Scientists Unravel Genetic Mysteries of Dead Sea Scrolls The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls had an incomparable impact on the historical understanding of Judaism and Christianity. ‘Piecing together’ scroll fragments is like solving jigsaw puzzles with an unknown number of missing parts. Because most of the 2,000-year-old scrolls were …
Read More »Earliest Signs of Microbial Life on Land Found in 3.48-Billion-Year-Old Hot Spring Deposits
Fossil evidence of early microbial life has been found in ancient hot spring deposits in the Dresser Formation in the Pilbara Craton, Western Australia, that date back approximately 3.48 billion years. A paper reporting this discovery is published in the journal Nature Communications. Spherical bubbles preserved in 3.48 billion-year-old hot …
Read More »Wax Moth Caterpillars Found to Eat Polyethylene
An international team of researchers from Spain and the United Kingdom has found that a caterpillar of the greater wax moth (Galleria mellonella) — commonly known as a wax worm — has the ability to biodegrade polyethylene. Polyethylene degradation by wax worms. Left: plastic bag after exposure to about 100 …
Read More »Blood-Engorged Tick Found in Dominican Amber
A blood-engorged nymphal tick of the genus Amblyomma surrounded by fossilized mammalian erythrocytes (red blood cells) has been discovered in a piece of 15-45-million-year-old amber. The discovery is reported March 20 in the online edition of the Journal of Medical Entomology. This blood-engorged nymphal hard tick Amblyomma sp. (length – …
Read More »World’s First Glow-In-The-Dark Frog Found in Argentina
Scientists in Argentina have discovered a frog that glows in moonlight and at twilight. Fluorescence in terrestrial environments had previously only been traced to a few species of insects and birds and had never been scientifically reported in any of the world’s 7,000-plus amphibian species. Fluorescence in the polka-dot tree …
Read More »Apple found guilty of price-fixing in Russia, strong-arming its retail partners
Apple has run into trouble with US regulators on several occasions to date, including its attempt to illegally collude with book publishers to manipulate eBook prices. Up until now, the company has never been accused of breaking the law on iPhone prices. Earlier this week, the Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service …
Read More »World’s Oldest Red Algae Fossils Found
An international team of paleontologists from the Nordic Center for Earth Evolution and the Swedish Museum of Natural History has unearthed uniquely well-preserved fossils of 1.6 billion-year-old crown-group rhodophytes (red algae). Ramathallus lobatus. Image credit: S. Bengtson et al, doi: 10.1371/journal.pbio.2000735. The extraordinarily preserved fossils came from phosphorite deposits at …
Read More »4,000-Year-Old ‘Multi-Dolmen’ Found in Israel
A rare megalithic structure, dating back 4,000 years, has been discovered at the Shamir Dolmen Field on the western foothills of the Golan Heights. The 4,000-year-old ‘multi-dolmen,’ the Shamir Dolmen Field, Israel. Image credit: Gonen Sharon, Tel Hai College. The newly-discovered megalithic stone structure is a unique, monumental, multi-chambered dolmen: …
Read More »Two Ichthyosaur Species Found to Be the Same
New research by Brockport College Professor Judy Massare and University of Manchester paleontologist Dean Lomax confirms that two species of ichthyosaurs — Ichthyosaurus communis and I. intermedius – are actually one and the same species. Ichthyosaurs. Image credit: Julio Lacerda. Ichthyosaurs — predatory marine reptiles that ranged in size from …
Read More »World’s Oldest Known Fossils Found in Canada Push Evidence for Life back by 70 Million Years
An international team of paleontologists has discovered in Quebec, Canada, the oldest physical evidence of life on Earth — fossils that date back 3.77 billion years. The discovery was reported online today in the journal Nature. Hematite tubes from the NSB hydrothermal vent deposits that represent the oldest microfossils and …
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