News
Earth’s magnetic poles once took 70,000 years to reverse
4+ hour, 25+ min ago (885+ words) Ancient sediments reveal Earth's magnetic poles once took 70,000 years to reverse, far longer than scientists expected. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0) Earth's magnetic field does not simply switch direction like a flipped light switch. It weakens, wanders, and reorganizes itself over…...
250-million-year-old Australian ‘sea-salamander’ sheds new light on the dawn of the dinosaurs
5+ day, 13+ hour ago (20+ words) 250-million-year-old Australian "sea-salamander" sheds new light on the dawn of the dinosaurs'The Brighter Side of News...
The odd ways mammals descend trees and what it means for primate evolution
6+ day, 5+ hour ago (769+ words) Mammals descend trees in different ways, and primates stand apart. (CREDIT: Andrew Mercer / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0) A new comparative analysis of tree-dwelling mammals, published in eLife, examined how animals move down vertical supports such as trunks and vines. The…...
‘Hell-heron’ dinosaur fossils uncovered in the central Sahara
6+ day, 13+ hour ago (647+ words) In an artist's recreation, "Spinosaurus mirabilis' stands along the river's edge over its prey some 95 million years ago. (CREDIT: Dani Navarro) A blade of bone lay half-buried in Saharan sand, shaped like a scimitar and tall enough to confuse the…...
228-meter sediment core may predict future Antarctic ice sheet loss
1+ week, 2+ day ago (568+ words) The geological material is discussed, documented and given a preliminary age assessment while still in the field. (CREDIT: Ana Tovey/SWAIS2C) A tube of mud can look like nothing special at first. Pull it from half a kilometer under Antarctic ice,…...
1.9 million-year-old finding points to the earliest evidence of humans outside of Africa
1+ week, 3+ day ago (873+ words) Researcher at the site of "Ubeidiya. It lies three km south of the Sea of Galilee (Lake Kinneret) on what is today the flanks of the western escarpment of the Jordan Valley. (CREDIT: University of Tulsa) When a stone sits…...
Volcanic eruptions in the distant past may have led to ocean current collapse
1+ week, 3+ day ago (972+ words) The June 12, 1991, eruption column from Mount Pinatubo was taken from the east side of Clark Air Base. (CREDIT: U.S. Geological Survey / Dave Harlow) A massive volcanic eruption can cool the planet within months. What happens next may take centuries. Currently, this…...
Why triceratops and other horned dinosaurs evolved such massive noses
1+ week, 4+ day ago (846+ words) Seishiro Tada (left) standing next to an awe-inspiring Triceratops skull, with its enormous nasal cavity visible at the front. (CREDIT: 2026 Tada et al. CC-BY-ND) The skull of Triceratops looks almost exaggerated, as if someone enlarged the front half without adjusting…...
Scientists reveal why gravity is weaker beneath Antarctica than elsewhere on Earth
1+ week, 5+ day ago (1078+ words) A study traces Antarctica's gravity hollow to slow mantle motion, with timing that overlaps major shifts in Antarctic glaciation. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0) Gravity feels steady. You drop a set of keys, and they fall the same way every time....
Earth’s core may hold 45 oceans worth of hydrogen, study finds
2+ week, 3+ day ago (899+ words) New research suggests Earth's core may store up to 45 oceans' worth of hydrogen, reshaping theories of water's origin. (CREDIT: Wikimedia / CC BY-SA 4.0) Scientists have known for many years that pure iron could not account for the density of the Earth's…...