Science

New Pterosaur Species Identified from Fossil Found in England A new genus and species of pterosaur has been identified from a partial fossilized jaw collected on Isle of Wight, southern England. Wightia declivirostris flying over an oxbow lake in the valley of the ancient Wessex River that flowed from Devon …

Heavy Water Has Sweet Taste, New Study Confirms Highly purified heavy water has a distinctly sweeter taste than same-purity normal (light) water, according to a study conducted by researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Czech Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, and the Leibniz-Institute for Food Systems Biology …

End-Devonian Mass Extinction Caused by Erosion of Ozone Layer, New Study Finds High levels of damaging ultraviolet-B (UV-B) radiation collapsed forest ecosystems and killed off many species of fish and tetrapods at the end of the Devonian period, 359 million years ago, according to new research from the University of …

Fossil of Ancient Long-Tailed Bird Found in China A new genus and species of jeholornithiform avialan that lived during the Cretaceous period has been identified from a nearly-complete specimen found in China. An artist’s impression of the jeholornithiform avialan Jeholornis. Image credit: Aijuan Shi. Named Kompsornis longicaudus, the prehistoric bird …

Dinosaur-Killing Chicxulub Asteroid Hit Earth at Angle of 60 Degrees A 10-km asteroid crashed into Earth near the site of the small town of Chicxulub in Mexico at the end of the Cretaceous period, about 66 million years ago. The impact unleashed an incredible amount of climate-changing gases into the …

Astronomers Spot Ancient ‘Ring of Fire’ Galaxy Galaxies come in all shapes and sizes, but few are ring galaxies. Astronomers studying one of these objects on the other side of the universe have noted some startling properties. As with other ring galaxies, this one is not a result of internal …

NASA, SpaceX Gear Up for Historic Crewed Launch Today NASA and SpaceX are just hours away from making history. After years of development and testing, SpaceX is set to become the first private spaceflight firm to carry American astronauts into space as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program. This is …

Scientists Create 3D Map of Rat Heart’s Neurons An international team of researchers has created a comprehensive anatomical 3D map and molecular profile of the rat intracardiac nervous system (ICN). Posterior view of the 3D reconstructed male rat heart: (A) whole-heart view showing the context, extent, and distribution of the …

This Yellow Swirl Could Be the Birth of a New Planet Scientists have identified thousands of exoplanets thanks to instruments like the Kepler Space Telescope. With each new world we examine, we learn more about how planets develop across the universe. Studying planets as they form would be the holy …

Had Pure Herbivorous Diet An isotopic analysis of fossil collagen from the bones collected in three Romanian caves indicates that the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), an extinct species of bear that lived 300,000-25,000 years ago in Europe, the Mediterranean and Asia, was exclusively herbivorous. Reconstruction of the cave bear (Ursus …