biology
-
These Squiggles May Be Some of the Oldest Fossil Life on Earth
A team of researchers in South Africa put a bit of rock under a microscope and found the remains of 3.42-billion-year-old life. Those fossils — the squiggly, microscopic remains of organisms that subsisted on methane — broaden the scope of what habitats were suitable for life on Earth during the Archean Eon.
-
Paleontologists Find Evidence of Dinosaurs Nesting Near the North Pole
On a riverbank in the far north of Alaska, a team of paleontologists have been scraping away at the muck. They’ve uncovered evidence of dinosaur breeding at the top of what is now North America, a sign that in the late Cretaceous period, dinosaurs were living full-time in cool climates.
-
A Major Study on How Sperm Move Has Been Retracted
A study that claimed to overturn our understanding of how sperm moves has now been retracted. The research had suggested that sperm cells propel themselves forward through complex spins that created an optical illusion of them only swishing their tails back and forth under a microscope. The authors now agree that their conclusions can’t be…
-
Giant Camels and More Treasures Discovered in Fossilised California Forest
First, the trees came out of the ground. A few weeks later, the bones emerged. Bit by bit over the past year, a team of paleontologists and geologists, among others, have uncovered the fossilised remains of a Miocene forest, from its gomphotheres and mastodons to the trees themselves.