Archæopteryx Restored As 'First Bird'

A new evolutionary tree has once again defined archaeopteryx as the most primitive of birds.

Cycads Not So Ancient After All

It was thought that cycads — a group of non-flowering plants that resemble palms — had survived unchanged since they first appeared on Earth around 270 million years ago.

Tyrannosaurus Rex Was Bigger Than Previously Thought

T. rex grew bigger and faster than previously estimated, according to British and US scientists.

A New Discovery May Have Knocked Archaeopteryx Off The 'First Bird' Perch

As little as 15 years ago, the boundary between birds and dinosaurs was a fairly sharp one. On one side was Archaeopteryx, a 150 million-year-old magpie-sized creature from Bavaria, southern Germany, long considered the world's first bird. On the other was Deinonychus, an emu-sized meat-eating dinosaur or theropod, and a member of the group known as Dromaeosauridae.

Tool-Making Australopithecus Sediba

A well-preserved set of 1.98-million year old fossils may change our views of the origins of humans, by showing a combination of anatomical features never seen before.

Early Collisions May Have Caused The Realignment Of Uranus

As­tro­no­mers say they may have fig­ured out why the plan­et Ura­nus seems to be ly­ing on its side with re­spect to the Sun. A se­ries of bumps from oth­er so­lar sys­tem ob­jects early in its life could ex­plain the odd align­ment, they pro­pose.

A Dis­tant Blast Cre­at­ing Gravitational Waves May Have Al­ready Been De­tected

Al­though no in­stru­ments ex­isted at the time that could have pick­ed up the much-sought “gra­vit­a­tional waves,” the ex­plo­sion re­ported in 1987 may none­the­less have cre­at­ed them, two sci­en­tists claim. They the­o­rise that in the fu­ture, ob­serv­ations of si­m­i­lar ex­plo­sions could help con­firm pro­posed find­ings of gra­vit­at­ional waves.

Multiverse?

Scientists testing theory that there are multiple universes

The Higgs Boson Might Exist

New results from the world’s largest particle smasher might hint at the existence of the Higgs boson, which is thought to be responsible for endowing every other fundamental particle of matter with mass, or weight. This is according to the conventional thinking in physics, embodied in a set of ideas called the Standard Model. The Higgs boson is in fact the last particle that is predicted by the Standard Model but not yet detected.

The Compact Muon Solenoid Detector

The Higgs Boson Might Not Exist

Scientists chasing a particle they believe may have played a vital role in the creation of the universe say it might not exist after all.

Juramaia sinensis

The earliest known member of a lineage that includes humans and most other types of mammals was a shrew-like creature that likely scurried on trees at night as dinosaurs lurked.

Juramaia sinensis

Neanderthals' last stand possibly found

A Neanderthal-style toolkit found in the frigid far north of Russia's Ural Mountains dates to 33,000 years ago and may mark the last refuge of Neanderthals before they became extinct.

Modern Humans crowded out Europe's Neanderthals

A swell of modern humans outnumbered Neanderthals in Europe by nearly 10 to one, forcing their extinction 40,000 years ago

Brain waves from thoughts of sounds used to move cursor

A cursor on a computer screen can be controlled using thoughts about a range of vowel sounds, research has found.Brain signals have been translated into motion or even pictures before, but the current research showcases a nascent technique called electrocorticography.The approach uses sensors placed directly on the surface of the brain.

Is Homo floresiensis an Australopithecine?

1. Its adult body and brain proportions are comparable to those of the australopithecines, such as Lucy. Homo floresiensis is not descended from Homo erectus.

2. The shape of the brain case similar to Australopithecus.

3. The wrist bones do not have the palmar expansion, so Homo floresiensis may not have had the specialised form of precision grip found in modern humans. Homo floresiensis has features similar to australopithecines.

4. The brain size is similar to an australopithecine and a chimpanzee. At 380 cm³, is at the lower range of chimpanzees or the ancient australopithecines.

5. Its facial features include a medium-sized brow ridge, a retreating forehead, a small external ear opening (like an australopithecine and unlike modern humans).

6. In modern humans the symphysis — where the two halves of the lower jaw meet in the midline — is pulled forward at its lower margin to form a chin. In Homo floresiensis we see no trace of the modern human structure. Instead we see massive internal buttressing like australopithecines.

∞

A minority held viewpoint among palaeoanthropologists is that australopithecines moved outside of Africa. A notable proponent of this theory is Jens Lorenz Franzen, formerly Head of Paleoanthropology at the Research Institute Senckenberg. Franzen argues that robust australopithecines had reached not only Indonesia, as Meganthropus, but also China:

In this way we arrive at the conclusion that the recognition of australopithecines in Asia would not confuse but could help to clarify the early evolution of hominids ["hominins"] on that continent. This concept would explain the scanty remains from Java and China as relic of an Asian offshoot of an early radiation of Australopithecus, which was followed much later by an [African] immigration of Homo erectus, and finally became extinct after a period of coexistence.

Australopithecus sediba

Researchers have dated as 1.98 million years old a fossil that represents a candidate for oldest known direct human ancestor.

Australopithecus sediba

Australopithecus africanus and Paranthropus robustus

Males within two human ancestral species that existed roughly 2.7 to 1.7 million years ago were stay-at-home fellows, while females of these same species travelled