Science

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) have uncovered a 1,800-year-old beautiful mosaic in the Caesarea National Park, Israel. The 1,800-year-old Roman mosaic uncovered in Caesarea, Israel. Image credit: Assaf Peretz, Israel Antiquities Authority. IAA archaeologists Dr. Peter Gendelman and Dr. Uzi ‘Ad and their colleagues uncovered part of a …

University of Pennsylvania paleontologist Steven Jasinski has announced the discovery of a previously unknown species of fossil turtle in the Gray Fossil Site, an area rich with fossils in eastern Tennessee, the United States. Trachemys haugrudi represents a new species of fossil turtle that lived in what is now eastern …

An international team of scientists led by Museums Victoria and the University of Melbourne has scanned all known joey specimens of the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) — an iconic Australian marsupial predator that was hunted to extinction in the early 1900s — to create 3D digital models which have allowed …

An international team of scientists has uncovered information about the nerve networks required for walking on land, suggesting the last common ancestor of sharks and mammals walked underwater about 400 million years ago (Devonian period). The study appears in the journal Cell. Little skates (Leucoraja erinacea). Image credit: Monash University. …

A team of scientists at Lund University in Sweden has found that certain amino acids in our blood can be connected to both obesity and the composition of the gut microbiota. Ottosson et al discovered associations between four gut microbiota genera and BMI predictive plasma metabolites, including glutamate and BCAAs; …

A new study published in the journal Nature Geoscience indicates that water may be more prevalent on the lunar surface than previously thought. If the Moon has enough water, and if it’s reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert …

Scientists have produced the first high-quality genomic sequence for the Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), also known as the thylacine. Tasmanian tigers (Thylacinus cynocephalus) in captivity. Image credit: University of Melbourne / Museums Victoria. The Tasmanian tiger was a carnivorous marsupial about the size and shape of a medium-to-large size dog: …

New research overturns a long-held assumption that Przewalski’s horses (Equus ferus przewalskii), a rare and endangered animal native to the steppes of central Asia, are the last wild horse species. Instead, phylogenetic analysis shows Przewalski’s horses are the feral descendants of horses herded by the Botai people of northern Kazakhstan …

A new study shows that paintings in three cave sites on the Iberian Peninsula — a red linear motif in Cave of La Pasiega, a hand stencil in Maltravieso Cave, and red-painted speleothems in Ardales Cave — were created more than 64,000 years ago. These cave paintings are the earliest …

A groundbreaking new technique for studying lake sediments can tell scientists more about the frequency and intensity of past and future insect epidemics, their impact on the forest environment and how they are linked to climate change. A well-preserved scale extracted from a lake sediment core. Image credit: Montoro Girona …