriggina floundersi fossils from South Australia, revealing a consistent preference for bending to the right side. The finding comes from new research published in Scientific Reports, which analyzed…...

1+ mon, 2+ week ago   (494+ words) A new geological study suggests that deep processes inside Earth's mantle and the gradual uplift of East Antarctica's landscape primed the continent for permanent ice tens of millions of years before similar conditions developed in the Arctic, helping explain why…...