NASA’s Perseverance rover is focusing its science instruments on rocks that lay on the floor of Jezero Crater, which is located on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator. Perseverance used its dual-camera Mastcam-Z imager to capture this (enhanced) image of …
Read More »
An international team of researchers has for the first time mapped the genome of the lemon-scented gum (Corymbia citriodora). Lemon-scented gum trees (Corymbia citriodora) at the Wagga Wagga Botanic Gardens in Australia. Image credit: Bidgee / CC BY 3.0. The lemon-scented gum is a species of tall tree grown for …
Read More »
Paleontologists have discovered what they say is the oldest macrofossil evidence of Paullinieae, a diverse group of tropical and subtropical climbing plants that belong to the soapberry family Sapindaceae. Transverse section of Ampelorhiza heteroxylon. Image credit: Jud et al., doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0248369. Paullinieae are tropical and subtropical woody vines, herbaceous climbers, …
Read More »
A new genus and species of horned (ceratopsid) dinosaur has been identified from an incomplete skeleton found in New Mexico, the United States. Life reconstruction of Menefeeceratops sealeyi. Image credit: Sergey Krasovskiy. The newly-identified dinosaur species belongs to Centrosaurinae, a group of ceratopsid dinosaurs known primarily from the northern region …
Read More »
Wild Bornean orangutans (Pongo pygmaeus) catabolize muscle tissue when the availability of fruit is low, according to new research led by Rutgers University scientists; that’s remarkable because orangutans are thought to be especially good at storing and using fat for energy. A male Bornean orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus) eating non-fruit vegetation …
Read More »
The newly-discovered fossilized footprints were made by at least two mammalian species around 58 million years ago in a brackish water lagoon in what is now southern Wyoming, the United States, and may represent the earliest evidence of mammals gathering by the sea. Section of the 58-million-year-old tracksite demonstrating near-vertical …
Read More »
Paleontologists have described a new species of mosasaur based on two complete skulls and jaws found in Morocco. An artist’s impression of Pluridens serpentis. Image credit: Andrey Atuchin. Mosasaurs (family Mosasauridae) were specialized marine lizards that evolved and diversified during the Late Cretaceous epoch. Their diversity peaked in the Maastrichtian …
Read More »
In a study involving more than 8,600 Australian adults, higher intake of fruits and vegetables was associated with lower perceived stress, particularly in the middle-aged adults. The World Health Organization recommends eating at least 400 grams of fruit and vegetables per day. Image credit: Ben Davies. “Poor nutritional habits are …
Read More »
Physicists at the Heavy Ion Research Facility in China have observed the lightest uranium isotope to date, uranium-214 (214U), and precisely measured the α-decay properties of two previously known isotopes, 216U and 218U. Enhanced α-particle preformation in 214U and 216U. Image credit: Zhang et al., doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.152502. Uranium is a …
Read More »
A team of biologists from Japan has discovered a new species of the genus Scolopendra living in the forests of the Ryukyu Archipelago and Taiwan. Scolopendra alcyona found underwater at the upper reach of Shirase River, Kume-jima Island. Image credit; H. Sato. Scolopendra is a genus of large tropical centipedes …
Read More »
