Articles for category: News

Lungfish fossil

Jaw Power: Ancient Lungfish Reveal the Feeding Strategies of Earth’s First Land Animals

April Joy Jovita

Newly analyzed jawbones from 380-million-year-old lungfish are shedding light on the feeding behaviors of our earliest vertebrate ancestors. Discovered in the Gogo Formation of northern Western Australia, these fossils reveal a surprising diversity in skull and jaw structure, offering clues about how early lobe-finned fish adapted to different diets and ecological roles before vertebrates made ...

urea sample

Scientists Turn Human Urine into Bone Material for Medical Implants

Suhail Ahmed

Researchers have found a way to turn an unlikely waste product, human urine, into a high-value material for medical implants, construction, and even archaeology. This sounds like something out of science fiction. A team at the University of California, Irvine, is in charge of this new idea, which is funded by the U.S. military’s Defense ...

Theropod track

It’s All in the Wrist: Dinosaur Bone Discovery Reshapes Flight Evolution

April Joy Jovita

A newly identified wrist bone in two non-avian dinosaurs has challenged long-held assumptions about the evolution of flight. Researchers have discovered that theropods, bird-like meat-eating dinosaurs, possessed a carpal bone called the pisiform, once thought to be unique to birds. This finding suggests that the anatomical foundations for flight were already in place millions of ...

Nyx capsule illustration

Space Capsule Carrying Cannabis and Human Remains Crashes into Pacific

Suhail Ahmed

Tragic and bestowed with a sense of ambition, a German aerospace startup’s endeavor to deliver heavenly memorials and perform unique agricultural experiments in space ended in the Pacific Ocean. Aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, the Exploration Company launched a Nyx capsule containing human remains and cannabis seeds. The female capsule’s operational orbit was reached ...

A bird is standing in the tall grass

From Songbird to Space bird: The Strange Science Behind Japanese Quails

Suhail Ahmed

The Japanese quail has a résumé that is very strange for a bird. What started out as a songbird in 11th-century Japan has become a scientific wonder that produces foamy semen, struts around after mating, and even hatches in space. These small birds, no bigger than a human hand, have strange evolutionary traits that have ...