NEWSWORTHY
Neanderthal nose: All the better to breathe with, study shows
Neanderthals had large, protruding noses to warm and humidify cold, dry air, a study into the distinct design of our extinct European cousin's face suggested Wednesday. Using 3-D models of the skulls of Neanderthals, modern humans, and Homo heidelbergensis — considered to have been the ...
Warts and all: Researchers reconstruct face of Cro-Magnon man
Cro-Magnon man had a face covered in lumps including a large one on his forehead — likely benign tumors caused by a genetic disease, according to a team of French researchers in new findings published Friday. The skeleton of Cro-Magnon 1, a male Homo sapiens ...
Fossils of 'badass' Argentine meat-eating dinosaur unearthed
On a semiarid Patagonian landscape 85 million years ago, a formidable meat-eater called Tratayenia rosalesi reigned as the apex predator, part of an enigmatic dinosaur group that menaced South America and Australia for tens of millions of years. Scientists on Wednesday described Tratayenia, a two-legged ...
Cold-blooded? Study finds female pythons care for their young
Shedding their cold-blooded image, snakes emerge from a recent study as more caring creatures that protect their nests and remain with their young for a brief period after hatching. The study of the nesting behavior of the southern African python, published this month in the ...
Over 100 rarely seen species of fish were hauled up from a deep and cold abyss off Australia during a scientific voyage, researchers said Wednesday, including cousins of the "world's ugliest animal" — Mr. Blobby. Scientists spent a month on a vessel last year off ...
Mantises' efficient 3-D vision could guide better robots and drones
Praying mantises sporting tiny 3-D glasses — held in place with beeswax — have revealed a new kind of "stereo" vision that may help improve robot sight, researchers said Thursday. Sporting two teardrop-shaped, light-filtering lenses in lab experiments, the insects lashed out at special 3-D ...
Study on African savanna finds big cats locked in evolutionary arms race with prey
Lions and cheetahs are faster, stronger and no less agile than their prey, but zebras and impalas compensate with a surprising tactic, researchers said Wednesday: slow down, and keep the big cats guessing. Indeed, fleeing at top speed is a fatal mistake, making it easier ...
Analysis finds shape of human brain evolved over time to accommodate key advances in function
An analysis of fossils including the oldest-known Homo sapiens specimen has revealed that brain shape in our species evolved over time to become less elongated and more globular, a change that appears to have accommodated key advances in its function. Scientists said Wednesday they examined ...
Vandals have taken a hammer to a 115-million-year-old dinosaur footprint at a world-renowned site in Australia, with officials Wednesday slamming the "sad and callous" act. The footprint of the medium-size theropod was found by paleontologists in 2006 at Flat Rocks in Victoria state — one ...
Mammoth skeleton sells for nearly €550,000 at French auction
The nearly intact skeleton of a woolly mammoth that lived at least 10,000 years ago was sold at auction for more than a half million euros Saturday in the southeastern French city of Lyon. The giant skeleton — mounted in a forward walking position with ...
Scientists find remnants of 1.7-meter 'monster bird' in New Zealand
The fossilized bones of an ancient penguin the size of a pro wrestler have been discovered in New Zealand, scientists said Tuesday, dubbing the creature "monster bird." With an average height of 1.7 meters (5.5 feet) and a weight of 100 kilograms (220 pounds), the ...
Amber discovery shows 'Dracula' sucked blood of feathered dinosaurs
Ticks, the notorious disease-spreading parasites, have been making life miserable far longer than human beings have walked the Earth. Even dinosaurs felt their blood-sucking wrath. Scientists on Tuesday described a number of ticks, including a previously unknown species that they named after the fictional vampire ...
